An Awakened Continent 



71 



merce and become available as auxiliary 

 cruisers of the navy in case of need. The 

 compensation allowed to such steamers is 

 found to be wholly inadequate to secure 

 the proposals contemplated ; hence ad- 

 vertisements from time to time have failed 

 to develop any bids for much-needed 

 service. This is especially true in regard 

 to several of the countries of South 

 America with which we have cordial re- 

 lations and which, for manifest reasons, 

 should have direct mail connections with 

 us. I refer to Brazil and countries south 

 of it. Complaints of serious delay to 

 mails for these countries have become 

 frequent and emphatic, leading to the sug- 

 gestion on the part of certain officials of 

 the government that for the present, and 

 until more satisfactory direct communi- 

 cation can be established, important mails 

 should be dispatched to South America 

 by way of European ports and on Euro- 

 pean steamers, which would not only in- 

 volve the United States in the payment of 

 double transit rates to a foreign country 

 for the dispatch of its mails to countries 

 of our own hemisphere, but might seri- 

 ously embarrass the government in the 

 exchange of important official and dip- 

 lomatic correspondence. 



"The fact that the government claims 

 exclusive control of the transmission of 

 letter mail throughout its own territory 

 would seem to imply that it should secure 

 and maintain the exclusive jurisdiction, 

 when necessary, of its mails on the high 

 seas. The unprecedented expansion of 

 trade and foreign commerce justifies 

 prompt consideration of an adequate for- 

 eign mail service." 



THE U. S. GOVERNMENT NETS ICO PER CENT 

 PROFIT ON ITS EOREIGN MAIL 



It is difficult to believe, but it is true, 

 that out of this faulty ocean mail service 

 the government of the United States is 

 making a large profit. The actual cost to 

 the government last year of the ocean 

 mail service to foreign countries other 

 than Canada and Mexico was $2,965,- 

 624.21, while the proceeds realized by the 

 government from postage between the 



United States and foreign countries other 

 than Canada and Mexico was $6,008,- 

 807.53, leaving the profit to the United 

 States of $3,043,183.32; that is to say, 

 under existing law the government of 

 the United States, having assumed the 

 monopoly of carrying the mails for the 

 people of the country, is making a profit 

 of three million dollars per annum by 

 rendering cheap and inefficient service. 

 Every dollar of that three millions is 

 made at the expense of the commerce of 

 the United States. What can be plainer 

 than that the government ought to ex- 

 pend at least the profits that it gets from 

 the ocean mail service in making the 

 ocean mail service efficient. One-quarter 

 of those profits would establish all these 

 lines which I have described between the 

 United States and South and Central 

 America and give us, besides a good mail 

 service, enlarged markets for the pro- 

 ducers and merchants of the United 

 State who pay the postage from which 

 the profits come.* 



In his last message to Congress, Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt said: 



"To the spread of our trade in peace 

 and the defense of our flag in war a great 

 and prosperous merchant marine is indis- 

 pensable. We should have ships of our 

 own and seamen of our own to convey 

 our goods to neutral markets, and in case 

 of need to reenforce our battle line. It 

 cannot but be a source of regret and un- 

 easiness to us that the lines of communi- 

 cation with our sister republics of South 

 America should be chiefly under foreign 

 control. It is not a good thing that 

 American merchants and manufacturers 

 should have to send their goods and let- 

 ters to South America via Europe if they 

 wish security and dispatch. Even on the 

 Pacific, where our ships have held their 

 own better than on the Atlantic, our 

 merchant flag is now threatened through 

 the liberal aid bestowed by other govern- 



* There would be some modification of these 

 figures if the cost of getting the mails to and 

 from the exchange offices were charged against 

 the account ; but this is not separable from the 

 general domestic cost and would not materially 

 change the result. 



