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DEVOTED EO: EVERVTHING AND EVERY _ INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED - WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Co. CLEVELAND. | | NEW YORK . - DULUTH PHILADELPHIA _CHICAGO PITTSBURG | CINCINNATI : 'BOSTON oe Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship. Building and Sappine ae iyeees Solicited. pitwentyean: $3.00 per annum. To Foreign: Countries. $4.50. - Bubpop ers can paye addresses changed at will. hen of. tiv aritaing copy ymin seach this office on pS orer Aunt date of publication. The 'Dlewclana:, News Co. will' gupply the trade with the MARINE REVIEW through the regu- dar shepnels of oe American 'News Co. . Burepeae: Agents, 'The' 'hternational ewe ne », pany, Breams Building, Chancer Haney; to 'London, E. Cc. eae land, Bee A Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class winblie JULY 5, 1906. VICTORY IS IN SIGHT. Although the first session of the 59th congress has passed into history without having among its list of "things accom- plished" the enactment of the shipping bill, bill is one that justifies the most em- nevertheless, the situation of that phatic statement that its passage through the house of representatives early in the coming short session, and its final enactment, may be looked for before the Christmas holidays. Of course, on the 5th of July the Christmas holidays look a long way off, and they are. Just a little more than two years ago the congressional Merchant Marine Com- mission, composed of five senators and five representatives, who had been ap- pointed in deference to President Roose- velt's urgent suggestion, began its pub- lic hearings on the subject of the mer- chant marine of the United States. It held public hearings in many of the lead- Gulf and lake ports, receiving information and sugges- ing Atlantic, Pacific, Tae Marine REVIEW tions from as many citizens.as could be persuaded to appear before them--all as to how our shipping in the foreign trade could best be restored. The record of those hearings, and the report of that commission, occupy about 2,000 pages. They were presented to congress in Jan- uary of 1905, too late for action in the closing days of the 58th congress, al- though the bill which the commission drafted, for the purpose of carrying into effect their recommendations, had been promptly and favorably reported to both the senate and house of representatives ' by the committee on commerce and the committee on merchant marine and fish- eries, respectively. The bill was promptly reintroduced at the opening of the: first session of the soth cofigress, just closed. - The com- mission had been. continued during the interim by special act of congress, and it made,a new. report at the opening of the recent session, but with little or no change in 'the bill as originally presented. It. may be well, at. this' time, to ee sketch: the main features of the. bill, the form in which it passed the senate on February 14, 1906. Senate bill, No. 529 provides: 1. A volunteer naval reserve of 10,000 of- ficers and men of the merchant marine and fisheries, trained in gunnery, etc., subject to the call of the president in war, and~receiving retainer bounties as 33,500 British naval re- serve men do. 2. Subventions at the rate of five dollars a gross ton a year to all cargo vessels in the foreign trade of the United States, and to craft . of the deep sea fisheries, and $6.50 a ton to vessels engaged in our Philippine commerce-- the Philippine coastwise law being postponed till 1909. But these cargo vessels in order to re- ceive subventions must be held at the disposal of the government in war, must 'convey the mails free of charge, be seaworthy and efficient, carry a certain proportion of Americans and naval reserve men in their crews, and make all ordinary repairs in the United States. Ships lose their subventions if they leave our trade for that of foreign countries, or if, like the Standard Oil craft, they are not engaged ex- clusively as common carriers. 3. Subventions *to new mail lines from the Atlantic coast to Brazil, Argentina and South Africa; from the south 'Atlantic coast to Cuba; from the Gulf coast to Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Central America and the Isthmus of Panama; from the Pacific coast via Hawaii to Japan, China and the Philippines, and to Mexico, Central America and the Isthmus of Panama and from the north Pacific coast direct to Japan, China and, the Philippines with *increased compensa- tion. to one existing contract line from the Pacific coast via Hawaii and Samoa to Aus- tralasia, All ships receiving subventions must be al- ready American by register or American-built-- thus excluding the foreign-built fleet of the At- lantic Steamship Combination. Not one dollar is given to fast passenger and mail: lines to Europe. Ships constructed for foreign com- merce to receive these subventions can under the Dingley tariff be built, equipped and re- paired of materials imported free of duty. The maximum annual cost: of the proposed mail subventions will' be about $3,000,000; of the other subventions and retainers to the naval reserve, from $1,550,000 in 1907, to $5,700,000 in 1916, If tonnage taxes are increased, as originally proposed, the legislation will cost nothing the first year, but turn $616,000 into the treasury, and the annual average net cost for ten years, with the building of new ships, will be $4,625,000. enactment of this measure. Great Britain next year will pay $6,000, 000 or $7,000,000 in shipping subsidies, France $8,000, 000, Italy $3,000,000, and Japan about $4,000,000. ; This bill now rests in the committee on merchant marine and fisheries, of the house of representatives. SS The bill has been carefully studied by President Roosevelt, who has, to a large and representative delegation of the League members, stated that it is a skillfully drawn bill, a desirable bill, and one that he is doing his utmost to have passed. The Merchant Marine League of the United States, assembling of the 59th congress, had been long antedating the hard at work in bringing to the atten- tion of the people, through the press and through commer¢ial, financial, industrial and labor organizations, and directly to the sentatives in congress, the need of, and the benefits that would result from, the The result Merchant Marine attention of senators and repre- of the work of the League has been to convince that portion of the American press that is not im- placably hostile to any form of: protec- tive legislation that the measure is mod- erate and meritorious, and that it would be effective in restoring a large and ef- _ ficient American merchant marine to the foreign carrying trade. The hostile press comments are, nowadays, few and far be- tween, and are almost wholly confined to Besides this, the leading commercial organizations of the free trade newspapers. country have, in somé cases several times, specifically indorsed the shipping bill, and asked for its enactment at the hands of includ- congress. Other organizations, ing financial, industrial and labor asso- ciations have done likewise. . These in- dorsements are by national, state and local organizations, and they come from the west and the east, showing that the demand for this the south, the north, legislation is wholly national, non-sec- tional and widespread. In addition to this, largely as a result of the work of the League, influential individuals, in dif- ferent parts of thd country, have per- sonally brought the subject directly to the attention of their senators and rep- resentatives. The League will address itself, in the remaining five months, to further efforts along the educational lines in which it has been so active, so that, when the sec- ond (the short) session of the 59th con-