THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MKASUKO Proud Flag MR. SMITH is an American. Being an American, he is patriotic. Mr. Smith is engaged in a large way in the business of selling American products in...
...The British tonnage has grown up entirely outside of the subsidy...
...On this point we quote Mr...
...All were enthusiastic advocates of the American flag and of ship subsidy...
...The subsidy was the only means suggested to secure it...
...Frank Waterhouse, of Seattle, one of the most prominent ship-owners of the Pacific coast, writes: "As the result of many years experience in the operation of both American and foreign built vessels, I am utterly opposed to the idea of attempting to improve the condition of the American merchant marine by the payment of any form of ship subsidy...
...Henceforth Smith was for a shipping subsidy...
...But Smith did not analyze this proposition...
...How the American traveling abroad seldom was privileged to see the American flag in a foreign port...
...Of these authorities all who refer to the British subsidies are agreed that they have not build up the British merchant marine...
...It would bring many fine ships under the American flag...
...His patriotism was appealed to and aroused...
...It concluded with a plea for a shipping subsidy to rehabilitate the American merchant marine...
...He is an ocean shipper...
...the same into a war vessel...
...You can not build up a merchant marine which is to carry conuw' ,'e, with a view, on twenty-four hours' notice, of con-vertiiu...
...One of our largest ship-owners wanted to build a 7,600-ton dead-cargo steamer...
...The decadence of the merchant marine was something that Mr...
...There are many who contend that the provision of the navigation laws requiring American ships to he built in American yards loses more to the American ship-building industry on repairs of vessels than it benefits them by requiring vessels to be built in American yards...
...C. H. Ellis, a ship-owner and President of the Board of Trade of New Orleans, makes this statement: "Our company owns a large fleet of vessels, operating under the Norwegian, Swedish, German, English, and American flags...
...Smith did not investigate the League, nor learn what interests were behind it, nor by whom it was financed, but he knew the League was for the American flag...
...Their subsidy act was taken so much advantage of that the French Government faces a deficit of $27,-( 000,000, and they will only be too glad when the year 1914 arrives, and with it the end of subsidies...
...Smith was quoted a rate for the transportation of his cargo in an American vessel flying the American flag...
...If we would allow ships to be bought in any market, as other countries do, we would soon have a pretty good American merchant marine...
...One should get Mr...
...And I believe they would buy so many that the repairs would more than compensate our shipyards for any possible loss of business until, under the healthy stimulus of competition, they got into the shipbuilding business as expertly and economically as the British...
...James J. Hill, to many people something of an oracle, says:— "So far as I have investigated this matter, I think no amount of direct bonus will build our merchant marine into any life worth living...
...Says J. E. Thayer, of California: "The subsidies of the English nation do not reach 1 per cent, of her ships...
...In his years of business experience, Mr...
...This and other requirements of our archaic navigation laws are responsible for the fact that there are more American-owned vessels engaged in our foreign commerce under foreign flags than there are sailing with the stars and stripes at the mast-head...
...It told the history of the passing of American supremacy in ocean commerce...
...Soon Smith came to know the "Merchant Marine League" as an organization devoting itself to educating the public on the decadence of American shipping and to the creation of sentiment in favor of a shipping subsidy,—a patriotic organization...
...One day Smith was waited upon in his office by shipping brokers with bids and rates for the transportation of an export cargo...
...And, gentlemen, remember this: It takes more men to work a ship and handle her freight than it does to build her...
...In his office Smith is a business man...
...Kustermann's speech on the rebuilding of the American merchant marine without subsidies, and study the arguments and facts presented by practical men of affairs on the decadence of the merchant marine, and what to do about it, and what not to do about it,—especially not to subsidize...
...The shipping subsidy movement recognizes that it is necessary for somebody to pay more for transportation of ocean commerce under the American flag than under foreign flags...
...It recognizes that the shipper, the business man, can not assume this burden, because if he did he would be put out of business by his competitors shipping under foreign flags...
...This plan has been tried by many other nations, and, so far as I am aware, has proved a failure in every instance...
...The unheard of happened...
...He has to be...
...Her advent at the home port provides work, generally speaking, for the pilot, the towboat company, the watchmen, the stevedores, the freight clerk, the teamsters and commission men, and for the shipwrights, riggers, and calkers, for sail, block, and spar makers, for machinery men and boiler-shop, and often ship railways and drydocks, and she comes to her home port every time her owners can get a return freight...
...Moreover, in this he was true to the principles of ship subsidy...
...The style of the pamphlet was attractive...
...If there is any class of citizens more conscious of their Americanism and of their patriotism than another, it is possibly those who are constantly engaged in intercourse with foreign people and with foreign nations, so Mr...
...it we are to have subsidy for that purpose, then we must have a lot of boats of a distinct type, that will not be of any commercial value...
...There are at least 20 British ships in the port of San Francisco, all owned here...
...Smith so much until one day he received in his mail a pamphlet which delineated in featured style the decadence of the American merchant marine...
...Uniformly these men are against subsidy...
...Because of the American tariff on shipbuilding material, because of the high cost of living in this country and the higher wages which must be paid, the cost of building ships in American ship-yards is from one-third more to twice as much as the cost of building like ships in foreign ship-yards...
...Smith has been impressed frequently and forcibly with the fact that about 90 per cent, of all his shipments to foreign countries are carried in foreign vessels flying foreign flags...
...Frank M. Todd, of San Francisco: "Gentlemen, I am for the free and unlimited naturalization of ships...
...The cost of operating them under American laws, as compared with those of other countries, compelled us to run many vessels under foreign flags...
...Smith is engaged in a large way in the business of selling American products in foreign countries...
...Hence the American ship-owner who would sail his vessel under the American flag must assume at the outside a fixed charge for interest and depreciation which would put him out of business before he is in...
...Smith knew very well from his own experience...
...of American exports are carried abroad under foreign flags, and many other things which Smith knew, more or less, of his own knowledge...
...They have American masters and officers in command...
...To be sure, it did not explain just how a shipping subsidy would achieve this desirable end...
...He could not afford to pay a higher rate merely to have his cargo carried under the American flag...
...The principal reason why our foreign commerce can not be carried under the American flag is found in that provision inserted in our navigation laws for the benefit of the American ship-building industry, requiring that all vessels privileged to carry the American flag in foreign commerce must be built in American ship-yards...
...C. Morton Stewart, Jr., of Baltimore, disposes of the excuses of a subsidy for naval transport purposes, as follows: "If I would be allowed to purchase a vessel in England and sail her under the American flag, I will agree to do so and sail her within sixty days...
...It appealed to his patriotism, and as a patriot he was for it...
...Uniformly they are convinced that a subsidy would not restore an American merchant marine...
...We have 9 ships under the American flag, 60 nnder the Norwegian, 12 under the German flag, and 8 under the English flag...
...Their solution of the problem is to tax the people and have the government pay the difference...
...Smith is especially patriotic...
...They could be changed so as to restore the American flag to the high seas without the payment of subsidies...
...Every time she comes into port she has to be overhauled...
...Henceforth, too, Smith noticed that most of his daily papers and a number of his magazines contained articles very much like the pamphlet he had read, sometimes going into more detail on the decadence of American shipping, but always appealing for a .subsidy...
...They let a contract for a 6,000-ton cargo steamer on the Wear a few weeks ago for $26.75 a ton, and I say if our ship owners could get vessels that cheap they could probably go into the foreign carrying trade and hold their own in it...
...To Congressman Kustermann, of Wisconsin, is due a generous meed of credit for gathering a large volume of information and opinion from men in all parts of the country engaged in a practical way in foreign shipping, upon the decadence of American shipping and what to do about it...
...But also he was quoted a rate in a foreign vessel flying a foreign flag...
...Why not change our navigation laws, you ask...
...He was asked $416,000 by eastern shipbuilders, and decided to have it built in Scotland for $200,000...
...W. G. Sickel, of the International Mercantile Marine, writes: "A great subsidy enthusiast lately refused to pay for a full cargo to Liverpool a 16-cent rate in American bottoms when a' British ship offered a 16-cent rate...
...He shipped in the foreign vessel...
...The rate on the foreign vessel was a trifle lower...
...How 90 per cent, (or was it 99 per cent...
...James Ralph, of San Francisco, is quoted: "Why deny American owners of over $100,000,000 invested in foreign tonnage the opportunity of placing them under the American flag...
...The owners would, I am certain, register them from the port of San Francisco tomorrow if our laws would not prevent them from doing it...
...It has seemed to him indeed seldom that shipping brokers, to whom Smith is known only as a careful, hard-headed business man, have quoted him rates for the transportation of his ocean trade on any but these foreign vessels...
...They like to see their property, and, though repairs may be cheaper abroad, they want them made where they can oversee the job and know what they are getting...
...Uniformly they contend that the navigation laws should be changed and that if changed so as to enable American vessels to compete with foreign vessels in the carrying of trade, the American merchant marine and the American flag would become conspicuous in ocean commerce...
...This matter had not worried Mr...
...He wanted an American merchant marine...
...Ernst Laidlow, of Portland, states: "The French Government is paying a subsidy for the number of miles traveled...
...The subject interested Smith and he read it...
...When a ship is launched then only begins her expense account...
...Well, why not...
...John F. Crowell, expert in the Bureau of Statistics, writes: "Subsidy has failed in most cases to produce desired results, because it undermines independent enterprise by its very dependence upon the Public Treasury...
...We quote here short excerpts from the printed opinions and arguments of a few of these men...
...Afterward he came to know and to read certain publications devoted to this patriotic cause,—the "American Flag," "Our Flag," and the "Stars and Stripes...
...No subsidy that our Congress would ever agree to pay could equalize the difference in the cost of construction and operation under the American flag and make American vessels a profitable investment...
Vol. 2 • January 1910 • No. 4
