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FRENCH MERCANTILE MARI NE. The London Engineer calls attention to the decadence of the mercantile marine of France as one of the most serious economic problems of that country, and one that is attract- ing the attention of the French people. From being one of the leading sea-carriers of the world, France now finds her- self a long way down on the list, below even Norway and Sweden. Gallic political economists fear that the marine will undergo an utter extinction unless something is speedily done to give it encouragement. This decadence means the improvishment of the country by the paynient of huge sums for freight to foreign vessels; and diminishes the ranks of seamen from which France draws men for the fighting navy. The lowest estimates ‘put the amount paid to foreign shipowners every year for freight at 300,- 000,000f., and the amount paid to French owners 1s 100,000,- ooof., so that three-fourths at least of the French sea- borne traffic is in the hands of foreigners. As to the cause of this disastrous decline in the French carrying trade, it must be remembered that the class of goods exported is not of large bulk. Shipments consist chiefly of high-priced articles not of sufficient bulk to per- mit vessels being specially freighted, and the goods are nearly all taken by foreign vessels which call at the French ports. ‘The foreign owner can leave his own port with a two-thirds cargo, and make up the rest in France, while the French vessel could not sail unless she got a sufficiently profitable freight at home. Many suggestions havé been made for facilitating making up of freight for the benefit of ‘French ships. It is argued that the merchandise is dis- tributed among too many ports, and that if it were concen- trated among a few, the owner would have no difficulty in getting all the freight he wanted. Preferential charges should also be allowed on the railways, and the waterways should be utilized to better advantage; but these proposals are outside the range of practical politics, and no system of distribution will enable the French shipowner to secure freight if he cannot offer beiter conditions than his foreign competitor. No less serious are the legislative drawbacks under which ‘the mercantile marine labors. The protective system has been carried to the extent of hedging the owner round with all sorts of restrictions, of which the primary object is to make the mercantile marine:a school for naval seamen. Every crew must be composed of at least three-fourth Frenchmen, and the owner is bound to bring the men baci to the port of departure. © Neither for these economical or legislative difficulties is there any remedy. The French Government cannot provide the ships with freight, and will not change a law regarded as of the first importance from the point of view of national defence. It therefore insti- tuted a system of premiums or bounties around which a parliamentary battle has been waged. The obstacle in the way of legislative measures for the revival of the mercantile niarine lies in the difficulty of conciliating the interests of the shipbuilder and the ship- owner. The builder aims at prohibiting the importation of foreign vessels. The owner objects to paying high prices for home-built ships, and regards the system as ab- solutely ruinous, as business is unprofitable unless he can procure vessels at a reasonable cost. He is paid a naviga- tion bounty for vessels of French construction; but so ‘arranged that the bulk of it goes into the pockets of the builders. A former half bounty on foreign-built ships im- posed in 1881, was suppressed in 1891, owing to the opposi- tion of the builders to its renewal, and the navigation pre- -mium was fixed in 1893 at 1.70f. per gross ton per thousand -miles. for sailing ships, and at 1.10f. for steamers. The -buiiders thus got their monopoly. But, as a result, the -owner was utterly unable to purchase his vessels at home, -and found it preferable to pick up bargains in the way of old ships in England, even ii he had to forego the naviga- tion premium. ; _ Since the suppression of the half bounty the steamers of foreign construction have totaled 20,694 tons a year, with -an average age of fifteen years, whereas the yearly tonnage of steamers built in France is 8,735 tons, 42 per cent. of foreign vessels, as compared with 83 per cent. during the period when the kalf bounty was in operation. And thr mercantile fieet has been converted into a wonderful col- lection of old slow-going tramps, known as “wolves,” owing _to their insatiable appetite for fuel. The suppression o! _the half bounty had another unexpected result. _ The owner saw that with the highest premiums offered he had every advantage in purchasing sailing vessels, which had the further merit of being cheaper and more econom :- cal, and thus a number of smajl companies sprang into ex -,istence to acquire two or three sailing ships that became ‘known as “premium hunters” because they were merely _ run for the navigating bounties. The building of sailing - ships las gone on so rapidly that in 1899 and 1900 they rep- _ resented 80 per cent. of the entire French construction. _ The sailing vessels did not take any freight from French ports, but relied on bulky merchandise, such as grain and coal transported between Fingland and Russia and America. Many small companies own sailing ships which are paying dividends of between-20 and 30 per cent. with the aid of the fore, merely profited the owners of sailing ships and the the former heing able to cut freights to a ruinous n ballast ; but it has proved disastrous for. the Navigation bounties. The existing legislation has, there-_ ce it would almost pay them. to sail all the year | THE MARINE RECORD. mercantile marine, and the proportion of French freight it carries is actually smaller then it was before the abrogation of the old law. Sarei dos The Government has been obliged to bring in a bill to favor shipowners by the payment of a bounty on foreign vessels, and to reorganize the navigation premiums. No measure has met with more violent opposition in the Cham- ber of Deputies. The-shinbuilding interests attacked every clause of the bill, and nearly succeeded in defeating it. They argued that it would let in British vessels to the prejudice of the home industry, that French capital was giving employment to the British shipyards, while the French workmen were unable to make a living: Unfor- tunately for whe shipbuilders, the Government was able to show that while the number of stocks had nearly doubled in ten years, the industry was utterly unable, or perhaps unwilling, to carry out private orders. Builders preferred to relv on state contracts, for which they were more highly paid. So violent was the attack that the Chamber of Deputies was actually surprised into voting the total suppresion of bounties on vessels of foreign con- struction, but the Government followed up with a rider which entirely reversed the amendment. The argument in favor of the bounty is that if traffic is to develop there must be more ships, and more facilities for procuring them, while the home shibpuilding industry must naturally profit from the revival of the mercantile marine, as well in the carrying out of repairs as in supplying the demand for new vessels. If owners of foreign-built ves- sels spend more than a certain amount abroad upon repairs, they will lose the benefit of the “compensation.” With a view of conciliating the shipbuilding interest the bounty is hedged with much greater restrictions than under the law of 1881. Compensation is limited to shipping companies of which three-fourths of the directors are French, and the ships must be manned and navigated by Frenchmen. The amount of bounty to be paid is five centimes a gross ton up to 1,eco tons, with a diminution of one centime for each additional 1,000 tons, until the sum paid for more than 4,cc0: tons is two_centimes a ton. This small sum does not represent any considerable ad- vantage for the bityer of a foreign vessel over the owner who receives the ful navigation premium on French-built ships, but he gets at the same time a reduction of the im- port duties to the nominal figure of 2f. a ton for “statisti- cal taxes,’ so that the net result may be expected to com- pensate the owner for the higher prices asked by the home shipbuilding firms. The shipbuilding interest tried to reduce the age of the foreign vessels imported from seven years to five, to require them to sail a minimum speed of | ten knots an hour, and to compel the owner, when he pur- chased a vessel abroad, to place an order for a similar ton- nage at the French shipyards. Admiral Rieunier pleaded in favor of taxing foreign vessels which carried off the French freights as if they were engaged in a discreditable and illicit traffic, quite overlooking the fact that the French “premium hunters” have been doing exactly the same thing in foreign ports. All these amendments were rejected. The old arrangement of premiums favorable to the con- struction of sailing ships, has now been modified. ‘The 1.7cf. a ton is to be maintained for sailing vessels of less than 800 tons but, it is to be decreased in inverse ratio to an augmentation of gross tonnage, until the minimum fig- ure of 1f, is reached. The premium on steamers, on the other hand, has been increased from 1.1of. a ton per thous- and miles to 1.7of. Moreover an important restriction now comes into force limiting the tonnage upon which prem- iums can be paid in any year to 500,000 tons for steamers and 100,000 tons for sailing vessels. OO oe STATEMENT OF THE VISIBLE SUPPLY OF GRAIN. As compiled bv George F. Stone, Secretary Chicago Board of Trade February 15. CITIES WHERE WHEAT.| CORN. OaTs. RYE, BA LEY STORED. Bushels, | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels. | Bushels Bulfelo 2s is 3 665,000 484,000 84,000 000 17,00 Pe A AMOR teres wicks 361,090 84 000 eae destaeul leissaecs 2 midatlietr eine Chicago. 6,705 000] 4,508,000 494,000] 1,045,000 179,000 Meo Gately tet ine 417.000] 25. re Pee. me 77,000 DSTO ie eae 376 000 199,900 35.000 113,000 22,000 Dilutieisi ste, veces I1, 132,900 175,090 382 co 455 000 293,c00 Se GOA CE ea. beak fiMih fcr oll tee Agee UNG (Se aN Saas iaedeh a Sei es Fe iat Hore wiiiiain: Onto) ais 28. 000i eisai, BOS ey os oe Gee eh. Milwaukee.......... 6 8,900 161,00c| 381,000 35,000 201 000 Port Arthur, Ont.... 250,000 isan ic egg een eg BOLERO. ee cas 54,260] 988.000] 528 00 187 000 des MORONGOL Asser cileiccren 70,000 pe 15,0 0 61,0°0 On Canals........... 46,000 3,030 112,000 37,000 50,000 Grand Total..... 55 4¢6 000] 11,132,000] 4,299 00°] .2,283,000] 2,145,co0 Corresponding Date, TOO iipic ain ss cpalenience 57,682,0°0] 17,061,000] 10,392,000] 1,174.000] 1,669,000 Increase for week..| —s-.... |... eee ee Seat ae anal ee take 250,000 Decrease ‘“‘ ‘ T.160,000 448,000] 126,000 WP OOO|encactoeines While the stock of grain at lake ports only is here given, the total shows the figure. for the entire country except the Pacific Slope. — .@—$$$——— The Craig Ship Building Co., with an authorized capital of $1,250,000 was incorporated at Trenton, N. J., on Jan. ah tok authority to construct and operate vessels of all inds. R. Mapletoft, H. N. Smith, all of ‘East Orange, N. J. -cuts representing every device which the American Shi * to the keeping of all vessels in repair. The incorporators are Cleveland V. Childs. Jas, . FEBRUARY 20, NOTES. Tar Buckeye Fish Co., of Cleveland, has bought 25 of dock frontage from the Menominee River Lumber of Menominee and will erect a big fish canning facto; cost $30,000. ‘The new factory will employ 150 men whole year. ‘The Buckeye Co. will also erect a large fo tilizing establishment, and manufacture fertilizer froy fish offal. The company has already purchased two and will have a fleet of small sailirg vessels. THE submarine boat Plunger, built at the Crescent S} yards, at Elizabethport, N. J., was successfully laun on February 1. Mrs. Myron TT. Herrick, the wife Col. Herrick, of Cleveland, christened the boat. After launching, Mr. and Mrs. Nixon entertained the guests luncheon in the offices of the shipyards. Among th present were Col. and Mrs. Myron T. Herrick, of © land; Naval Constructor, Lawrence Spear, U. S. N.; Lien W. C. Herbert, U. S. N., and Lieut. Commander White, U. S. N. The Plunger iis a sister ship of Adder, the Moccasin, the Porpoise, the Shark and the Fy ton, which were built by Mr. Nixon and will shortly placed in commission. ‘The vessel will have a speed on th surface of about eight knots, and a radius of action o about five hundred miles. The submerged speed will about seven knots, with a radius of about forty miles. will carry a crew of seven men when equipped and reaa for service. The armament will consist of one oe tube, and the vessel will carry three of the new long W : head torpedocs. Wuat may happen when more than two sets of wireless _ telegraph apparatus are being used within range of each © other was indicated on Saturday last, when Geo. Kronch the operator on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, tried t communicate with Mr. Henworth, the operator on the out- going Lucania, and the operator on the yacht Hohenzol- lern tried to invite Kronche to visit the vacht at 4 o'clock, the operators on the two steamships were communicating in English, while the operator on the yacht spelled his me sage out in German. Sandwiched in between the words — of the Lucania’s messages on. the tapes were occasional German words. At last came from Mr. Hepworth the message: “Don’t talk German, I don’t understand it This puzzled Mr. Kronche, for he was telegraphing English. Running his eyes along the tape on his ma chine he picked out the German words, and stringing the together found that, translated into English they read “Come over and see me at 4 o'clock.” It was a messa from, the Hohenzollern. Communication was maintained, between the two steamships for two hours and a half. _ Wirx the constant and rapid increase of impreved m chinery in use on vessels of all kinds, those who get out. annual catalogues and calendars find it no easy task | keep abreast: of the times in clearly defined illustrations | and type descriptive of their manufacture. The Ameri can Ship Windlass Co., of Providence, R. IL. are never excelled in this work. Ever since its establishment, i 1857, this company’s catalogues and circvlars have been an excelent production of the artist’s and printer’s work, while the articles descriptive of their windlasses, capstai towing machines, wharf drops, hawespipe stoppers, et are always carefully, intelligenttly and explicitly compose This company’s catalogue for 1902 is especially attractiv There are between its covers 283 pages, on which are I Windlass Co. manufactures, including those for which th are agents. Each cut is numbered, so that those cont plating ordering from this catalogue have only te refer its number. A careful study of this catalogue, which can be had upon application, will convince anyone that “Providence” machines are designed on strictly mech cal principles, and that their materials and workman are of a superior order, and that they perform with pet fection, the work for which they were designed. Rear Admiral Bowles, Chief of the Bureau of Constr tior. and Repair, was given a hearing by the House Com- mittee on Naval Affairs, February 4, which he devoted en- tirely to a discussion of the advisability of building vessels | for the Navy at Government yards. Admiral Bowles favors the construction at Government yards of very small vessels, although at a greater expense to the Government, in order that the yards may be kept fitted with appliances necessary He does not look with favor upon the construction at government ya74> 01 any of the vessels of the larger types. Only very smé cruisers and gunboats could, he thinks, be advantageot! but at government yrrds. Jn sepport of his contention that it would cost the government for more to built ves- sels at Navy Yards, Admiral Bowles quoted statistics showing that the employes of the government recety 40 per cent higher wages than those at private yar , that they are given seven holidays and fifteen davs’ leay of absence not aliowed emmloyes of private shinhuil concerns. As a result, the Admiral stated, each year the government an immense amount of money, ai recommendel that either the helidays and leave continued or that the yards be entirely shut dow! fifteen days in Jannary so that all the men woul their leave at the s'me time. Ile suid that it wou the government $180,coo to put the New York Nay in order to build ships, and a1 c¢ called attention fact that material and supp‘ies could not be obtainé the government as cheaply as by private concerns. —