March 24, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



451) 



is made that, even if domestic wheat is 

 used to make flour for export, it is ex- 

 tremely difficult to make the quality neces- 

 sary to keep up the reputation of the es- 

 tablished American brands. Across the 

 northern border in Canada there are ample 

 supplies of wheat of good quality, if the 

 American miller could draw upon that 

 supply of his raw material. 



The great body of the millers Avould 

 welcome the absolute repeal of the duty 

 on foreign wheat and there would doubtless 

 be a vigorous demand for this repeal from 

 other elements in the population of the 

 United States if it were generally under- 

 stood that, for some months past, the price 

 of wheat in Canada has been from fifteen 

 to twenty cents per bushel lower than in 

 the United States, and that the effect of 

 this has been to increase the cost of flour 

 in the United States by from eighty-five 

 cents to one dollar per barrel, thus increas- 

 ing the cost of living to every customer of 

 wheat flour in the United States. 



What is to be the future relation of the 

 domestic supply of wheat in the United 

 States to the domestic demand? The 

 operation of certain tendencies in Amer- 

 ican agriculture seem to indicate that 

 wheat production in the United States can 

 not be expected to increase in the future 

 at a much greater rate than will be neces- 

 sary to supply the increasing domestic de- 

 mand. It is not impossible that the ulti- 

 mate result of the operation of these tend- 

 encies will be to make the United States a 

 permanent importer of wheat under nor- 

 mal conditions. 



SESSION ON PROBLEMS OP COMMERCE, ETC. 



Present Status of Maritime Enterprise. 

 WiNTHROP L. Marvin, Secretary of the 

 United States Merchant Marine Com- 

 mission, Boston, Mass. 

 While ocean shipping is in a distressed 



condition in Europe, it is in a desperate 



condition here. The IMerchant Marine 

 Commission has visited within eight 

 months all of the chief ports of this coun- 

 try and it has not found anywhere so much 

 as one new steamship designed for foreign 

 trade in process of construction. It is, 

 therefore, more than temporary depression 

 Avhieh afflicts the ocean shipping of the 

 United States. We are face to face, unless 

 something heroic is speedily done, with the 

 final vanishing of an old, historic industry. 

 It will be generally agreed that President 

 Roosevelt sent his urgent appeal to Con- 

 gress none too soon. The report and 

 recommendations of the Merchant IMarine 

 Commission will be laid before the Senate 

 and House next week.* Though they can 

 not be outlined beforehand, of one fact 

 every member of the Congressional Com- 

 mission is certain, and that is, that with- 

 out vigorous national aid and encourage- 

 ment of some kind we shall inevitably lose 

 the last of our deep sea mercantile marine, 

 not only the ships themselves, but the 

 skilled officers and seamen. 



The Merchant Marine Commission in its 

 inquiry has found that all the maritime 

 nations of the world protect and encourage 

 their ocean shipping in some way or other. 

 The most conspicuous instance of this 

 practise is Great Britain's recent grant of 

 $13,000,000 to build two new Cunard 

 steamships, which will receive besides an 

 annual subsidy of $1,100,000 for twenty 

 years. Within sixty years Great Britain 

 has expended about $300,000,000 in sub- 

 sidies to her steam lines through all 

 quarters of the world; and this, with the 

 vigorous discrimination of Lloyds against 

 foreign shipping, has made impregnable 

 the British mastery of the sea, which was 

 first gained by the navigation laws of 

 Cromwell and the victories of Nelson. 



* Senate Document, Report Xo. 275.5, 58th 

 Cong., 3d Sess., 70 pp. To he liad upon applicat ion 

 to Senator Gallinger. 



