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"THE. MARINE REVIEW , 27 MERCHANT MARINE LEAGUE. Today (Thursday) the shipping bill comes up before the committee on merchant marine and fisheries of the house of representatives from which body it is to be reported to the house. Mr. Harvey D. Goulder, president of the Merchant Marine League of the United States, has been in Washington during the past week urging favorable action upon the bill and he is seconded by representatives of the manufacturing and financial interests of the country. At no time in the history of shipping legislation has there been sO unanimous a sentiment in favor of government aid to shipping as now. Mr. Goulder has just sent the following communication to the Journal of Commerce of New York in answer to an editorial which it recently printed: The editorial in your eesteemed issue of the 12th, on the subject of "'Pressure' for the Subsidy Bill," is before me, and. I trust you will. pardon the suggestion that it scarcely conforms to the customary fairness and frankness of your newspaper in dealing with the Merchant Marine League of the United States. I can scarcely believe that, even under the apprehension you seem to feel over the possible passagé of the shipping bill, you would intentionally misstate mat- ters regarding the league and its work. Relying, therefore, upon your disposition to be fair'and just, may I ask what justification you have for asserting that the league "has been engaged for months in the attempt to manufacture public opinion in favor of ship subsidies,' and how you happen to know that we are "recognizing that there was none of that commodity in stock'? And as to our "literature" which you characterize as "enticing and delusive," will you not be more specific as to the latter epithet? In the first place, we realize that there is a very general and widespread demand for an American merchant marine, and it is scarcely conceivable that a journal of your own perspicacity, so keenly looking for every manifestation of this kind, should have failed to find an abundance of it. This league is not engaging in the manufacture of any sentiment, but it is diligently at work securing an expression of such sentiment as does exist. There being so much of it, naturally it keeps us very busy, and the literature that we are dis- tributing is largely composed of giving wider publicity to such expressions, and in correcting the very many, and in, a number of cases indefensible, misstatements that are pub- lished in the opposition press. If there is so little "fructification" resulting from the ef- forts of the friends of American shipping, why such mani- festation of fright on the part of the opposition? Since you seem to be so well informed as to where the "envoys of the subsidy hunters are converging" possibly you are equally as well informed as to where the enemies of subsidies are converging? Who they are, what they repre- sent, and what they are doing, if you would tell--if you know--would be extremely interesting. Even our league might be disposed to reproduce, and widely distribute, a fair exposure of the men, whom they represent, and what they. are doing, who are opposing the shipping bill, if you will with perfect candor tell all that you know on that point. We therefore urge in fairness that you give as much publicity to the efforts of the enemies, and make plain who they are, that are opposing the bill. We have previously informed you, and we now reiterate, that the work of the Merchant Marine League is a wholly patriotic work, that it is a public-spirited work, and that, so far as the officers and a large majority of the members of the league are concerned, it is an unselfish work, as they have no financial or personal interest in the success or failure of the bill. : We are doing our work openly, publicly, honestly, and we say to you in all sincerity and honesty that it does not emanate from the ship building and ship owning interest in this country. On the contrary, it arises in precisely the manner that we have above explained. Since you have so grossly and unjustly misstated our position, therefore, we trust that you will with a fair degree of conspicuousness, give publicity to this letter. In conclusion we beg to ask if you are aware that the for- eign shipping interests, so well and ably represented in this country, so dominant in our foreign carrying, and so conspic- uous as advertisers in the columns of your esteemed news- paper, are manifesting any interest whatever in the outcome of this pending shipping bill? Do you know that they, or any of them, are opposing it, or inciting opposition to it? If you do not know, are you in the way of finding out, and will you, and give publicity to your findings? And if you will not do that, will you state whether it is or is not. your opinion that they--the foreign shipping interests in this country, and their representatives and friends--would -- like to see this bill, which seeks to build up an American merchant marine in the foreign trade, defeated? Speaking solely for the league, we desire to utterly and absolutely deny this statement in your editorial: "As usual there is no organization working to make the pressure of those felt who will have to foot the bills and will have no share in the benefits." The league, as we say,.is working patriotically and un- selfishly for the promotion of American shipping, and it is footing all its own bills. Moreover, we have never received a dollar's contribution to our work save that realized from membership dues, and that contributed by a group of people in this city of Cleveland not one of whom has a dollar's personal interest in any of the existing or prospective ships that would benefit by the passage of the shipping bill. Harvey D, Goutper, President. A SEA CAPTAIN INVENTOR. Capt. R. T. Lawless, of the Oceanic Steamship Mariposa, who recently patented a stellar compass that has attained to some prominence among ships of the navy and in the merchant marine, has also invented a planisphere. For the past two years Capt. Lawless has been studying over this latest device, and only since arriving at San Francisco on his last trip from Tahiti, has he completed his work. The planisphere is intended for the use of navigators only, and shows how to locate the stars for meridian altitude or longi- 'tude. Like his former invention, the stellar compass, the planisphere promises to be not only a valuable guide to navigators, but a source of some profit to Capt. Lawless. PERSONAL. In uniformity with an understanding with the president of the American bureau of shipping, Mr. E. Platt Stratton desires to give notice that his services as.the chief engineer surveyor of the bureau will terminate July 1 next. Capt. Cyrus H. Sinclair has returned from a trip to eastern cities where he exhibited his model of the new Brown automatic indicator which registers on a dial in the pilot house every movement of the throttle in the engine room. This device will be installed on a number of lake steamers. Mr. E. L. McAllaster and Mr. Samuel Bennett announce that they have formed a partnership for the more efficient handling of their business under the firm name of McAllaster & Bennett. They are consulting and constructing engineers and naval architects with offices at 503-504 Pioneer building, Seattle, Wash. The keel for the new six-masted wooden schooner has been laid in the yard of Percy & Small, Bath, Me.