xxxvi INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. 



Oil fuel applied for marine use has passed the experimental stage. Excellent 

 results have been accomplished and many advantages proven. Where coal is 

 scarce and oil is plenty, oil fuel is naturally used to great advantage; but the 

 storage, the safety in use, and the procuring of oil of the same quality at all times, 

 are yet sufficiently experimental to warrant the study still given to this subject 

 where coal is cheaper than oil. 



So in all the varied branches of our professions we are still achieving, still 

 pursuing. 



In the beginning of this year, this Society was honored by the Institution of 

 Naval Architects of England by its invitation to join in a Jubilee Meeting in London, 

 celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of that most distinguished 

 Society. As you know too well, the death of their beloved King Edward VII 

 compelled a postponement of their celebration, and with that great people, in com- 

 mon with the rest of the world, this nation mourned. 



We are now advised that the Jubilee Meeting will be held in London com- 

 mencing July 4 next, and I can assure you that those who may be so fortunate 

 as to be able to accept their cordial invitation will receive a warm welcome. May 

 many of you go. 



One subject near to our hearts is that of the American merchant marine. 

 " Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and the hopes deferred in this matter have 

 almost caused heart failure. 



Protection has been the leading theory and practise of great political parties 

 and has led the coimtry at large into great prosperity. Everj'thing going into a 

 ship has been amply protected, excepting the building thereof. The very pro- 

 tection given various materials and labor in the manufacturing of them has so 

 added to the cost of building ships that it is impossible to compete with the cheaper 

 labor and materials of foreign countries, and yet the word "subsidy," substituted 

 for the word " protection," has for some curious reasons become almost disreputable, 

 and the cry is raised — Shall we spend public money for the benefit of a few ship- 

 builders? Had this thought obtained to any degree in relation to the many large 

 industries of the country, so well fostered by the tariff, there to-day would have 

 been a dependence on foreign manufacturers truly deplorable, and a billion dollar 

 Congress impossible. 



One great difficulty with the subject of legislation tending to increase the 

 merchant marine is that the advocates, though they see clearly the great need and 

 the public advantage of an adequate merchant marine, have such varied methods 

 of accomplishing the desired result. 



For m}^ own part, I have com.e to the conclusion that a subsidy for establishing 

 lines to South America or other specific covmtries, that extra payments for carry- 

 ing mails and for tonnage and speed, in short, that the various methods of special 

 rewards are entirely futile; and that there only remains for us to go back to the 

 practise of our forefathers and establish discriminating duties. This is not the 



