BANQUET. 231 
ADDRESS BY HON. GEORGE W. EDMONDS. 
Mr. Toastmaster and gentlemen, I am talking a little under difficulty tonight, but 
I will try to make you hear me. During the late unpleasantness, about ten days ago, 
I unfortunately paraded in a rainstorm. It was at night, and after the parade was over 
we had a little jubilee. I did not get home for three or four hours, and having wet 
feet, I contracted a cold. My interest in the merchant marine of this country is so 
great that when I received Admiral Taylor’s letter, asking me to speak to you on this 
occasion, I thought possibly I would be able to get rid of the cold and come over and 
do my best. 
Iam not alawyer. Iam not an orator. I want to talk to you in just plain words 
the way I feel about the merchant marine. I know you are all interested in that sub- 
ject, and it pleases me to see such a large gathering of men here tonight, who, from 
your looks, are, I know, going to assist us, the Congress of the United States, in putting 
the American merchant marine upon the sea. One of the difficulties, we were told 
in Washington, was that we did not have shipping brains in this country. I was inclined 
to believe that was true, but I will go away from here tonight a little in doubt after 
seeing you gentlemen. 
During my earlier days it was one of my greatest pleasures to hear the late William 
Wagner, who founded the Wagner Free Institute in Philadelphia, speak to us on the 
business exploits of Stephen Girard. William Wagner was one of Stephen Girard’s 
supercargoes. In those days they did not have telephones, automobiles or cables, and 
the captain of a ship was virtually the king of the ship, the supercargo was the business 
man, and William Wagner traveled from one end of the world to the other buying and 
selling cargoes for Stephen Girard. His stories were very interesting. At that time 
I was so enthusiastic over the subject of the merchant marine that I felt if someone 
came along and showed me the way, I would join a ship myself. However, in doing 
that I might not have made a very good sailor and might have spoiled a poor congress- 
man. I have not been quite as enthusiastic over being a congressman as I was over 
the prospect of being a sailor. 
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the ships of the United States did virtu- 
ally the largest marine-carryinging business of the world, and at the opening of the 
twentieth century we did less than 10 percent of our own business. It seemed 
peculiar that such should be the case, and of course, when it came to preparing a bill 
authorizing the Government to operate the ships built on account of the war, it was 
necessary for us to look into the reason. I am going to enter more into that tonight, 
probably, than you would wish. 
Of course, during that time, and particularly after the Civil War, the developments 
of the country internally were so great that nearly all the money we had and all the 
money we could borrow went into local development inside of the country and were 
not used for developments on the sea. That brought about a lack of investment in 
shipping. It brought about a lack of interest in shipping. But the trouble really with 
our shipping was occasioned when Congress agreed to make treaties with different 
countries by which foreign ships had an equal advantage with our own ships in this 
