584 NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



NEBRASKA. 



ney occupy at present the time and labors of 

 81 officers and 275 seamen. The Secretary 

 urges that, as these branches of the public ser- 

 vice are maritime in their nature and purpose, 

 they ought to be placed in direct connection 

 with the Navy Department and severed from 

 the Treasury Department. In like manner, 

 the Secretary holds that it is every way desir- 

 able that the Revenue- Cutter Service be under 

 the direction of the Navy Department, instead 

 of forming a part of Treasury Department 

 work. He argues the question quite fully, 

 and presents various cogent reasons for the 

 view he advocates. It hardly admits of doubt, 

 he thinks, that the Revenue Marine and the 

 Life-Saving Service should be joined to the 

 navy, not only as a matter of economy, but as 

 affording valuable training and discipline for 

 younger and unemployed naval officers. 



12. Under the head of the Commercial Ma- 

 rine, there is a full discussion of the impor- 

 tance of fostering and strengthening this branch 

 of the nation's strength and prosperity. Every 

 one knows how deeply depressed is the condi- 

 tion of American commerce, how largely the 

 carrying-trade has fallen into the hands of 

 foreigners, and how unwilling capitalists are 

 to put their money into shipping under its 

 present manifold disadvantages arising from 

 foreign competition. It is urged, further, that 

 not only does the passive policy of neglect 

 injure our mercantile marine, but also that 

 various impositions are heaped upon it in the 

 way of fees, taxes, pilotage-dues, and other 

 exactions. Several remedies are suggested, for 

 the purpose of removing these impositions, 

 extending protective measures to this neg- 

 lected industry, and reforming the administra- 

 tion. Compulsory pilotage and numerous ex- 

 travagant fees ought to be abolished. Gov- 

 ernment bounty should be extended for the 

 construction of vessels in the United States, 

 and for their navigation in the foreign trade. 

 The French shipping law (early in 1881) has 

 adopted this plan, and Bismarck has recom- 

 mended similar measures for German shipping 

 interests. " The most natural, legitimate, and 

 effective method of protecting and reviving 

 the merchant marine of the country, is to pay 

 a compensation for carrying the United States 

 mails in American ships on the great ocean- 

 highways sufficient to result in the permanent 

 establishment of fast steamship lines. It is 

 not the cost of building the ships that deters 

 capitalists from investing in lines of steam- 

 ships : it is the impossibility of competing by 

 such lines, during the earlier years of their 

 existence, with the lines already in successful 

 operation and sustained by large annual pay- 

 ments from foreign governments." In illustra- 

 tion of the policy pursued by other nations in 

 this matter, it is stated that England has paid, 

 as mail compensation to her steamship lines 

 during the last fifteen years, from four to six 

 million dollars annually. France, in 1878, 

 paid for foreign mail service more than four 



millions and a half ; Italy more than one and a 

 half million in 1879; Austria, the same year, 

 a little over a million ; while the United States 

 paid for foreign mail service, the year ending 

 June 30, 1880, only $196,684. By this system, 

 it is urged, these nations have virtually taken 

 possession of the commercial waters of the 

 world, and driven out our vessels ; and by this 

 method they have secured an auxiliary navy, 

 every mail steamship company furnishing 

 ships built according to governmental require- 

 ments, and subject to be taken for national use 

 in time of war. Our country must follow a 

 like policy, or she can never recover her place 

 among maritime nations. 



Recommending a reform of administration 

 by establishing a Bureau of Mercantile Marine 

 in the Navy Department, the Secretary con- 

 eludes his report as follows: "These criti- 

 cisms and recommendations are made with a 

 sincere and earnest desire to promote the suc- 

 cess of the navy and the commercial interests 

 of the country. If the naval establishment 

 not to be made effective, it should be dh 

 tinued, and the fifteen millions annually 

 pended should be reserved to procure, in 

 tional emergencies, the assistance of foreig 

 ships and guns. If governmental measui 

 are not soon adopted to promote the carrying- 

 trade and to arrest the disappearance of Ann 

 can ships from the ocean, we shall soon 

 to be a seafaring people, and shall not need 

 maintain a navy of our own. These are stroi 

 expressions, but they are justified and 

 quired by the present condition of our ni 

 and maritime interests." 



NEBRASKA. STATE GOVERNMENT.'] 

 following were the State officers during 

 year: Governor, Albinus Nance, Republic 

 Lieutenant-Governor, G. C. Cams; Secret 

 of State and Adjutant-General, S. J. Alex* 

 der; Treasurer, G. M. Bartlett; Auditor 

 Public Accounts, John Wallichs; Attorney 

 General, C. J. Dil worth; Superintendent 

 Public Instruction, W. W. W. Jones ; Seer 

 of Board of Agriculture, J. C. McBride ; Coi 

 missioner of Public Lands and Buildings, 

 G. Kendall; State Law Librarian, Guy 

 Brown. Judiciary, Supreme Court : Chief- 

 Justice, George B. Lake; Associate Justice 

 Amasa Cobb and Samuel Maxwell. 



GENERAL CONDITION. Governor Nance, 

 his message to the Legislature of 1883, re- 

 marking on the prosperous condition of the 

 State, says: 



Since the last regular session of the Legislature 

 there has been a marked degree of prosperity in every 

 department of industry, and our growth in population 

 and wealth has been a marvelous event, even to those 

 who had indulged the most sanguine anticipations in 

 contemplating the possibilities of the future. A brief 

 review of our State history may be profitably consid- 

 ered in this connection. At the date of admission into 

 the Union, in 1867, the population of Nebraska was 

 estimated at 70,000, and the aggregate valuation of 

 taxable property of the State was $20 ; 115,252. 1 

 population at the present time, as estimated on the 

 basis of a moderate increase over the census of 1880, 





