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54 ) ca WTA 'DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR _ ASSO- CIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Co. CLEVELAND... a OMPIOANILO) "Séd0aunacoac00008 ..932 Ellicott Sq. (CHEMICANGO) osbcocncdoasous 1362 Monadnock Blk. CINCINNATI .......First National Bank Bldg. NEW YORK ..... .--.-1005 West Street Bldg. PAMPIPQIBIUIEG, so oopacc000 satebreeags ¢ 521 Park Bldg. TOE BEN rerateerseioteres ious ...411 Providence Bldg. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building' and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, U. S. and Mexico, $3.00 per annum. Canada, $4.00. Foreign, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. Change of advertising copy must reach_ this office on Thursday preceding date of publication. The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with the Maring Review through the regular channels of the American 'News Co. | European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C., England. - Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. January 2, 1908. FREE SHIPS FOR THE COAST- ING TRADE. When the filibustering tactics of two or three senators, defeated for re-election and about to sink into ob- scurity, prevented congress from en- Cun ete ocean. mail law, last March, it was fiat this predicted victory of the foreign shipping in- terests would be followed up at the next raid on the United This promptly appears in a bill introduced by John Williams ipp!, the Democratic session by a States coastwise laws. Sharp of Mississ- leader in' the House, providing for free ships in the coastwise United States Hawaii. trade between the and Porto Rico and This is a long step farther trade of the United States. TRE MarRINE REVIEW than recent free ship propositions have gone. These have usually pro- vided only for the free registry of foreign vessels for use in the foreign But Mr. Williams's present proposition would bar out American-built ships from what is essentially domestic commerce. The Williams free ship bill, which. the Democratic leader will doubtless seek to make a thorough-going party measure, is as follows: Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of- the United States of Amer-: ica in congress assembled, That upon the ex- piration of 30 days from and after the passage of this act any American citizen or any cor- poration organized under the laws of any state of the United States shall be permitted to buy and own and to operate under the American flag any ship purchased anywhere or constructed anywhere, whether in the United States or elsewhere, provided said ship is. pur- chased for and operated exclusively in the trade between the mainland of the United States of America and the islands of Porto Rico and Cuba or between the mainland of the United States and Hawaii or the Philip- pines, Japan, and China. This bill is numbered 9,149 house of representatives, and has been _ re- ferred to the committee on the mer- chant marine and fisheries and _ or- dered to be printed. It is a. gratui- tously hostle measure. So far as is known, not one American shipowner has asked for it. The coasting trade Porto. Rico been almost the only advantage which with and Hawaii has American shipping has gained of re- cent years through legislation of This place, congress. legislation has, in the first Porto Rico and Hawaii better communication with than had before, and, in the second place, it has considerable fleet given the mainland they have ever caused the construction of a of first-class pas- senger or freight carrying steamships iieNimemcane yards: lt. has clven millions of dollars of employment to American labor. . Before the coastwise principle was applied to Porto Rico, there were no steamships regularly running between the islands and the United States. Now there are three lines from New York, and one or two regu- larly running from New _ Orleans. The application of the coastwise law to Hawaii has created the great fleet of the American-Hawaii Steam- ship Company, Almerican-built steam- ers every one, and probably the finest fleet of exclusive cargo vessels in Weie LOnekesnta. operation under any flag on this round world. It is true that the Hawaiian people' suffered some inconvenience last summer because of lack of pas- senger, not of freight, facilities be- tween the Pacific coast and Honolulu. One was the grounding and disabling of But this was due to two causes. the two great steamers Manchuria and Mongolia of the Pacific Mail line, and another, and a cause for which Mr. Williams and all of the men of congress voted, his party in was the abandonment of the Oceanic steam- ship. line from San Francisco via Hawaii to Australasia. But the way to give Hawai better communication with the mainland is to build If Mr. Williams and his party friends up and not to tear down. in congress honestly wish to im- prove the transportation facilities be- tween Hawaii and the American main- land, let them follow the recommen- dations of the message of President ocean Roosevelt, and vote for the mail bill, with its provision for the establishment of regular American steamship lines not only to South America but across the Pacific ocean. This free ship bill of Mr. Williams's aims a deadly blow at American labor in favor of the cheap wages of European 'subsidized and bountied dockyards and the coolie labor of A German shipbuilder the other day, visiting one of our Atlantic coast shipyards, found to his surprise that the steel plates, beams and other materials there cost only about-a dollar and a half a ton more than similar materials delivered to his own shipyard at a nominal cost for by the | That is, transportation transportation state railways of Germany. differences considered, there is prac- tically no difference between the cost of steel, This phaie = a difference in the means Eeires 1S") amy cost of American and fore'gn ocean ships it is a dif- ference for which the higher wages of American labor are responsible. And it follows that the only way by which the cost of American ships can be reduced such absolute free trade competition as Mr. Wil- to meet Sih aie: tables eS la lal i lt oll