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DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Company, CLEVELAND, OHIO. CLEVELAND: WADE BUILDING. CHICAGO: MONADNOCK BUILDING, DETROIT: HAMMOND BUILDING. NEW YORK: 150 NASSAU STREET. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, $3.00 per annum. To Foreign Countries, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with the MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. DEC." 8, 1904. Mr. Harvey D. Goulder, president of the Merchant Marine League of the United States, which was organ- ized at the Union Club in Cleveland two weeks ago, spent the latter part of last week and the fore part ol this week in Washington in the interests of the League. Mr. Goulder's visit to the capital was especially timely as he found the topic of American shipping to be the one subject most generally discussed on all sides and the one which will undoubtedly be a leading issue in congress this winter. It appears that the Merchant Marine Commission, which was appointed by congress to inquire into the state of shipping in the foreign trade, found its labors so arduous that it was unable to prepare its report for the first day of the session as directed. It will, how- ever, be presented before the holidays, probably on Dec. 19, and will be accompanied by a bill based upon the commission's observations and seeking to remedy the deplorable conditions existing in the foreign trade. In discussing the formation of the Merchant Ma- rine League of the United States, Mr. Goulder said that it sprang spontaneously from the loins of the mid- dle west--that it was in fact the outgrowth of the great interest which the merchants, manufacturers and bankers of the western states had taken in the condi- tion of the merchant marine in the oversea trade as related in the testimony before the Merchant Marine Rm 2 oN 4 ih UW Commission. This condition was known in a general way before the Merchant Marine Commission under- took its tour, but it required the cumulative testimony, submitted to the commission, to really bring the sub- ject home to them. Once imparted, however, the west- ern business men acted with their customary prompti- tude and the league was formed. Mr. Goulder stated briefly that the league was wholly non-partisan in character and that its purpose was to strive by every legitimate means to upbuild the mer- chant marine service. On the lakes, where the league had its birth, the evidences of protection to shipping are abundantly visible. The vessels of the great lakes are exempt from world competition, first by nature, and second through the provisions of the coasting laws which preserve the trade between American ports to American ships exclusively. The result is that ships of more tonnage are flying the American flag on the great lakes than in all the oceans combined, and more- over freight is carried in them at a lower rate than is known elsewhere in the world. It is the cheapness of transportation on the great lakes, the surprising ease with which its enormous commerce, consisting mainly of iron ore, is handled, that has made the United States the great industrial nation internally that it is. The league believes that what has been done by American citizens on one body of water can be done by them on another under equal conditions. There is ao reason why the United States with the largest coast line of any nation, save Russia, should not be the dominating factor in oversea trade. It is the purpose of the league to steadily and persistently promote in- terest in the ocean merchant marine service and to keep alive the idea that as a nation the United States is en- titled to carry at least one-half of its oversea commerce in its own ships. At present it carries only about 10 per cent of its exports and imports abroad, a condition which has impressed the merchants and manufacturers of the west as possessing elements of grave danger ; for in the event of war between the nations owning the ships which now carry 90 per cent of the trade of the United States by water what would become of this trade? Without ships it could not reach the foreign market; and without a foreign market to consume sur- plus products there is no hope of prosperity in the United States. Vast as the home market is it is not enough to keep the American people busy. The with- drawal of the foreign ships which now enjoy a practical monopoly of the Oversea trade of the United States would cause commerce to back water and to bring com- plete ruin to the industrial and agricultural interests of the country. Mr. Goulder also stated that the purpose of the league was to urge the establishment of a naval reserve by encouraging through suitable allowances the carry- ing of boys on board merchant ships where they might be thoroughly trained in seamanship and thereby made invaluable to the country in time of emergency. The world has lately had a most graphic instance of the