484 



The Review of Reviews. 



June 1. 1906. 



THE LATEST PHASE OF AMERICAN PROTECTION. 



In tlie North American Review for March a wTiter 

 makes a passionate plea for subsidies for American 

 shipping. By the proposal now before Congress 

 the Commission provides for the payment of sub- 

 ventions to ten mail lines, to be established as fol- 

 lows : — 



The maximum compensation nnder the Bill is : Atlantic, 

 1,050,000 <iols.: Gulf. 475.000 dols. ; Pacitic, 1,140,000 dels, a 

 total maximum of 2.665. OUO dols. 



The Bill also provides a compensation of 217,000 dols. to 

 the Oc«anic line between San Francisco and New Zealand 

 and Australia. 



The writer says : — 



This nation to-day, with all its vast wealth, unlimited re- 

 sources and mighty commerce, has actually 1D8.000 tons less 

 engaged in foreign trade than it had ninety-five years 

 ago. Within the last two years Germany alone, with a 

 population of only 53,000,000, has built more tonnage than 

 the entire tonnage of this country. W"e have naval vessels 

 to-day tliat we are not able to furnish with crews. If 

 war should come to-morrow, we wonld have magnificent 

 vessels of war without men to man them. Had we lost a 

 single firstrclass fighting ship in our brief war with Spain. 

 we could not have furnisiicd oncers and crew for another! 

 These are some of the alarming, humiliating and discred- 

 itable conditions which the Commission found. 



The cause of the decline of our merchant marine was 

 made plain to this Commission by the testimony given 

 before it. It costs from fortv to a hundred per cent, more 

 to build an American ship than a foreign one of tlie same 

 class. It costs from twenty to forty per cent. moTe to 

 operate an American than a foreign ship. All other coun- 

 tries, with any attempt at commerce, pay subsidies. 



To-day, we are utterly powerless to protect our foreign 

 possessions in case of war. We have no American ships 

 to carrj- troops or supplies, and the law of nations, if it 

 were otherwise possible, prevent* us from securing foreign 

 ships. Should this forty millions be spent, then let us 

 pass from the picture of cost to the picture of results. 

 It will add 1,500.000 tons to our foreign shipping. It will 

 give investment to 700,000.000 dols. of American capital. It 

 will give employment to 500.000 American workmen. It will 

 keep at home more than half a million dollars, in gold, 

 each day now sent to Europe. It will give to American 

 labour l.OOO.OOO dols, in work— 1.000,000 dols. in wages each 

 day that is now given to those in another land owing 

 allegiance to another flag. 



Another \VTiter in the same review points out that 

 the United States will have to modify her interpre- 

 tation of the most-favoured-nation clause, which 

 certainly does seem to operate with monstrous un- 

 fairness to this countrj'. The writer says : — 



In 1898 we concluded a commercial agreement with France, 

 by which we granted to the latter certain reductions of 

 duty in return for equivalent concessions. When Great 

 Britain claimed the same favour for its products, under 

 the most-favoured-nation clause, we refused to grant it. 

 Germany and other countries desiring to obtain the 

 concessions granted by us to France had to conclude 

 Bpecial reciprocity treaties with this country, while Great 

 Britain, having iio concessions to offer, continues to pay 

 higher rates of duty on certain imports to the United 

 States than other countries, which treat ns far less 

 liberally. 



He adds: — 



Unless the United States should see fit to modify its con- 

 struction in conformity with the modern European prac- 

 tice, the oulv way the Europeans see out of tlie dilemma 

 is to follow the example we set in the case of Switzerland 

 — namelj", to repeal their most-favoured-nation treaties with 

 the United States. 



In the American Review of Reviews for April IsIt^ 

 McClear)-, writing on the Single versus the Dual 

 Tariff, strongly condemns the latter as a provocation 

 to tariff wars. He savs : — 



Norway s idea is unique and is well worthy of special 

 consideration. Norway's law carries two rates of dntv, 

 after the French system. But. unlike France, Norway gives 

 to every ooimtry her best rates of duty, unless she is dis- 

 criminated against. She holds in reserve the higher rates 

 of duty, to applj- to the goods of anv country that may 

 discriminate against the goods of Norway. 



CHRISTIAN ACHIEVEMENT BY CHRISTIAN 

 ENDEAVOUR : 



What has been Done ix Twenty-five Years. 

 This year has been celebrated, with but little 

 notice from the outside world, the twenty-fifth anni- 

 versar)- of the Christian Endeavour movement. Mr. 

 H. B. F. Macfarland tells the readers of the Nort/i 

 American Review the leading facts as to what Chris- 

 tian Endeavour has achieved in the last twenty-five 

 years. 



ITS SMALL BEGINNING. 



Mr. Macfarland says: — 



Nothing was further from the mind of Dr. Clark, the 

 young Congregational minister of the Williston Church of 

 Portland, Maine, when on the evening of February 2nd, 

 1881, he organised his young parishioners into tlie first Chris- 

 tian Endeavour Society, than that it would figure in the 

 aifairs of the nation, much less in the affairs ot nations. 



The constitution gave, as the object of the society, " to 

 promote an earnest Christian life among its members, to 

 increase their mutual acquaintance and to make them 

 more useful servants of God." But the most important 

 clause — the stumbling-block to the young people and the 

 potent cause of their after-success — related to the pxayer- 

 meeting, and stated: "It is expected that all of the active 

 members of this society will be present at every meeting 

 unless detained by some absolute necessity, and that each 

 one will take some part, however slight, in every meeting." 



The pledge provides for personal, systematic and united 

 endeavours. It always provides for daily Bible-reading, 

 regular church attendance and participation in meetings, 

 unless an excuse can be given conscientiously " to his Lord 

 and Master." and the pledge has proved fascinating rather 

 than repellent, and spiritual rather than mechanical. 



ITS WORLD-WIDE GEOWTH. 



From this cast-iron pledge accepted bv the young 

 people of Maine has sprung an organisation that 

 circles the world. Mr. Macfarland says: — 



A tiny seed, a great tree: from one society of less than 

 fifty members to over sixty-six thousand societies and 

 nearly four million members: from one small church in 

 Portland, Maiiie, to churches in every Christian community 

 and at most of the missionary stations the world round; 

 from a few dollars a year, for missionary and other causes, 

 to over half a million dollars last year, from less than 

 one-sixth of the whole number of societies : from obscurity 

 to world-wide fame and influence — this is the qu.arter-of-a- 

 oentury storv of the Christian Endeavour movement. In 

 much less than a generation it has rea^ched this great 

 growth. 



ITS SIGNIFICANCE. 



The fact that it is a religious society causes many 

 people to ignore it most illogically. For, as Mr. 

 Macfarland says, 



simply as one of the facts of life in our day. the rise 

 and progress of the Christian Endeavour movement, for 

 example, is sufflcientlv important to be worthy the careful 

 consideration of any thoughtful man. regardless of his 

 views of religion. If a new political party had, in tlie 

 same time, grovm to such proportions and was sliowing 

 the same virility and stability, it would be the frequent 

 theme of men who. perhaps, do not know even the name 

 of the Christian Endeavour Society. If four million people 

 were keeping a pledge to read daily the plays of Shakes- 

 peare, or the poems of Dante, or the dialogues of Plato — 

 to meditate upon them, to bring them to the attention 

 of others, and to put their highest teachings into practical 



