The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

i was succeeded by the immigration act of 1924, enacted May 26, which is the law in effect at present. Restriction has been carried still further, limit- ing the annual rate of admission 6f immigrants to 2 per cent of the num- ber of persons of the respective na- tionalities resident in the United States in 1890, as per that census. Thereafter the annual rate of im- migration remained in the neighbor- hood of the 300,000 mark for the years 1925 to 1928 inclusive. For 1929 a slight drop was registered, to 280,000 admissions, and for 1930 a _ rather greater one, to 240,000. For 1931, however, the admissions will not ex- ceed 155,000, according to the govern- ment forecast. This restriction of immigration put the steamship lines in an uncomfort- able position with their many emi- grant carriers in commission and under construction. Some of the for- mer had to be disposed of and work on some of the latter halted, though these last were destined to be com- pleted eventually. How To Use Third Class A pretty problem it was that con- fronted the shipping companies—what to do with the considerable third class accommodation in their steam- ers that was now rendered superflu- ous. A plan was shortly developed. It was reasoned that among that great section of the American population comprising persons of moderate means it might be possible to culti- vate a new source of patronage to offset to some extent the shrinkage in the emigrant traffic. The plan was specifically concerned with profes- sional workers—physicians, school teachers, university professors, as also students—potential vacation trav- elers that were not generally pre- pared to incur the expense of ocean voyaging in first class or second class. It Was hoped that these would be re- ceptive to the offer of the superfluous third class accommodations at a trifling increase over third class fares in return for due consideration for the traveling standards of such pa- trons. Accordingly there was inaugurated in 1924 a new class of passenger ac- commodation on the Atlantic, under the style of tourist third cabin. In deference to cultural considerations this was kept altogether distinct from third class; indeed it impressed those who sampled it as being a less ex- pensive and delightfully informal va- riety of second class travel. Tourist Travel Increases The results were gratifying. Each year saw a decided increase in the number of passengers carried in tour- ist third. According to a recent state- ment by an official of one of the com- panies the annual rate has risen steadily from a few hundred over 15,- 000 for the calendar year 1924 to not quite 300,000 for 1930, quoting the to- tals for all the Atlantic steamship lines. The idea is spreading to other routes of the world. It has appeared in the transpacific trade, and is being introduced in. the services from Eu- rope to the Orient and Australia. On the Europe-South America run there has existed for quite a time a type of transportation known as economic sec- ond class, which cannot be far differ- ent in theory from tourist third. The trend of postwar travel across the Atlantic has indeed been emphat- ically toward middle class transpor- tation. This has been represented in the rise of the cabin liner. Prior to the war it had been the rule in designing passenger steamers to provide at once for all three class- es of accommodation—first, second, and third. Since the war, however, first class has been omitted in the majority of the transatlantic steam- ships, being retained only in the ex- press steamers and a certain few of the intermediate liners. 'The steam- ship companies themselves prefer to put it that first and second class have been combined into what has become known as cabin class, at fares on a scale slightly above that for second class. The absence of first class bar- riers renders accessible to the cabin passenger, of course, the ship’s finest appointments. At first the cabin steamers were built to just middling size and mod- erate speed. In the course of time, however, they were joined by the bulk of the intermediates of prewar build, including such giants as the ADRIATIC and the Grorez WASHINGTON. It was becoming difficult for them to attract first class passengers in the face of the luxury and prestige of superliners of the OLympic type. It will be observed that where first class was discontinued in these older ships the arrangement was particular- ly attractive to middle class travelers, for the recent first class accommoda- tions were now devoted to cabin serv- ice, while tourist third got the benefit of the former second class quarters. Though it has been only following the war that the cabin liner has been developed, it is not absolutely a new institution. Already in 1910 or there- abouts first class was discontinued by the American line and the Hamburg- American line on several of their ships. Farther back, at the beginning of the century, we have the newly- built Ruern, Martin, and Neckar, of the North German Lloyd, providing for passengers only in second and third class. Older precedents are doubtless to be found. Vessels Altered for Tourist Trade Tourist class passengers have also been relieved of barriers aboard ship in quite a few cases, not merely of those of first class, but of second or cabin class as well. Already in 1924 the big MINNEKAHDA was transformed from an exclusively third class car- rier to an exclusively tourist liner. “She was supplemented after a time with the WINIFREDIAN, DEVONIAN, and Minnesota, old ships of 10,000 to 13,- 000 tons that had already been de- moted from first class liners to cabin liners, previous to being devoted now to tourist service; these three have since been retired from operation. For newer steamers there are the smaller but excellent American Mer- chant liners put on the New York-Lon- don run as fast freighters early in 1924 by the United States shipping board and subsequently fitted for tour- ist passengers. These ships are now part of the United States lines fleet. Perhaps the most striking examples are the Red Star liners PENNLAND and (Continued on page 50) Drawing of Proposed United States Superliner. Preliminary Plans Ready. N oth MaRINE REvVIEw—July, 1931 ing Being Done Awaiting Action of Congress 17