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Pm FR EON UE ---- -- ~ according to the distances carried, upon the cargo, has led to the unfortunate result: An immense number of French ships were built on account of the subsidy; they cut rates so. low as to practically drive other ships out of business, but the French ship owners, now that the end of the subsidy period is ap- -proaching, have already asked the large ship operating firms on the continent to join them in the maintenance Of a* scale which is at least as high or higher than that which existed ~ prior to the time their subsidy went into effect. If this sub- - sidy had provided for the same total amount to be paid in a period of twenty years instead of five years, the benefit might have been obtained without the evil consequences. "We believe, also, that the subsidy should give full consid- eration to the distance the cargoes are carried. The cargoes to and from the Pacific coast are carried more than twice the distance that the cargoes originating on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are. It is also true, that for a long time, the commerce of the Pacific will be carried in freight boats, that steam frotn twelve to sixteen knots per hour. A subsidy to swift-going mail steamers would be of little benefit to us. The conclusions of the writer are that a subsidy to ships built 'in the American yards, paying a stated amount per ton of freight carried, increasing with the distance carried, regardless of the speed or size of the boat and extending over a long period of years applying to sailing vessels as 'well as steam- ships, and if the subsidy is in the shape-of a mail contract, the speed required to not exceed sixteen or seventeen knots per hour. would be of greatest benefit to the present and prospective commerce of the Pacific ocean." ADDRESS OF LOUIS W. PRATT. 'Louis W. Pratt, editor of the Tacoma Daily Ledger, spoke as follows: - "After the exhaustive review of Tacoma's commerce that has been presented by Mr. Whitehouse, it is unnecessary for me to touch upon any of the points he has covered. I shall endeavor, therefore, to avoid any repetition of what he has said in regard to the ocean traffic of this port. You have perhaps noticed in this morning's Ledger some official figures, which show that Tacoma handles a larger share of the foreign trade of the Pacific coast than any other port except San Francisco. Tacoma's foreign trade for ten years from July I, 1893, to June 30, 1904, amounted in value to $121,652,289. This is exclusive of foreign merchandise to the value of many millions more which was brought to this port and transported in bond to interior ports, and credited as imports to those cities in the official customs reports. During the same period the total foreign trade of Portland amounted to $105,599,572, and that of Seattle to $84,911,055. You have visited our water front today and seen for yourselves the splendid facilities Tacoma possesses for handling ocean traffic, and are not sur- prised that this port is already the second seaport in importance on the Pacific coast. You saw this morning lying end to end at the warehouses a steamship from San Francisco, the Queen; next.to her the Ramses, just arrived from Hamburg, after circling the continent of South America; next the Sten- tor, of the Blue Funnel Line, which operates between Tacoma and Liverpool by way of the Orient, Suez canal and Mediter- ranean route, and you went aboard the giant Tremont, an American-built steamship, which brought to Tacoma yester- day on her sixth return trip from the Orient and Manila a cargo of many thousand tons of foreign merchandise. These are representative vessels of some of the lines that are now regularly engaged in ocean commerce from this port. "It may interest you to learn that during the year ending June 30, 1903, Puget Sound was the sixth district in the United States in the tonnage of American and foreign ves- sels entered and cleared. The leading districts in the tonnage engaged in the foreign trade were New York, Boston, Phila- delphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Puget Sound, San Fran- Rf VOU Uh cisco, Galveston, Portland, Me., and Pensacola, Fla. In ten -years from 1894 to 1903 inclusive the Puget Sound district rose from twenty-first in the magnitude of its foreign com- 'merce to ninth among the customs districts of the United States. "You are here to investigate the facts regarding our ocean commerce and to report what, if anything, can be done to increase the American merchant marine. The fact is that a larger share of Tacoma's foreign trade is now handled in American vessels than at most of the leading ports. But Ta- coma sends out hundreds of cargoes of wheat and lumber in sailing vessels every year and in the foreign branch of this trade there are few vessels of American register. It is a fact that within the last three years two or three "windjam- mers" have been built on the Puyallup river flats in this city and have taken lumber cargoes from this port on their maiden voyage." "How recently?" inquired one of the commission. "T do not think any vessel of this description has been built at Tacoma for at least eighteen months. Since that time several wooden steamboats have been built here to enter the coastwise trade, such as the Jefferson, which just made her first trip to Alaska. But some sailing vessels have been built here within three years and one of them, the T. P. Emigh, took a cargo of lumber from the St. Paul mill to Australia on her maiden voyagé in February, 1903, seventeen months ago. I do not know what to suggest as an encouragement to Amer- ican wooden ship building in the sailing class. Years ago they sailed all over the world under the American flag, and the day of the sailing vessel has not passed yet, as one may be sure from the evidences that are presented here. I have counted fifteen sailing vessels loading lumber at one time at the Tacoma company's mill, and as many more grain carriers at anchor at once in our harbor. "The question is, what can be done to increase the share carried in American bottoms? I can make one suggestion with entire confidence. We have a line of American steam- ships operating to the Orient and Manila. It secured through competition, more than a year ago, a contract for carrying government troops and supplies. Two of its vessels were remodeled at large expense to accommodate a regiment of troops. I have yet to learn that the government has ever sent a single company of soldiers by this line that holds the contract. It employs its own transports to carry freight and troops and the American merchant marine established between Tacoma and Manila gets little of the government patronage over the route. If the government is to give subsidies, why not give an American line its patronage instead of competing with it? The transport Dix came here last year to carry at least three cargoes of lumber to Manila. These cargoes might have been shipped by the line holding the government contract. "J think also that the government should extend the coast- wise laws to the Philippines and reduce still further the duties at both ends of the line. The coastwise laws will be extended to the Philippines July 1, 1906, and this is right, but it should come earlier. We are developing a good trade with Manila. Since November last the Boston Steamship Co. is bringing to Tacoma large cargoes of hemp. The Lyra brought the first cargo of hemp to cross the Pacific. Formerly it all went to Boston or New York in foreign ships through the Suez canal. The monopoly of the Philippine trade ought to help our American ships to pick up more trade in the Orient beyond," Gov. Blanchard of Louisiana has selected Miss Juanita Lolland of New Orleans to christen the battleship Louisiana which will be launched at the yard of the Newport News Co. Newport News, Va., on Aug. 27.