ECONOMIC SOCIAL 135 



whole tonnage of the United States. 1 Truly 

 our ancestors were right when they claimed 

 the sea as their heritage. 



The romance of the sailor's life has 

 passed, never to return. The use of steam 

 as a motive power, the control given by the 

 telegraph and the employment of iron as a 

 building material, while highly utilitarian, 

 have made the sailor part of a mere ma- 

 chine and stripped him of all initiative. 

 That most beautiful product of the archi- 

 tect's skill, a full-rigged ship, has been re- 

 placed by the ugly tramp steamer. The 

 many-masted, barge-like coaster has taken 

 the place of the beautifully proportioned 

 schooner, except as it survives in the fishing 

 fleet, and few native-born Americans man 

 our vessels. 



But with the decay of our marine has 

 come no loss of material prosperity. Our 

 country stands as of old in the front rank, 

 and though our triumphs have shifted from 

 the sea to the land, the men to whom they 

 1 Pitkin. 



