The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

32 THE MARINE RevIEW APPEAL TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. The Merchant Marine League Visits the White House and Receives the President's Cordial Support-- Also Calls Upon Speaker Cannon. President Roosevelt and Speaker Cannon each separately received a large delegation of the officers, vice presidents and many important members of the Merchant Marine League of the United States, at the White House and at the Capitol, respectively, on Thursday last, May 17. The delegation called in order to hasten the consideration of the Merchant Marine Commission's shipping bill by the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, and by the house of representa- tives. The League party was much gratified with the outcome of the visit, feeling greatly encouraged both by the hearty sup- port which President Roosevelt assured the visitors he had given to the bill in the past and is prepared to give it until it is enacted, and by the attitude of Speaker Cannon, who 'had been so erroneously represented as being strongly opposed to the bill. He had nothing whatever to say in opposition to the measure, and his cordiality and expressions satisfied the delegation that at the proper time the Speaker's support would be found back of the bill. PERSONNEL OF THE LEAGUE DELEGATION, President Harvey D. Goulder, of Cleveland, headed the , delegation, and was accompanied by Secretary John A. Pen- ton, also of Cleveland. The other members making up the party that called upon the president and the speaker were: Vice President Aaron Vanderbilt, of the Wheeler Condenser & Engineering Co., of New York city; vice president for Illinois, C. E. Kremer, admiralty attorney of Chicago; vice 'president for New Jersey, Col. E. A. Stevens, of Hoboken; vice president for New York, C. P. Letchworth, of Buffalo, president of the Pratt & Letchworth Co.; vice president for Maryland, R. M. Spedden, of Baltimore, a banker; vice president for Massachusetts, Hon. Samuel L. Spedden,. of Boston, former member of congress, and a leading New England attorney; vice president for Pennsylvania, George E. Bartol, of Philadelphia, president of the Philadelphia Bourse; Vice President Lyman H. Treadway, representing the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce; W. H. Hunt, repre- senting the Cleveland Builders' Exchange, Abraham Stern, Francis Lyon and E. E. Strong, all prominent merchants and manufacturers of Cleveland; Daniel S. Emery, of Boston; J. A. McGean, president of the American Linseed Oil Co., of New York city; D. A. Tompkins, the well-known pub- licist and manufacturer, of Charlotte, N. C., representing the National Association of Manufacturers, specially appointed by that organization to co-operate with the Merchant Marine League in its efforts in behalf of the passage of the shipping bill; Francis L. Robbins, president of the Pittsburg Coal Co., of Pittsburg; John G. Shaw, of Detroit, Mich., attorney; F. S. Pendleton, of Islesboro, Maine; Hon. S. B. Dick, of Mead- ville, Pa., a prominent manufacturer and a former member of congress; R. H. Adams, of New York, a manufacturer; J. P. Robinson, of New York, a salt importer and ware- house man; J. G. Butler Jr., of Youngstown, O., one of the pioneer iron and steel manufacturers of the United States; H. H. Sharp, -of the Buckeye Engine Co., of Salem, O.; H. S. Holden, of Syracuse, N. Y., president of the Commercial National Bank, accompanied by W. A. Holden and W. L. Smith, also of Syracuse, and John S. Hyde, of Bath, Maine. Telegrams and letters of regret were also received from a large number of members, who are heartily in favor of the shipping bill, but were prevented from attending because of illness, or unavoidable engagements, THE DELEGATION'S RECEPTION AT THE WHITE HOUSE. The party called at the white house at eleven o'clock, by appointment, and was at once ushered into the cabinet room, where they were received by the president. President Goulder, of the League, addressed President Roossevelt, briefly re- ferred to the career and work of the League, the educational campaign it has conducted, the unselfishess and disinterested- ness of its members, who have nothing to gain, personally, by the passage of the bill, and their patriotic desire to see. our foreign-going merchant marine increase and prosper as had the other great industries of the country. Mr. Goulder discussed the bill framed by the Merchant Marine Commis- sion, its moderate character and provisions, what it would accomplish in starting the rehabilitation of our shipping in the foreign trade, pointed out that the matter of free raw ma- terials: for the building of a ship for our foreign trade had been settled fifteen years ago by the provision to that effect in the last three tariff acts; the demonstrated ineffectiveness of a free ship measure to give us an American ocean-going marine, and the abandonment of that suggestion by practical men; the apparently insuperable obstacles to discrimination by tariff and tonnage duties; the superiority of the subsidy plan, and the manner in which the pending bill would, under the subsidy policy, give to the United States the needed start to- ward the upbuilding of its foreign-going shipping, and which, he pointed out, is the policy in force in other maritime coun- tries. Mr. Goulder closed his remarks with the impressive reading of the following memorial, presented by the League, and signed by every member who was present. THE LEAGUE'S MEMORIAL TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. Mr. President :--Publicists and economists of authority from remotest time have urged the advantage in peace and war of an adequate merchant marine on. the international seas to that nation whose situation and business habits in- vite or permit of its existence. OUR SEACOAST, FOREIGN TRADE AND OCEAN FREIGHT BILL. This country, with the greatest navigable seacoast of all, whenever and so long as it had fair competitive terms, flour- ished in its shipping, and now, furnishing or providing nearly a seventh of the world's over-seas interchanges, carries about one-tenth of this under our flag, while foreigners take about half a million dollars each day for our freightage. And about a sixth of our tonnage is definitely stated to be under option to a subsidizing nation--this. the cream of what we have left. STATESMEN, PRESIDENTS, BUSINESS MEN ALL UNITED. Party platforms, presidential messages, testimony of states- men, and of those engaged in business pursuits, never more definitely and certainly than now have united in one unbroken current favoring the broad proposition of the national ad- vantage of a merchant marine and its applicability to our country and our people. NATIONAL ADVANTAGES, COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES, NATIONAL SAFETY, Rehabilitation of a great national industry in ship building, repairing and outfitting, the commercial advantage of bring- ing sO many millions of dollars of freight earnings annually into the channels of circulation in this country, would be matched or exceeded by the advantage of having our own commercial instrumentalities to develop trade abroad, and on occasion the element of safety, all of which must follow if we accept the world-wide testimony as to the value of a na- tion's own flag on the seas. PENDING SHIPPING BILL OUTCOME OF PRESIDENT'S EFFORTS. The Merchant Marine League, learning from current