EXTENSION OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE SS^ 



marvelous. In the memory of living men it used to cost 331/^ cents a 

 bushel to bring wheat from Duluth to Philadelphia. Last fall it was 

 brought over the same route for 6I/2 cents a bushel. Grain has been 

 moved from Duluth to Buffalo for 1 cent a bushel, and coal and iron 

 between Superior and the lower Lake ports for 40 cents to 50 cents a 

 ton. There is no reason to doubt that what these freighters have ac- 

 complished in lake transportation, and what a great Detroit manufac- 

 turer has done in automobile constrnction may be, to a great extent 

 at least, duplicated in ocean transportation. Standardization is the 

 secret, but standardization is only effective when it can be applied on a 

 large scale, and what opening, it may be asked, is there for it when, 

 as at present, there is jjractically nothing to standardize ? 



This brings me to a discussion of some of the remedies which have 

 been suggested by individuals or organizations interested in the subject. 

 Among these suggestions are the removal of duty on materials entering 

 into the construction of vessels; the admission to x\merican registry of 

 foreign-built vessels; subsidies; and various modifications of the navi- 

 gation laws. It is perfectly evident that, as President Wilson said in 

 his last message to Congress, " To correct the many mistakes by which 

 we have discouraged and all but destroyed the merchant marine of the 

 country, to retrace the steps by which we have, it seems almost deliber- 

 ately, withdrawn our flags from the seas, except where here and there 

 a ship of war is bidden carry it or some wandering yacht displays it, 

 would take a long time and involve many detailed items of legislation, 

 and the trade which we ought immediately to handle would disappear 

 or find other channels while we debated the items." American ship- 

 builders are already handicapped by the higher cost of materials and 

 higher wage scale which they have to meet, and to admit foreign-built 

 vessels to American registry as a regular and permanent thing would 

 probably be a fatal blow to the ship-building industry. The admission 

 of ship-building materials free of duty would be wholly inadequate to 

 meet the situation. Many people have argued for many years in favor 

 of subsidies, which have been suggested to successive Congresses in 

 many forms, sometimes undiguised, and sometimes disguised as pay- 

 ments for carrying the mails, or as a guarantee of the bonds of private 

 corporations, or as a government loan to a private corporation. It is a 

 well-known fact that the democratic party is opposed on principle to 

 subsidies, either disguised or undisguised, and as it was never possible 

 to get any form of subsidy through a republican congress, it is scarcely 

 worth while to consider the possibility of its getting through a demo- 

 cratic congress. Any attempt to modif}^ the existing navigation laws 

 will certainly be opposed by the Seamens' Union, supported by all the 

 other labor unions, and reinforced by the enthusiastic advocates of the 

 "safety at sea" idea, whose cause has been so much strengthened by 



