LEADING ARTICLES. 



493 



wholly or partly in the coastwise trade 

 of the United Kingdom, or with the en- 

 tire German merchant marine, in both 

 foreign and coastwise commerce, of 

 4-593.°95 tons, or with the total 

 2,088,065 tons of France, or with the 

 total 1,452,849 tons of Italy. The coast- 

 wise laws have kept alive the spirit of 

 maritime skill and enterprise in the 

 United States. 



As Congress has barred wholly from 

 the Panama waterway all vessels' owned 

 or controlled by railroads, the field was 

 left free to distinctively ship-owning 

 companies, and they have taken every 

 advantage of this elimination of their 

 powerful rivals. 



Already, before the canal is a fact, 

 the merchandise shipped between the 

 Atlantic and Pacific ports of the United 

 States has attained an annual value of 

 125,000,000 dols., of which about one- 

 fifths via the Mexican railroad across 

 and its steamship connections, and four- 

 fifths via the Mexican railroad across 

 the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The 

 steamship service from the Pacific ports 

 to Panama has long been performed 

 chiefly by the Pacific Mail Company, 

 whose fleet under its present ownership 

 will presumably be denied the use of 

 the canal — for the Pacific Mail is con- 

 trolled by the Southern Pacific Railroad. 

 On the Atlantic side, the coastwise ser- 

 vice between Colon and New York is 

 that of the Panama Railroad Steam- 

 ship Company, owned by the United 

 States Government. 



Neither of these companies is con- 

 structing a single new ship for the 

 canal commerce. The American- 

 Hawaiian S.S. Coy., which operates the 

 largest sea-cargo fleet under the Ameri- 

 can flag, originally running steamers 

 round the Horn — a voyage of sixty 

 days — it took advantage of the open- 

 ing of the Tehuantepec railway in 1907 

 and reduced the time of transit of 

 goods by thirty days. The Panama 

 Canal, avoiding transhipment and port 

 delays, will reduce the time by a fur- 

 ther ten days. The Company is build- 

 ing eight 10,000 ton vessels — the 



... 



heaviest order ever placed by an Ameri- 

 can S.S. Company in America. 



Many other American shipping com- 

 panies are having special vessels built. 

 It is significant that several new 

 steamers have* been launched, which 

 will trade between the great lakes with 

 outlet to the St. Lawrence and the 

 Pacific Coast. 



How much of an influence upon 

 American shipbuilding the remission of 

 canal tolls to American coastwise craft 

 has exerted, it is impossible to tell. It 

 is quite likely that there is a certain 

 calculable value in the privilege, but it 

 was not asked for by shipowners them- 

 selves. As President Dearborn, of the 

 American-Hawaiian Company, said be- 

 fore the House Committee on Interstate 

 and Foreign Commerce : 



The no-toll business is a matter of prin- 

 ciple. We would not spend one dollar in 

 any propaganda for no tolls, because ihe 

 shipper is going to pay for it. It is an 

 operating expense. 



That is, if tolls are exacted they will 

 be paid by the men who own the cargo, 

 not by the men who own the ship. And 

 thus the remission of the tolls in the 

 long run would benefit not the ship- 

 owners but the planters, manufacturers, 

 or merchants who actually requested it. 

 It is the coastwise navigation law rather 

 than exemption from tolls that is fill- 

 ing the shipyards and launching this 

 new American ocean tonnage. 



It is estimated that the American 

 steamship companies which have already 

 signified their intention to run steamers 

 through the Panama Canal from coast 

 to coast will have enough steamers 

 when the canal is completed to despatch 

 a ship from the Atlantic or from the 

 Pacific practically everv business day 

 throughout the year. This means that 

 there will always be an American coast- 

 wise ship in the canal — a ship of a 

 regular line service for general freight 

 en a fixed, announced schedule. In ad- 

 dition, there will be the "tramp" busi 

 ness of sailings whenever needed of 

 bulk-cargo carriers of coal, wheat, 

 asphall and lumber a traffic for which 

 the new lake-built ocean craft and the 

 large so-called "steam schooners" of 

 the Pacific arc especially adapted. 



