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8 THE MARINE RECORD. NOVEMBER 23, 1899. ee i 8 ____ rr THE WORLD’S TONNAGE—ANNUAL REPORT OF THE U. S. COMMISSIONER OF NAVIGA- TION. WASHINGTON, D. C. Special to The Marine Record. The annual report of Mr. Chamberlain, the Commissioner of Navigation, shows that American shipping industries shared inthe general prosperity of the country during the past fiscal year. The returns disclose more satisfactory con- ditions than those of any former year in the Bureau’s his- tory. The total documented tonnage on June 30, 1899, com- prised of 22,726 vessels of 4,864,238 gross tons, which is our largest since 1865. The tonnage operating under our coast- ing laws, 21,397 vessels of 4,015,992 gross tons is the largest in our history and greater than the coasting tonnage of any other nation. Our steam tonnage, 2,476,011 tons, for the first time exceeds the tonnage of all other craft. In the rest of the world steam tonnage eleven years ago exceeded sail tonnage. Our tonnage registered for foreign trade remains small, and last year American vessels carried a fraction less than 9 per cent. of our exports and imports, the smallest percentage in our history. Based on Bureau Veritas returns, the world’s seagoing sail tonnage in the past quarter of a century has decreased from 14,185,836 tons to 8,693,769 tons, a decrease of 40 percent. The decrease in the United States has been at the average rate. The world’s seagoing steam tonnage in the same period has increased from 4,328,193 tons to 18,887,132 tons, or 336 per cent. The phenomenal increases have been Norway’s over 1,400 per cent. and Germany’s nearly 700 per cent. The increase of the United States has been only 68 per cent. and _ the increase of American steam tonnage registered for for- eign trade on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts has been only 38 percent. The development of Alaska within the past few years has caused a rapid increase in Pacific coast tonnage. Within the past 20 years the United States in seagoing steam tonnage has dropped from the second place next to Great Britain to the fourth position, below Germany and France, and if steamships in the foreign trade alone are considered, below Norway and Spain, and only slightly ahead of Japan. The report reviews briefly the legislation of other nations in behalf of their merchaut shipping, showing that last year European nations and Japan expended over $26,000,000 to promote it in various forms, while the United States spent only $996,211. On their steamship lines to China and Japan foreign nations expended about $5,000,000, while for the same purpose the United States expended less than $49,000. _ The establishment of two or more fast American steamship lines on the Pacific coast to connect with Asia, will furnish the capitals of western Europe with closer mail and passen- sible by the heavily subsidized British, German and French steamship lines through the Suez canal. The reasons which impel other nations to develop their merchant shipping, says Mr. Chamberlain, apply with equal force to the United States. Among them are first, the rela- tions of the navy to the merchant marine as an element of national defense; second, relations of a merchant marine to insular territory; third, its relations to new markets in Asia, Africa, Australia and South America; fourth, the necessity for the best ocean mail facilities under the flag; fifth, the _ relation of the merchant marine to exports and imports and the value of the carrying trade, and finally, the promotion of shipbuilding and contributory industries. By various methods of computation the annual value of the ocean car- rying trade of the United States is estimated at about $175,- 000,000, including passenger and immigrant fares and pay- ments for ocean mails to and from the United States. ‘The _ argument that American shipping in the foreign trade is handicapped by tariff duties is met by reference to progres- _ Sive legislation beginning in 1872, by which for the last five __ years all materials for the construction of American vessels in the foreign trade and all supplies for such vessels have been exempt from duties. Tonnage taxes which are im- posed equally on foreign and American vessels are the only form of federal taxation on American shipping. The prop- -osition to repeal tonnage taxes would, therefore, in effect be equivalent to a bounty of about $750,000 annually to foreign shipping and would relieve American shipping of only $80,000 of taxes annually, The report then takes up the five methods which have recently been suggested for the promotion of the American merchant marine. It is pointed out that discriminating duties on cargoes in foreign vessels or on the tonnage in foreign vessels are an impracticable remedy on eit ger connections by from three to five days than is now pos- account of the provisions in our treaties with nearly all the nations of the world, prescribing equal treat- ment for foreign and American vessels in the matter of duties and charges. The same objection also applies to the proposition to grant bounties on exports in American ves- sels, as by the terms of our principal treaties we are obliged to grant the same bounties on exports in foreign vessels as in American vessels. The proposition to grant American registry to foreign-built vessels in the foreign trade is not regarded as feasible in view of the unanimous rejection of that proposition four years ago by the Senate Committee on Commerce, and on account of the fact that American ship owners and ship builders are united in opposition to that measure. It is also pointed out that regardless of the merits or demerits of the proposition, its adoption would probably disappoint its advocates in view of the fact that the cost of operating vessels under the American flag is concededly much greater than the cost of operating foreign vessels. The adoption of the free ship policy by Great Britain has not contributed in any way to her maritime development as vessels for many years have been built more cheaply in Great Britain than elsewhere, and in point of fact, vessels built outside of Great Britain are seldom registered under the British flag, with occasional exceptions in the colonies. The success of the free ship policy in Norway and other Scandinavian countries is due to their very large maritime population, which renders it necessary for the governments of those countries to encourage the purchase of vessels built in Great Britain in order to afford employment for their sea- men. Kyvyen then the tonnage under the Norwegian flag is insufficient to furnish employment for Norwegian sailors, who constitute a large part of the crews of British vessels and of American vessels, both in the coasting and in the foreign trade. The rates of wages paid to Norwegian sailors are much lower even than those paid on British or German vessels, and the general cost of operating vessels under the Norwegian flag is less than under the British flag. These conditions, none of which obtain in the United States, have rendered the adoption of the free ship policy by Norway a national necessity. The conditions in Germany, in so far as the cost of operating vessels is concerned, are analagous to those of Norway, and up to 1885 there were very few ocean steaniships under the German flag built in Germany. The development of German shipyards since 1885 is attribu- table in part at least to legislation advocated first by Prince Bismark, through which a heavy subsidy was granted to the North German Lloyd Steamship Co. which owns all but four of the fast steamships under the German flag and to the German law by which materials for steamships are carried on the government railroads at low rates of freight. The proposition to develop the merchant marine through ocean mail subsidies is only a partial solution of the question. While the need of at least two fast mail steamship lines to Asia and one to South America is indisputable, the estab- lishment of such lines would not suffice to put our naviga- tion and shipbuilding on a satisfactory basis. The report in the main is devoted to a consideration of Senate Bill 5590, reported by Senator Frye at the last ses- sion, as a. substitute for the bills introduced by Senator Hanna and Representative Payne. It is pointed out that the maximum expenditure under that bill for any one year is fixed at $9,000,000, from which, however, should be deducted $1,500,000, the present cost of carrying our ocean mails on American vessels, which will continue whatever the fate of the bill may be. The actual maximum annual ex- penditure proposed by the bill is thus in effect fixed at $7,500,000. Assuming that all our vessels registered for foreign trade were fully occupied throughout the'year, at the present time the next expenditure under the bill would bein round numbers $3,000,000. Before the maximum is reached the capacity of our shipyards must be increased many times, and the tonnage under our flag engaged in the foreign trade multiplied several fold. This increase in the capacity of our shipyards and in our tonnage in foreign trade will show ability on our part to compete on more nearly even terms with foreign nations. The pro rata re- ductions in compensation provided for when the maximum expenditure of $9,000,000 is reached will thus coincide with the lessened need of government assistance. During the decade ending 1898 our shipyards produced only 213,000 gross tons of ocean steamships, while in the same period German yards turned out 850,000 gross tons, and British yards 9,680,000 gross tons. The difference in the cost of construction and operation of American and British vessels is considered in some detail, It is also pointed out that of f the 362 steamships of 14 knots or over now in existence in the world, over 80 per cent. are receiving in one form or another assistance from the government to which they be- long, aggregating upwards of $20,000,000. This is deemed justification for the proposition in the bill to give a distinct allowance to American steamships of 14 knots or upwards. Comparison is made at length between these special rates under the bill with the eight principal British ocean mail contracts, and it is shown that while the British mail con- tracts involve the annual payment of $3,900,000 the pay- ments under this bill designed as an offset to the British payments for similar services with similar vessels under the American flag would be $3,580,000. The bill would be in- adequate if it were proposed to parallel British lines, espe- cially those to Asia and Australia. The American lines which will be established under the bill, however, to those quarters of the globe will not be compelled to pay Suez canal tolls, and the compensation proposed will thus be adequate. Comparison is also made in detail with the new North Ger- man Lloyd subsidy of $1,320,000, and it is shown that cor- responding American steamships under this bill would re- ceive $1,295,000 though the cost of building and operating the German steamships is much lower than the correspond- ing cost of American vessels. Full official tables of the wages on American and British vessels are printed and to elucidate the conditions the monthly pay-roll of five steamships each of about 2,500 gross tons is printed in full; the American Cherokee’s roll being $1,385, the British Critic $852, the German Sonnenburg $646, the Dutch Teutonia $554, and the Norwegian Fortuna $511. The report also recommends moderate increase in our tonnage taxes, equalizing them with those imposed at the principal European ports; favors the passage of bills apply- ing the laws of the United States relatlve to commerce, navigation and merchant seamen to Hawaii and Porto Rico, thus bringing those islands under the coasting laws of the United States. It is recommended that vessels owned by Cubans be placed by law on an equality with vessels belong- ing tq the most favored nation. Under an existing statute it has been necessary to impose a tonnage tax of $1 per gross ton—practically prohibitory—upon such vessels, and this injustice, both to ourselves and the Cubans, can be remedied only by legislation. Under the so-called White Bill for the protection of seamen, American sailors now enjoy a larger degree of personal liberty than ever before and much more than the seamen of any other nation, that law radically changing the nature of the seamen’s agree- ment. Reports from shipping commissioners show that the allotment sections have been of decided benefit to seamen and that efforts to break down these sections during the spring and early summer have failed and the law is in the main successfully enforced. Attention is directed to the menace to navigation resulting from long tows of coal barges along the Atlantic coast, especially at New York, Boston and other important harbors, and of the large timber rafts on the Pacific coast. Besides the usual tables the re- port contains a list of the world’s fast steamships and of Amer- ican steamships registered for foreign trade at the end of the fiscal year, and tables showing the distances between the seaports of the United States and the principal seaports of the rest of the world. —— or oo Oo VISIBLE SUPPLY OF GRAIN As compiled for THE MARINE RECORD, by George F. Stone, Secretary Chicago Board of Trade. CITIES WHERE WHEAT.| CORN. OaTs. RYE. BARLEY STORED. Bushels, | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. Buffaloes. eit eccses 858,0c0} 360,000} 687,000] its. 5 o, c 5,000 838,000 Chicago.. 13,747,000] 2,585,000] 1,152,000 342,000 Sco pee me Teer OD 119,000 2,000 11,000 20,000 ee Sennen 564,000 000 7 Fort William, Ont. Restiool Ae ale Co ae waukee...i...... 173,000 2,000 3,000 4,000. _—-t,000 ee hae a Ont.... ne NA Maes sirn atm ets nae AEE oe a Cot (oo Rare RN hence sy 2,102,000] 1,084,000 8.000 -8,000|.......... POLONtO nk cca anes \ 44,000 eet a eee ee "60,000 Oni Canaleinids ax 672.000] 611,000 127,000 67,000 402,000 On Lakes. iis 1,568,000 456,000 694,000 148,000 458,000 Grand Total..... 54,001,000] 11,060,000] 6,12 Corresponding Date, iecmaadteusuenen si TROON Circo ae tian 21,392,000] 23,238,000] 5,756,000] 1,021,000] 3,784,000 Tncreasess oes SAAQ OOO sien ie paar t Decreases 355.05, ak ee 849,000 rool Gee While the stock of grain at lake ports only is here given, the total shows the figures for the entire country except the Pacific Slope. *