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"lines, via the Straits of Magellan and our Atlantic seaports? It must have been obvious to you, as.it is to Chil- ians and to Americans 'attempting to do business with them, of :a_ stable and increasing and prosperous char- that, and especially lacking direct steam- acter, under present conditions, ship lines of communication, nothing in the way of larger trade relations 'is possible? when reached that In progressive Peru, 'you country, unquestionably you learned that arrangements have just- been made by its government to subsidize a Peruvian steamship line between Peruvian ports and Panama, in order to increase the trade between Peru and the United States. The offi- cials and the people of Peru must have emphasize their found 'occasion 'to need of better steamship communica- tion, their despair of the United States . doing anything, and their own at- "tempts to accomplish that which we é They very likely told you how much they seem to be unwilling to do. would like to see an American line of fine, large, swift steamships running regularly between American and Peruvian ports, and the many efforts they have made to induce our govern;, the inducements to American steamship owners necessary to enable them to establish such a ment to offer line of steamships as their present and prospective trade will justify? We do not doubt but that the files of. your great department contain many communications from the vari- ous republics of South and Central America, suggesting that our govern- aid sufficient in establishing ment extend its to American steamships in number to justify their owners direct, regular and frequent service between our country and theirs. We would very respectfully refer you to the files of your department and to the records therein of the pro- ceedings of the Pan American Con- gress held in this country in 1889 and 1890, which congress or conference was participated in by all of the re- publics of this hemisphere. For your immediate information we quote from their report of the committee on Com- munication with the Atlantic: TAE MARINE REVIEW First: The committee 6n Communicatiin on the Atlantic resolves to recommend to the respective governments the aiding of 'one or more lines of steam navigation between ports of the United States and those of Brazil and' Rio| de la Plata. Succeeding articles read as follows: Second. The companies receiving government aid should establish a fast bi-monthly service of steam navigation between the ports of the United States, Rio Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, and the vessels shall have ac- commodations 'and capacity. necessary for the transportation of freight and passengers, and shall carry the mails. The fourth article provides that the speed of fast steamships shall be 'at least 16 knots 'an hour, and that the vessels shall be of not less than 5,000 tons. _ The fifth article provided for the es- tablishment of ("auxiliary lines" of freight steamships, to sail twice a month, to be of not less than 12 knots - an hour, each country (the United States and Brazil) to each of the amounts paid to these ves- sels" in the way of subsidies. The eleventh article proposes to ap- portion the proportionate amounts of the subsidies between the several gov- ernments participating on the following The United States, 60 per cent; 17% per cent, and Uruguay five per cent, in basis :. Brazil, 1714 per cent; Argentina, the case of regular, swift lines running to all of the several countries. 'We quote the twelfth article, in full, as follows: TWELFTH. THE CONTRACTING STATES SHALL ACCEPT ONLY VESSELS CONSTRUCTED IN THE UNITED STATES, IN CONSIDERATION OF THE HIGHER AID PAID BY THAT GOVERN- MENT, 3 As the files of your office will show, these recommendations were officially of unani- favored by the representatives six- republics, who their Those republics were: Nicaragua, Peru, Costa'. Rica; United States, Chili, Guatemala, Argentine, Co- Bolivia, teen American mously*' voted | for adoption. Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Honduras, Venezuela, Salvador and Ecuador. The official files of your department will also show that a similar recom- mendation was made by the committee which submitted the report munication on the Pacific, in winiek the lumbia, on sim of 30 cents per gross registered ton per thousand miles sailed should be paid by the participating countries to a steamship line of vessels of "not less than 4,000 gross tons register, and with 3,500 I. H. P. engines. od: There was still another report "ot "pay one-half. Com-. _ 21 that great. Pan American conference, that w fourteen republics, on March 21; 1890, also to be. found: in the official files We refer to the report of the committee on Communi- cation on the Gulf of Mexico and the was unanimously 'adopted by of your department, Caribbean sea, the last paragraph of which reads as follows: In view of the proximity of. all the ports of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, the advantages that would accrue from increased social, commercial and international intercourse, their dependence upon proper communication, THE IMPROBABILITY THAT THIS WILL BE ESTAB- LISHED, BY UNAIDED PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, the duty of the governments to promote public welfare, the small public expenditures required to secure adequate mail, passenger and freight facilities, and the necessity for their control by the countries whose interests they should subserve, the International American Conference recommends to all the nations bordering upon these waters the granting of government aid in the establishment of first-class oe service between their several ports upon suc terms as they may mutually agree with ref- erence (a) to the service required, (b) the aid it 18 necessary to extend, (c) the facilities it will severally afford them, (d) the basis upon which 'they are to contribute, (e) the amount that each is to pay, (f) the forms of agreement between the several governments, and the nature of 'the contracts with steamship companies' nec- essary to the sucessful execution of a general plan for such service. - The Pan American Conference held in Mexico a few years ago reiterated in explicit terms the views. of. the countries concerned in the develop- ment of more frequent, direct, regular swift steamship 'communication between themselves and the United States. While the official reports of the Pan American Conference held in and Brazil, this year, and in which it was your good fortune to participate, are not "before us, from what we have seen in the press we are satisfied that the views so long entertained, em- phasized as they are by the passage of time and the meagre results of the furtive and unsatisfactory} steamship service between the United States and a few of the Latin-American repub- lics, were in line with previous ex- pressions at other Pan American con- ferences. We have to the south of us a popu- lation. of between 60,000,000 and 7o,- 000,000 people, soils marvelously PIO ductive, rich in natural products, their people and buying from European countries, many of the arti- cles which we could as cheaply and as requiring, well furnish them, «which peoples at the present time conduct a foreign com- merce valued at between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 annually, in which the United States participates to the extent of about