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November, 1914 ready with us. The European war demonstrated the result of our folly. We were reaping our reward. A de- mand came for American ships. This time the cry did not come from the shipper of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; it did not come ftom _ the American manufacturer. Cotton was hit. All cry of "subsidy" and "graft" and "special interest" died suddenly upon the lips of Democracy. There was a frenzied and hysterical demand that the treasury be thrown open and that the government, regardless of cost, must come to the relief of the cotton planter. The very men that had for years blocked every attempt to prepare for such an emergency were now .the ones most frantic for "sub- sidy". These excited gentlemen are still so feverish and hysterical that they do not even yet see the inconsist- ency of their present attitude or real- ize their responsibility in bringing upon the country our present deplor- able but inexcusable condition. At present it appears that the plan the Democratic party will finally fol- low will be government ownership, with all the extravagance, incompe- tency, corruption and_ scandal that such plan must bring. Those who have long been abusing subsidy the loudest are now loudest in their demand for this socialistic proposition. They no longer care who makes a profit or who pays the ex- pense so long as their constituents get immediate relief. The Recent Law The bill just passed may bring some temporary relief, but it will not be of any permanent benefit unless it is followed by other legislation. As soon as the war is over the foreign cheap ship, with its foreign crew, sub- sidized .by its government, will soon force all the vessels that take advan- tage of the present law again under a foreign flag. So transparent and plain is this proposition that most of the ships we are purchasing in good faith will be bought with this very purpose in view. It is the only pos- sible way that the purchaser of a ship can have any reasonable hope of a profitable return upon his invest- ment. It is argued that there are al- ready many ships under foreign flags that are owned by Americans, and that these ships under the present law will seek American registry. This they may do, but it will probably be because they wish to be protected from seizure by foreign nations. But even if this class of vessels does come under the American flag, it will do but little toward relieving the present situation, because they will continue in the same trade where they THE MARINE REVIEW. now run. Take, for illustration, the United Fruit Co. vessels, now under the English flag. They may take the American flag. It will protect them from any danger of seizure by German warships, but these vessels will undoubtedly continue to run in the same business in which they are now running. Folly of Buying Ships If the government should go into the business of buying and running ships, then the present law would be ot little or no benefit whatever, for it is hardly to be supposed that any American citizen in good faith would buy vessels and undertake to run them in competition with the gov- ernment, with the United States treas- ury back of the scheme to meet the loss that would occur. I see no hope of any merchant ma- rine as long as the Democratic party controls the country, for they stand where they have always stood--abso- lutely opposed to anything that will permanently build up American ship- ping. Repeating a statement I made upon the floor of the House many years ago when arguing this same question: "It is useless to attempt to persuade them to see the error of their way. The Democratic party is > for ~ free trade. It is wedded to a corpse; it never unites with the living. When you attempt to convert the Democrat- ic party, when you attempt to per--- suade it to favor any proposition that is right, to vote for any policy that is for the general good, in the lan- guage: of Holy. Writ, 'You just as well fill your belly with the east: wind. 'Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their souls de- light in their abominations'." Our financial loss by this war in Europe because of our being without a merchant marine can never be meas- ured. It is beyond human _ calcula- tion. "But vast as, it is. by =compat- ison it is as nothing to what we would lose by having no merchant marine if we were to become involved in war with some powerful nation. We have practically no _ transports for our army and practically no auxil- iary for our navy. If we were at war today, we could with greatest diffi- culty, notwithstanding the Panama canal is now open, because of our lack of American ships, get our battle- ship squadron from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. If our battleship squadron were there it could only fight along the shore. It could only be used aS a mere coast defense, be- cause of lack of merchant ships to support it. When our battleship squadron went might | 419 around the world it could only do so because we employed foreign ships to carry the coal, a thing we could not do im: time of war. "Had war been declared while that trip was being made, all these foreign ships would immediately have left our service, and the best that we could have done would have been to run our mighty battleship .squadron into a neutral port and there dismantled the vessels and abandoned them until the end of the war. Our condition is little better today. Now we have but few trans- 'ports, and most of these are old and . antiquated and utterly unfit for over- seas voyages. With a few of these transports sent to Europe to bring home stranded Americans, our army at Vera Cruz is now practically help- less. We have no vessels left to either send them reinforcements or to bring them away. If war were declared today, we could not get 25,000 soldiers to the Philippines in a year if the fate of the Nation depended upon it. Navy Worthless A navy is practically worthless with- out a merchant marine. We build a navy for the protection of our country. A merchant marine is an essential for the common defence as a navy. Why should it not be the business of the Nation to provide the one the same as the other? They are both for one and the same purpose. The best and most economical method yet devised to pro- vide a naval auxiliary is by govern- ment aid to private lines to build a navy without a merchant marine as an auxil- iary is an inexcusable waste of public money. To build a navy and not amer- chant marine is criminal stupidity that may any day threaten the integrity of the Republic. At the annual meeting of the New York State Waterways Association held at Rochester, N. Y., the follow- ing officers were re-elected: Henry W. Hill, Buffalo, president; John D. Kerman, Utica, first vice president; Henry' A. Meyer, Brooklyn, second vice president; George H. Cobb, Watertown, third vice president; T. P. Kingsford, Oswego, fourth vice pres- ident: Olin J. Stephens, New York City, treasurer; Frank S. Ellsworth, Rochester, secretary. Smith & McCoy, Norfolk, Va., re- cently completed a floating dock which added to their former dock gives it a length of 250 feet on keel of blocks, capable of docking a vessel 250 feet long and of 3,000 gross tons. The dock was designed by Wm. T. Don- nelly, 17 Battery Place, New York. '