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_ 344 THE MARINE REVIEW DEVOTED TO MARINE ENGINEERING, SHIP BUILDING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES Published Monthly by The Penton Publishing Company Penton Building, Cleveland. CHICAGO 1521-23 Lytton Bldg. CINCINNATI 503 Mercantile Library Bldg. NEW YORK 507 West Street Bldg. PITTSBURGH 2148-49 Oliver Bldg. 44 Home Life Bldg. Prince's Chambers WASHINGTON, D. C. ee BIEMINCHAM, ENG ©. = > - Subscription, $2 delivered free anywhere in the world. Single copies, 20 cents. Back numbers over three months, 50 cents. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on or before the first of each month. 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 Co., Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C., England. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. --_-- (Copyright 1914, by Penton Publishing Company) September, 1914 A Nation Without Ships Well, the expected has happened. We are a nation without ships and are now put to every form of subterfuge to get them. For twenty years THE MariNE REviEw has consistently directed attention to this very subject. It has pointed out time and again the folly of a nation with our enormous coast line and great manufacturing and agricultural productivity to be entirely dependent upon the ships of other nations to carry our products abroad. We have repeatedly said that if a European conflict should break out our ports would be as effectually blockaded as though squadrons of battleships were hovering outside of them. The European conflict has occurred and our ports are blockaded. What of the prophesies of those who have declared that a fight of nations would never again occur? One man has plunged all Europe into war and has demoralized the commerce of the world. The United States today is an island far more insular than England ever was. It cannot get any- where. Its commerce has begun to backwater and our legislators are now frantically striving to remedy a situation which their own short-sightedness has brought about. We must be: candid with ourselves and look this issue square in the face and put the blame where it belongs. It belongs with the middle states. It belongs with the great grain producing states who are now the greatest sufferers. It has hitherto been. impossible to convince the farmer of Kansas _ that ships are as necessary to his well-being as they are to the coast states. Blind as a bat, he could not be THE MARINE REVIEW September, 1914 made to see that the steamship owner was not the_ only person interested in the steamship. He felt that any extension of governmental aid to shipping inter- ests went into the pockets of the ship-owners. He ° could not see that its purpose was to widen our markets and to keep the roadstead oversea open at all times to our commerce. None of the warring nations of Europe would molest any of our merchant fleet engaged in the peaceful pursuit of trade, and we would now be reaping a rich harvest supplying those markets which Europe cannot now care for, had we the ships to do it. But we have none; we can neither seize the opportunity nor can we care for our ordinary trade, because it has always been carried on in foreign bottoms. Ninety-two per cent of our commerce has constantly gone abroad in foreign ships. Eight per cent of it we carried ourselves, and that is about the proportion that we can still carry. The other 92 per cent is backing water. The bill granting American register to foreign ships provided they are purchased by Americans is a poor substitute. Foreign ships already owned by American corporations. such as the Steel Corporation, Standard Oil Co., and United Fruit Co., will probably be trans- ferred to American register, but they must be officered by Americans holding government licenses -- or else our. statutes in that respect will have to be amended. In any event, it is a poor way out of a dilemma which could easily have been avoided by looking broadly at the situation some years ago and extending our policy of protection to cover American shipping on the high seas. The Hardy Bill On July 6 the House of Representatives passed the Hardy bill, the title of which is "To Better Regulate the Serving of Licensed Officers in the Merchant Marine of the United States and to Promote Safety at Sea". It amends sections 4448 and 4449 of the revised statutes to read as follows: "Section 4448: That all officers licensed under the provisions of this title shall assist the inspectors in their examination of any vessels to which such licensed officers belong and shall point out all defects and imperfections known to them in the hull, equipments, boilers or machinery of such vessel, and shall also make known to the inspectors at the earliest oppor- tunity all accidents or occurrences producing serious injury to the vessel, her equipments, boilers or machinery, and in default thereof the license of any such officer so neglecting or refusing shall be sus- pended or revoked. "No inspector or supervising inspector receiving information from a licensed officer who is employed on any vessel as to defects in such vessel or equip- ments, boilers, or machinery, or that any provision of this title is being violated, shall impart the name of such licensed officer or the source of his informa-