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should not be entitled to receive mail con- tracts. This is too broad and too sudden. Be- fore any such legislation is enacted the whole subject should be carefully studied. Each case in the meantime should be decided on its mer- its. The law is clear now and rightly so that no company can place any ship built abroad after a certain date, now long since passed, in a service calling for mail pay. This inev- itably means new ships built in the United States. It would be unfair to penalize an American company in every way loyal to the country be- cause it had in its fleet certain foreign flag vessels acquired before the present law became effective. In this instance the stand taken by Postmaster General Walter F. Brown in a re- cent address in New York would seem to best serve the immediate interests of the American merchant marine. He said in part: “To dis- qualify these companies from receiving ocean mail contracts would not, it seems to me, give them a sufficient inducement to build American flag ships. It would seem that for the present we ought to be just as willing to have an American company replace a foreign flag ves- sel with an American ship as to have such a company operating only American ships build an additional vessel. Perhaps the time will come when the government can safely require its ocean mail contractors to operate exclusive- ly under our flag. But it is the hope of the post office department that until we have pro- gressed much further on the road to an ade- quate merchant fleet, congress will not insist upon any such restriction.” Keep Shipbuilding at Home LARGE American oil company recently A placed an order for nine large oil car- rying vessels in.German and Italian shipyards. In addition there are at least seven other tankers building abroad for American companies. The National Council of American Shipbuilders in reviewing the reasons for plac- ing so large an order in foreign yards points. out that these 16 tankers if built in the United States would cost approximately $34,500,000 and would give employment to 18,400 men for one year. Only one third of the available ways in the United States are now occupied. The contracts in Germany and Italy it is re- ported were placed at about $77.00 and $66.00 a deadweight ton respectively, while in the United States the same vessels would cost not less than $135.00 a deadweight ton. A very interesting comparison is also shown between 20 MARINE REVIEW—January, 1931 wages and staple food prices abroad and in the United States. This shows that wages in the United States are double those in Great Britain; triple those in Germany and three and one-half times those in Italy; while relative food costs of weekly rations using United States as unity is, Great Britain 0.74; Germany 0.81 and Italy 0.85. The statement then suggests that our ship- ping policy be so shaped that American com- panies can afford to build their cargo carrying vessels for foreign trade here. The cost is about 50 per cent greater than in Great Britain. Since we have not hesitated to provide protection of even more than 50 per cent for the development of many of our internal industries, why not pro- vide similar protection for shipbuilding as it is a factor in the promotion of the welfare of all of our industries through the creation and building up of our foreign markets. A Hundred Years of Service HE Hydrographic office of the navy has T compicted 100 years of invaluable service to navigation. During this long period the work done by this office has saved thou- sands of lives and untold millions of property. Without it, moreover, the progress of civili- zation, as measured by safer and faster lines of communication between distant parts of the world and: the unfolding of knowledge by exploration, would have been comparatively slow and hesitant. The office had its beginning on Dec. 6, 1830, when a depot was established in Washington by the navy department for the care and issue of the charts and navigational instruments fur- nished United States naval vessels. Its mis- sion, not perhaps so clearly understood when it was founded, but now thoroughly establish- ed, is to collect, digest and issue timely infor- mation to afford maximum navigational safety and facility to ships on the seas and to air craft operating over sea routes. In the build- ing up of this vast store of information and scientific knowledge the Hydrographic office has had the active co-operation of the navies, merchant marine, aviation, steamship inter- ests and scientific institutions throughout the world. In its work there are no boundary lines of nations and no rank except intelligence. Uni- versal and open to all are the benefits of its accumulated information. The Hydrographi¢ office might be said to typify in its highest form the unselfish pursuit of knowledge for the good — of all mankind.