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382 shipping. If we could only do one- half of this, what a commencement it would be to the greatness which this country will some day reach. I think we have more iron ore and coal than all Europe, and of a good quality, opened up and developed, and right in amongst where the greatest part of our population lives, and can cheaply be brought to our coast. And doubt- less we have the skill to manufacture it into the various requirements for home and foreign trade, or to build ships from, and if we are in this po- 'sition we must do something to give employment to that multitude of in- telligent men who are idle in this country. But first let us see what makes so many of them idle. Great Britain's Progress About 50 years ago we began build- ing railroads. About the same time Great Britain began to build ships of iron. And, particularly since our last war, we have built railroads so fast it was the cause of the greatest outlay of capital ever known, most of which came from other countries, until, if you look at a railroad map of this country you can hardly see the states for the railroads, and the people got rich and prosperous from the trim- mings incident to building and operat- ing these railroads, which roads opened up new fields and mines, and. from such rich lands great crops were raised that required machinery to handle quickly and cheaply; and with the mixed intelligent population from Europe and Yankee ingenuity farm- ing implements of all discriptions were invented, larger crops and 'cheaper transportation to seaboard were obtained, and a high state of prosperity was with us till about four years ago. We were a live commer- cial people, having about 250,000 com- mercial travelers stirring up trade with ourselves, until it only required a few days to introduce a new thing all over the United States. But this live trade was only with ourselves, and, for the want of our own ships, we had built a wall around ourselves and we had overdone the railroad building, so that at present there are more than a million men idle, many of whom were employed in building railroads, and also in the operation of roads which have had to cut down their large forces. The difference between the cost of building, owning, and _ operating an ocean-going ship of today of the 'United States and that of some of the European countries is about equal to 'one and one-half cents per ton 'per 100 miles carried at sea; so that THE MARINE REVIEW if our government could give a bounty of two cents per ton per 100 miles an American ship would carry a ton of freight from the United States to any foreign country, or that would carry a ton of freight from and foreign country to the United States, to be paid as follows: From the Treasury of the United States by reports made to or obtained from customs officers at ports in the United States, and by reports to or from United States consuls in foreign ports, taken from the ship's mani- fest, and by Washington time, exact hour and date, which would be for- warded to the treasury department to be filled in the. order of time the voyage might be finished, so _ that in case there has not enough been appropriated, the first in and on rec- ord will earn the premium, and like most all other classes of business there is a fair chance it will be over- done at times. The sum to be paid not to exceed $50,000,000 in ten years, to be paid about as follows: BIfst Weare ues el cA tlh ners « $ 3,000,000 Second year ean yee ee Ps 4,000,000 hind year oe seh ee ee a 5,000,000 Hourthi year. ck oa oe ais 6,000,000 Miith ventric edie ea eae ae. 6,000,000 Sixth yea uss stecccuae tens 6,000,000 WOVEN "Vea wees ee 5,000,000 FEM: ayGatiGs sto ones Guceti Laces 5,000,000 INIHED Vicanee kare. ree wee 5,000,000 Cite ved ts eh he eee et 5,000,000 TPObE I heh Seer ok ee aes ae $50,000,000 Manner of Paying Subsidies It is necessary to begin on smaller amounts, for there are not yet ships to earn so much, and, after the sixth year, we should have had such exper- ience as to enable us to sail on with less direct assistance. And with the live enterprise of our people, when a paying investment presents itself, I think before the end of ten years we would have ships enough to get this bounty in the first half of the year, this bounty to be paid to. such ships only as are owned in the United States, and not earning government bounty from mail subsidy, and vessels made in this country from American products, offered by citizens of the United States and the crew to be composed of one-half, at least; Amer- ican citizens when leaving home ports. For the first five yéars of the payment of this premium, then, after that, at least two-thirds of the crew must be citizens of the United States when the ship is leaving the United States for a foreign port, and no bounty to be paid on more than 10,000 miles in the same voyage go- ing or coming. All other require- ments, such as government inspection of ship officers, etc., and the chassi- fication for instance, etc., not to be October, 1914 any of the requirements of this bill, it all to be taken care of as usual. If such a bounty is not earned or paid it would remain in the treasury, | and if earned as above and paid out for such services, let us look at some of the advantages that would be de- rived from it. Widespread Benefits to Accrue Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of ships, shops, factories, etc., would grow up as from nothing. It would eventually cause to be estab- lished with us marine insurance com- panies, banks to do direct trade with ports of the world, now reached in- directly, and would bring us in closer touch: with all of the America south of us, and with the Orient, which must develop fast in the near future, and whose trade others will acquire if we are not after it soon. The trade from our Pacific coast is much greater . in tonnage and freight money than many realize and its future more promising in most all kinds of prod- ucts. Many of these ships that would earn this money would go in _ trade such as timber and lumber from the east and west coast of Africa, when a voyage between two foreign countries might be of advantage or with Pacific coast products to Europe, when some other trade would offer better than coming back in ballast or small cargo, so that it is fair to expect a good part of the time our subsidized ships' would be in a trade in which they would not earn this bounty. There is an enor- mous trade in the southeastern part of this country that is moving slowly * that would receive a great stimulus by having our own ship and numerous agents in Europe trying to sell their lumber and timber, and in the West Indies, Central. and South America trying to sell the coal from the _ sec- tion referred to; also lots of other products from this section. The Mississippi Valley would neces- sarily get a great benefit from our own ship and its many friends, who would all be working in dead earnest to get each their share of the prem- ium. Steamship lines from New Or- leans and Galveston would naturally come, and in more regular trade than now, for the owners, managers would be of the people with us. Our northeast coast would prob- ably derive the. greatest advantage generally. The lake region would re- ceive a great indirect benefit because of the enormous iron and coal depos- its there, which would be stimulated by the building of ships and being in direct touch with the northeast coast. In <fact,..there is not much, if. any, agents, and- SN a ak ac a eta fy a i Ra es BE ba a a EE i Ta aah a i Na Ba