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20 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. letters for Scotland via the Etruria were ready on Sunday morning. - The arrival of the Donaldson Line steamer Concordia at Glasgow from St. John, N. B., and Halifax, N. S., marks the completion of the first round trip of the winter season between the Clyde and the Canadian winter ports. The Concordia brought 244 head of cattle and a large general cargo. She reports trade as being very good on the other side. Weekly sailings to and from these ports are being maintained by the Donaldson fleet, and the Lakonia sails for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with a cargo of general goods and coal. The trade, however, is not anything like as brisk as last winter. The Allan Line has had a satisfactory year in the passenger business, increases being shown in both the Liverpool and Glas- gow services. This year the line carried in their Canadian boats a total of 38,914 passengers of all classes, as compared with 29,- o10 carried last year--an increase of 9,904. The tonnage entered at ports in the United Kingdom from foreign countries and British possessions, with cargoes, during the eleven months ended Nov. 30 amounted to 36,468,819 tons, and the tonnage cleared to 43,559,485 tons, as against 34,714,989 tons entered, and 41,178,184 tons cleared in the similar period of the year 1902. REVIVAL OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE. Spirited indeed was the last meeting of the New York Board of Trade and 'Jransportation. The special committee on the merchant marine mace a revurt- which was signed by Aaron Vanderbilt, Darwin R. James, Henry A. Rogers, Patrick Far- relly and Oscar 5. Straus. They outlined in the report the form of canvass made throughout the country and the results of it. The report was in part as foliows: "Copies of the board's statement of facts, of the board's res- - olutions and of an interview in which the chairman of the com- mittee set forth the broad scope and non-partisan purpose of our inquiry, were forwarded to all the newspapers and commercial associations of the United States, and later to the senators and representatives in congress. We may well say that we have been gratified by the volume and character of the responses. 'The re- sult has been a vivid demonstration that popular interest in the cause of American shipping is deep and earnest, not only in our seaboard communities but in the Mississippi valley and the {far- ther west. We have received replies from nearly every state and territory in the union, hundreds in aggregate number, all mani- festing a desire for the upbuilding of a new American merchant marine and an eagerness for further information on the subject. Many commercial associations, in answer to the board's request, have adopted resolutions urging the question of the American ship upon the attention of the country's business interests and of congress. Some of these resolutions have indicated a preference for this or that particular policy of relief, but in the majority of cases there has been merely an emphatic declaration that some- thing should be done, leaving the precise method to further in- vestigation or to the wisdom of the government. "All of the expedients for the restoration of our shipping that have been discussed in recent years are mentioned in the letters and resolutions that have come to us. The subsidy policy is naturally conspicuous. It has a great many earnest and in- formed supporters, especially among practical shipping men of the two seaboards. It also has its opponents, whose objections are such as have from time to time been strenuously urged against 'a shipping subsidy policy for the United States. Discriminating duties and tonnage dues have their earnest adherents among the individuals and associations that have responded to our circular. They are often urged as an alternative to subsidies, and their success in the early development of the merchant marine from 1789 to 1830 is cited as a strong point in their favor. Of the policy of free ships, or free registry for foreign-built vessels, rel- atively little is now heard. This is due, perhaps, to the evolution of a group of large and well-equipped steel ship yards in Amer- ica, which are suffering from a lack of sufficient employment. There is no lack of mechanical facilities in this country to con- struct any kind of ship demanded for the purposes of modern commerce. Another method for creating a large American mer- chant fleet has been suggested under a serious misapprehension. That is, the recommendation that the materials for constructing American ships be admitted free of duty. It does not seem to be generally known that such materials for vessels for the foreign trade and also for the long-voyage trade between our Atlantic and Pacific coasts are already and have long been on the free list." Mr. Herman Sielcken, a member of the committee, submit- ted a minority report. He differed with the majority report as to some of the matters stated therein. He thought especially that the expression "alarming depleted state of American ship- ping in the foreign trade" was likely to be erroneously construed. Continuing he said: "Tt is necessary to state that there is no decline or decrease in American steam tonnage,.as it is about the same today as it has been in the past. The decrease in American tonnage is simultaneous with the decrease of sailing vessels all over the world. In former years the United States could advantageously construct wooden sailing vessels and sail them in competition with the world, as the vessels could be constructed fully as low as in Europe, and the manning of sailing vessels is as important a factor as the expense of the crew in manning a steamer. It is true that the American tonnage has decreased, but not the American shipping to foreign ports, and the reasons for the de- crease, while deplorable, as far as the appearance of the Ameri- [Dec. 31, 2 can flag on the ocean is concerned, it is not so doleful when the reasons therefor are considered. From a pure sentimental stand- point there can be no difference of opinion and but one conclu- sion can be drawn. On the question of sentiment, all people in this country are united and everyone has the same desire to see that the stars and stripes again appear on the ocean in every quarter of the globe, if this object can be attained. Leaving. aside all sentiment and coming down to the mere fact of the decrease in shipping and its causes, then it is not so doleful to know that the prosperity of the United States, the increase in agriculture and manufacturing has been so great as to enable the payment of higher wages than the international scale of wages of the maritime nations permits of. "The cause, therefore, of the decline in shipping is, in this respect, one that while it necessarily deprives the country of a larger mercantile marine, on the other hand it is a matter of congratulation that the country can employ labor at so much. higher price than any other nation of the world. I am also of the opinion that so far as the majority report referring to the resolutions passed in important cities in the west, like Denver, Omaha and Milwaukee, is concerned, that the true fact of the decline of American shipping may not be known to them, and that the New York Board of Trade and Transportation should therefore endeavor to give them a reason for the decline in shipping in all details before judgment can be passed as to its remedies and its effect upon business in general. Having in my 'mind that a full investigation of the reasons of the decline 1 shipping should be made before it is possible to recommend a remedy, I submit the following points, which it seems to me are largely the cause of the decreased tonnage of the American mer- chant marine: "First of all, we have the question of price of labor in man- ning the ships or in building them. In this country the number of able-bodied men willing to go on the seas at the price this labor commands is limited. We have not got a population like they have in England, Scandinavia or in Germany, where the love of the sea is inborn, and where for generations families have been following the same pursuit. To them the price paid does not appear low as compared with the price labor commands on shore, and with a natural desire to follow the calling of their parents a large number of able-bodied men, born and raised on the seashore, acquainted with the perils of the seas, and fully aware of the hardships, is available; and it is for this reason that a number of aliens and foreign-born citizens are manning our navy. In the United States we are missing this element, and but a small proportion of the population living on the seaboard can be found willing to take the wages offered, and willing to undergo the hardships and perils connected with seafaring. "The price of building ships could in time be overcome. This country has already built men-of-war for other countries, and as is the case in anything connected with the building of- machinery, the manufacturers of this country, in all other lines, are able to compete with Europe on neutral ground, the build- ing of ships should therdfore be within our reach as well. If we construct all sorts of railway material, harvesters, pumps and elevators, and many other lines in which the chief material is iron, steel and wood, and in which labor is fully as high as in ship building, and we are able to sell these in all parts of the world, I think ships will be built here as low as in Europe, but when it comes to manning the ships, from the captain and engineer down to the common sailor, the country is at a great disadvantage. The navigation of ships is entirely international; the competition has to be outside of our own territory and we have to meet the world at large. "Another serious disadvantage in running ships, that is to say, regular lines, is the fact that we export in bulk such an enormous amount of tonnage and import such a small amount compared with the export. In order for ships to be run suc- cessfully and reasonably there should be a freight both ways, which, with very few exceptions, is not the case. With a scarcity of tonnage, like the time from 1808 to 1901, the time of the Spanish-American war, the Boer war and the Chinese trouble, rates may become profitable again. It is simply a question of supply and demand which cannot be overcome or controlled by the largest capital in the world, viz., the interna- tional marine enterprise of J. P. Morgan & Co. "Government aid has been given in France to the shipping interest, and instead of improving and-increasing it the French commercial marine is in utter decay. The subsidies are so large that a French sailer came in ballast from San Francisco to New York to accept a freight from New York for another long voy- age simply 'for the mileage earned from the subsidies of the government for sailing vessels. It has been shown that ships were built for the subsidy and not the trade. Low freights and sharp competition will tax the ingenuity of the builders for new appliances and economies and compel the owners to have their boats built after studying the interests of the trade for which they are intended. The most successful steamship lines in the world have not been created by subsidies but by the pro- gress of the lines; by the ingenuity of the builders; by the knowledge of the trade ifor which they are intended, and by endeavoring in every way to increase the business by good ser- vice for both passenger and freight trade. "After dwelling upon some of the reasons why our mer- cantile marine has declined I do not consider myself in a po- sition to suggest a remedy. Our enlightened statesmen in the house of representatives and in the senate will no doubt be able to consider the situation in its proper light and suggest meas-