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22 MARINE REVIEW = DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS. ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Company, CLEVELAND, OHIO. CLEVELAND: WADE BUILDING, CHICAGO: MONADNOCK BUILDING. DETROIT: HAMMOND BUILDING. NEW YORK: 150 NASSAU STREET. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, $3.00 per annum. To Foreign Countries, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses 'changed at will. The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with the MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. APRIL 14, 1904. At last congress has done something tangible for the American merchant marine. The house of representa- tives last week passed the Philippine shipping bill ex- tending the coasting laws to the Philippine islands. It passed, however, with only a few votes to spare. The bill as it passed the senate made the coasting laws oper- ative to the Philippines operative on July 1, 1905, but the house amended it to take effect July 1, 1906, or one year later. The senate promptly agreed to the amendment so that the bill now awaits the president's signature only to become law. The delay of one year is not vital. The really important thing is that con- egress has at last done something for the upbuilding of an American merchant marine. It is the first bill which congress has passed for the encouragement of American shipping since March, 1891, when the pres- ent postal subsidy law was enacted. With this direct pledge of congress that the Philippines shall be in- cluded in the coasting trade, ship building in the United States is bound to be stimulated. Capital will seek investment in that direction immediately, and new steamship lines for the colonies are likely to be estab- lished. The opposition made a great deal out of the argument that there were not vessels enough flying the American flag in existence to care for the oversea trade of the Philippines. There was really little in that argument, but two years hence there will be consider- ably less. Nor need there be any fear that rates will be unduly advanced between the United States and its colonies, which was also one of the bugaboos of the opposition. Such a thing as a trust cannot exist on the ocean. Trusts are influential only when they control natural sources, such as the supply of raw material, or monopolize the right of way; but the raw material out of which ships are made cannot be controlled, and as for the right of way it is the common property of man- kind. Anyone can build a boat and everyone may utilize the ocean, Moreover, wholesome competition among American citizens will not cease so long as dis- crimination does not obtain. If the oversea trade of the Philippines proves attractive there will be an abundance of capital to compete for it and rates will un- doubtedly bear the ordinary relation to the investment that obtains in every business which is free for anyone to enter. The Philippine shipping bill is the one voice that has come out of the wilderness for the past de- cade. It is the voice cf hope and encouragement. The ball has at last got rolling. Senator McComas has introduced a bill in the United States senate to extend the coasting laws to the Panama canal zone, and in an interview in Washington he advocates it along the lines laid down by the Marine REvIEw in its last .issue. Substantially, Senator McComas' proposition is that as congress has passed a law ex- tending the coastwise shipping laws to the Philip- pines, in like manner the American coastwise shipping laws should be extended to the ten-mile Panama canal zone. The bill provides, as in the case of the Philip- pines, that from the ports of the United States to the canal zone of Panama all goods should be shipped in ships of American register. Advocating the bill, Senator McComas says that if the immense freight trade to Panama can be preserved to American ships during the construction of the canal it will undoubt- edly help to start American lines, not only to the isthmus, but to South American ports as well. The bill provides that the laws shall apply only during the time the canal is being constructed and must termi- nate when the two oceans are joined, but the senator believes that by that time the various lines will be well established. During the past few days the MARINE REviIEw has received scores of letters from United States senators and representatives, all of them promising to give the subject of the extension of the coasting laws to Panama consideration, and many of them promising hearty support to the measure. It is urged upon them that they put Senator McComas' bill upon the calendar and pass it at the present session. It is a perfectly legitimate idea and has the merit of eminent practi- cability. It will give immediate encouragement to American shipping. Thousands upon thousands of tons of material will go in a constant stream from American ports to Panama during the next eight years. If the trade is preserved to American vessels it will result in the building of new steamers and will