The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

28 . THE MarRINeE REVIEW WHY A YOUNG MAN SHOULD ENLIST IN THE NAVY. ADMIRAL DEWEY IN POPULAR MECHANICS. It gives me much pleasure to comply with your request for my views on this subject. Jt is very near my heart, for it is upon the young men of the country that we must depend for the defense of our country's honor on the sea, and when the advantages of enlistment are better known, there should be no lack of applicants for positions in our. naval service. The naval career offers many advantages-to a young man, but primarily he should have a taste for the sea, and then, in order to rise, in this career as in all others, he must ap- ply himself diligently to acquiring all the details of a life full of interesting features. The navy needs active, intelli- gent young men, and to those who will devote themselves to learning their profession every encouragement is held out. Enlisting at seventeen years of age the recruit at once be- comes self-supporting; he is supplied with a complete outfit of clothing, and from that time until he dies, provided he remains in the service of the government, he is cared for in sickness or in health; and after thirty years of service if he is still an enlisted man, or upon reaching the age of sixty-two if he holds a commission he may retire and re- ceive for the remainder of his life three-fourths of the sea . pay to which he was entitled at the time of his retirement. The pay at first may seem small, when compared with what a brother may receive in civil life; but the young man should remember that in addition to his pay the government pro- vides him with quarters and food, and that the naval life gives him an opportunity of visiting various parts of the world. This last consideration alone must: counterbalance much that comes to a man in civil life, for there is nothing which broadens and educates as does travel. In August last Lieut. Henry B. Soule, United States navy, who entered the service as an enlisted man, wrote a letter which is so much in the line of this subject, "Why a Young Man Should Enlist in the Navy," that I quote the follow- ing: "My personal experience has been that no man who shows the least desire to learn and improve himself in the naval service will ever lack assistance from officers or enlisted men of longer experience. No concern on shore offers more for the intelligence invested than does the navy to the average American boy. As the law stands today, a boy can enter the service at 17 years, reach warrant rank with a salary of from $1,200 to $1,800 a year by the time he is 24 or 25 years of age, secure a commission in the line three years later, and enjoy the rank of full lieutenant at the age of 30. From then on his promotion is just as rapid and he ' will just as surely reach the grade of rear-admiral as any other officer of similar rank. Should a young man lack the ambition or education to reach one of these higher grades (commissioned rank) he can still win out against his brother in 'civil life if he sticks to the service. During the thirty years an enlisted. man is required to serve before retirement, his pay will average $40 per month. He ought to save $30 of that if he is as careful of his earnings'as he would have to be in civil life, and should have $9,000 in the bank, not counting interest, when he is ready to retire at the age of 47, with $40 a month for the remainder of his life. Can you beat that in the factory, in the store, or on the railroad? "But a young man should not be discouraged because he fails to obtain an officer's commission, nor must he expect to win this prize unless he devotes himself honestly to the work of preparation. The examinations are severe and _ rightly so; for the young man who pursues a course at the naval academy has to work hard all of the time in order to obtain his commission, so it is but just that the young man whom we are considering should also have to work for it. A last consideration which I trust will appeal to every Amer- ican, is the patriotic desire of every young man to serve his country. The deeds of naval officers have added many bril- liant names to our country's roll of honor; and when a young man enters the navy he may feel that it is quite pos- sible his own name may some time be added to the list." MERCHANT MARINE LEAGUE. Mr. George J. Seabury published in the New York Journal of Commerce the following excellent communication on the 'shipping bill: "Sir :--It is a great pity that the shipping bill should be im- periled through legislative disagreements or jealousies be- tween the house and the senate. An American merchant ma- rine is today the greatest need of our industrialists, agricul- turists and ship builders; apart from the fact that construc- tive statesmanship should have years ago forced the enact- ment of this great arm of commerce. Not alone is it a na- tional enterprise that has never received protection, but it is a diffusive, non-sectionial prosperity promoter! Oversea ship building will in a few years take a place in the front rank of our. prominent industries. if "We shall be embarrassed in shipping our exports and im- ports more than ever, since last year our volume of trade in- creased over the previous year's record more than. $200,000,- 000. Our national commerce for 1906 will reach $3,000,000,- ooo. We carry in American-built ships less than 5 per cent of this great commence--a most humiliating fact! From current reports, foreign shipping lines are chartering additional vessels to carry American freights. In the event of a foreign war, annually menaced, we would lose millions of dollars per annum on account of not being able to deliver promptly our exports or to forward imports; this latter dis- ability would cripple our home commerce by not being able to secure raw materials. It is a serious problem to contem- plate in either dilemma, and yet we can fairly lay the founda- tions of a merchant marine by commencing to build steam- ships and vessels in 1906. "Tt is a purely national economic necessity either for the protection of our established commerce and developing the forces that will be of incalculable service to our navy, or for war emergencies. Our commerce, however, has the great- est claim for the prompt enactment of a liberal subsidy act. "T hope that Speaker Cannon will waive his prejudices and listen to the patriotic demands and needs of the nation to re- lieve, the situation by our becoming independent. There is not a single sound argument for defeating the senate shipping bill that is worthy of consideration. The creation of oversea ships on even'a broader plan than adopted by the senate will be immensely profitable to American interests, its labor-field, manufactures, raw materials and capital, in permanently es- tablishing this great protective industry. There is no risk in the measure. The enterprise cannot be unsuccessful, since it is an absolute necessity. "Foreign influences are being exerted in every direction; their representatives in and out of congress are influential, resourceful and desperate, and their funds are unlimited. There is in the mere shipping profits alone for carrying our immense and increasing exports and imports more than $35,- 000,000 per annum, so you must believe the statement that if money will defeat an American shipping bill, as it has in the past, foreign influence will again dictate our national shipping policy. Let us believe in the triumph of patriotism, and that the house will enact even a broader subsidy act than passed by the senate. The Northwestern Steamship Co., Seattle, Wash., through John Rosene, its president, has purchased from the Ward Line of New York, the steamers Orizaba, Saratoga and Yucatan. They will be placed on the Alaska run. A ee