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DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED 'OR _ ASSO- CIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS _ ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Co. CLEVELAND. BOSTON vic eos ie es 73-74 Journal Bldg. PANO cs oie cee ese ete s 3 932 Ellicott Sq. CHICAGO. 2 325. t oes: 1328 Monadnock Blk. CINCINNATI. ce. First National Bank Bldg. MEW VORK. .o so 3.8. 1005 West Street Bldg. PATUSB UNG. i. ore i oc ree 510 Park Bldg. DOUGH Saseccss soe ee 411 Providence Bldg. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, WS. and Mexico, $3.00 per annum. Canada, $4.00. Foreign, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on Thursday preceding date of publication. The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with the Marine Review through the regular channels of the American News Co. European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C., England. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, : as Second Class Matter, July 9, 1908. 'more than $200,000,000. OCEAN MAIL BILL. Regret is being felt throughout the west over the defeat of the Ocean Mail Bill in the first session of the present congress. This bill, as every- one knows, was defeated by. western representatives led by Mr. Burton of Ohio. | people has convinced them that the their unwise and already expressions of Reflection on. the part of the action of representatives was indignation are appearing in western newspapers. Such utterances as the newspapers make are quite to the point. It certainly is surprising that so much difficulty should be encount- ered in doing the proper, just and sensible thing for American shipping. For instance under the caption "The -- Price of National Stupidty," The Pio- neer Press of St. Paul published the following editorial: The annual report of the United States commissioner of should be reading to those who throw up their hands in navigation interesting intelligence. THE Marine REVIEW horror every time the problem of ship subsidy | is mentioned. The value' of the exports and imports by sea dur- ing 190% was $3,002,627,317, of which foreign vessels ° carried $2,684,296,291. In other words, American ships car- ried little more than 10 per cent of our overseas traffic. We paid to the owners of foreign ships last year for carrying passengers, freight and mails The Amer- ican ships carried 80 per cent of our traffic 60 years ago and might be do- ing approximately the same thing to- day if we gave as much care to fos- tering our merchant marine as do the European nations. The American merchant ships en- gaged in the overseas traffic are so insignificant that they make' little showing. There is scarcely a first class passenger steamer flying the American flag, and there are few of The num- With many cons:derable markets outside of the second class variety. ber of freight vessels is small. 'Europe there is practically no direct And this state of things is likely to grow worse in- stead of better liberal adopted in the interest of our ship- line of communication. unless there is a more and enlightened policy builders, ship owners and sailors. We have fostered practically every other industry trans-oceanic shipping. We offer the richest field in the world for that 'traffic and stand impotently by and watch the returns pouring excepi Our. into the coffers of foreign concerns, England, France and Germany have not distanced us upon the seas be- cause they are of a higher order of builders and sailors are no more skillful than English ship ours, but they have been encouraged. The British government, for example, pays subsidy of $750,000 a year to the Cunard company for the Fur- thermore, the government loaned to at 234 per cent, money to construct the ships. The company repays the loan in 20 years a mall Lusitania and the Mauretania. | the company, and at the same time gets annual in- stallments of subsidy sufficient to cancel the amount borrowed, making the the ships* practically a gift from th It is a certainty that American cannot compete with that sort 09 governmental generosity, : when 'our statesmen and economists shy at so mild a phrase as "postal subvention." The mention of a ship subsidy throws them cold sweat. The last congress was asked to pass a very moderate postal sub- into a vention measure designed to give us a start toward securing a part of the South American and Oriental traffic and involving the about $3,000,000 a year. bers of congress turned the measure expenditure of The mem- down in spite of the fact that we pay $3,000,000 every week to foreign ship 7 We are paying $200,000,000 a year subsidy to foreigners. Couldn't owners. we well afford to put a little more with it and get back the whole busi- $200,000,000 all, especially if the subsidy would facili- ness, subsidy, and tate communication with new markets and develop freight capacity? The every one else in the United States manufacturer, farmer and whose output is protected by a tariff gets a subsidy. It is not paid out of the. government treasury, but he- gets it just the same. We have legis- lated for tthe benefit and protection of the American laborer and capital- ist in nearly every line of industry. except and we have aban- doned our to shift shipping, sailors and ship owners Why not give them a little deserved considera- tion? Our $200,000,000 tional resource we not only are not for themselves. foreign traffic yields a revenue annually--a na- attempting to conserve but are stu- pidly handing to our competitors as a free gift and the price of our own shortsightedness the and shortsight- edness of certain large interests which. have wrecked several previous subsidy projects by secure large a share of the benefits. seeking to too A special from St. Johns, Newfound- land, announces that the Newfoundland government has granted a bounty to ship Owners to place contracts for ship build- ing among the plants of the colony. The -- bounty varies being on a graduating scale.