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February, 1910 gressed. The logical outcome was that the English parliment passed a law in 1849 that they would discrim- inate in the indirect trade with us. Without waiting for the proclamation of the law by the United States, we had a cocksure secretary of the treas- ury, who sent a circular letter of in- structions to the custom houses to throw everything open to the English ships. With that tremendous compe- tition, our decline continues, even more rapidly, so the question is--can we at this time rehabilitate ourselves upon the ocean by any measure which will not take money directly from the treasury of the United States :4o make up differences? Regain 50 Per Cent. While I believe in discrimination in the direct and indirect trade, I think we could regain probably 50 per cent of our carriage by one little simple operation, and that is of re- turning to the old idea of a discrim- inating tonnage tax, it is not a duty, because we have a number of things on the free list, and I do not believe that people of this country would stand for a 10 per cent increase, but might stand..dor a 10: per: cent, de- crease. But if we could make a dis- criminating tonnage tax, by which the foreigner is taxed higher in the indirect trade,--in other words, sup- pose an English ship goes to Trieste, for a cargo of the products of that country and brings it here, if there is a strong discrimination against that ship, as I say, the small lever- age which offers opportunity one way or the other, you would then see that American ships would get that ton- nage, and when they come back home they are in better shape to "TAE MarRINE REVIEW I would certainly believe in extend- ing the discrimination even to the direct trade. I do not know that our people are ready for that; but in the indirect trade, it is the easiest, and the only man who will be hurt by it will be the foreigner, and the only one who will tbe scared is the fellow who thinks that some one might dis- criminate against us. If we expect to get back this trade without some drastic measure of some sort, we will fool ourselves. If the American peo- ple are not big enough to take that. trade which they should have, we have deteriorated since the beginning of our history as a nation. Bonded Warehouses. Take the question of the bonded warehouses. In 1842 we gave credit to foreigners and to ourselves for a certain length of time, but we were at that time doing practically all the trade. About 1845 the government was rather hard up and stopped the credit in the bonded warehouse busi- ness, for 'both ourselves and the others. Suppose we were doing the major part of the carriage, that was, in a sense, a slight discrimination against us. But now we give them years, and most of the business is done by foreigners--steamship com- _ panies, banks, insurance agents, cap- \ compete for the return tonnage, with-. out which no merchant marine will be self supporting. The question is-- who is going to be discriminated against? They put discrimination on Austrian ships in any European port, but some other ships go to that port and bring commerce to an American port. England cannot discriminate against us. She must discriminate against something we bring from here there, and she cannot discriminate against us on that condition. The idea, however, that the American peo- ple are so helpless today that they cannot do what their forefathers did, in the way of developing a merchant marine, should be dismissed. Our carriage at that time was being done entirely by. the. English yet by the application of ,such a policy in seven years we increased our merchant ma- rine 385 per cent. tains, the men who man tthe ships, all of these handle the great foreign trade. Naturally, they think it be- longs to them, and in consequence, they can put their goods here and receive credit for their customers' 'duty, while they run around the coun- try with drummers to sell it. Foreigners Sharper Than we Are. I would find out everything in which we are discriminated against, but the trouble has been that these foreigners as a rule, have been sharp- er than we have been. They realize that the government had limited pow- ers, that Congress had certain rights, that it had a bounden obligation and duty, the sacred compact of the Con- federated States, when it assumed the obligation to regulate commerce, to regulate it so as to keep it on the In 1828 it gave up its right to ocean. regulate commerce. Furthermore, the nations which signed these agree- ments were quick to substitute means by which they could regulate their commerce, which we were unable to offset, and from that time on their commerce has grown. Not only would I discriminate in the direct trade, but I would penalize every 63 possible discrimination, device or reg- ulation of our rivals, that makes for the undoing of our own trade. Any further discussion on this line, would probably lead to its being con- sidered from a _ political standpoint, and I do not think this is the place © for political talk. I have heard a good deal of talk along political lines, and may have a chance at some other time to answer it from a political standpoint. I shall not inject any politics into this meeting. E. P. Stratton: In view. of what Mr. Nixon has said, and the remarks of the speaker who preceded him, I am the more thoroughly convinced of the propriety of the motion made by Mr. McFarland, and hence I rise to second that motion. Chairman Taylor: There was no motion made, it was only a sugges- tion. : Mr. Stratton: If Mr. McFarland will frame the motion in proper form, I will second it. Mr. McFarland: I am perfectly will- ing to do that, Mr. President. There-. fore, in order to carry out the desires in this respect, I move that the pres- ident be directed and requested to bring - before the council and to confer with them, as to the desirability of ap- pointing a committee of seven mem- bers of the society, to take charge of this matter of promotion of the American merchant marine, either by subsidy or otherwise, as found best, and that such committee, if appoint- ed, will be expected to look out for the preparation of reasons and the presentation of this matter to Con- gress, and also to follow it up when the matter is before Congress. (To be continued.) The Port Huron-Duluth Steamship Co. has given an order to the Ameri- can Ship Building Co. to convert the Wolvin and Cambria, purchased from the Pittsburg Steamship Co., into pas- senger and freight steamers. The work will be done at Milwaukee. Cabin ac- commodations will be built on the spar deck containing eighty staterooms. The company operated the Pere Marquette No. 5 last season after the Russia was lost. The headquarters of the company are at Port Huron and the ports of call are Alpena, Sault Ste. Marie, Houghton, Hancock and Duluth. The steamer Wilhelmina, built at Newport News for the Matson Navi- gation Co., of San Francisco, arrived at that port, having made the run from Newport News in forty-three days.