THE SELLING OF THE SURPLUS 



not of your blood. And the flags, — ah, the 

 flags ! Save for the courtesy of the port which 

 brings out your own colors, — a hollow mock- 

 ery from the standpoint of the commerce of 

 the sea, — they are such flags as you seldom see 

 unless you have traveled far in foreign lands — 

 the St. George's cross on its field of red, 

 symbol of the sea power of Great Britain ; the 

 three-barred flag of Germany, black, white 

 and red, the tricolor of France, the merchant 

 tricolor of Russia, with its bars the opposite 

 of those of France, the colors of Norway and 

 Sweden now forever separate, — your eye may 

 even catch the white elephant of Siam upon 

 its red ground, or the white and blue bars of 

 Greece, while it will not infrequently and, on 

 the Pacific, very often, see the striking em- 

 blem that symbolizes the rapidly growing 

 strength of the commerce of Japan, the mystic 

 ball of red upon its field of white. 



And yet there is no small comfort to be 

 derived from the fact that though the tonnage 

 of American shipping has not quite doubled 

 in a half century, while that of Great Britain 

 has more than quadrupled, yet, taking the 

 figures for 1904, the United States leads all 



S15 



