The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-03-13
OUR MERCHANT NAVY.

WIN <A1NSAEAAfA ANEh
The annual report of the Commissioner
OF Navigation is TO hand, and from it we
learn that the number of vessels compos-
ing the merchant marine of the United
States is "a. 512, with tonnage of 4,S25. OIL
tons. being an increase of 129 vessels OF
COL 40 tons over the year 1892. or these
vessels nearly hall, or tonnage of 2,11S.-
1876. are sailing vessels, and tonnage OF
2. 1881 steamships. Over four-hfths OF
the whole, or a tonnage of S,94l, S72, vessels
are engaged In domestic commerce and
fisheries, and the remainder. say one-fiftb.
in foreign commerce.
The decline of the sea-going merchant
navy of the United States has been mat
ter Of comment and regret for years. In
the year before the war the tonnage Of
American vessels engaged in foreign CON-
MERGE was 3 1896; in 1893 it was SS3, 1919.
In the year 1856. II per cent of the tonnage
of sea-going vessels entered at American
seaports was American; in the year 1893 1t
was only 81 per cent. In 1858, "a per cent
of the total value of the merchandise i'm
ported into and exported from the United
States was carried in American vessels; in
1898 only II per cent. These figures con-
luO pl6fdlSuk LOtiOu dOUuL lD6 u6cd-
dence of deep-waier American shipping in
the past thirty-five years. They also indi-
cate that no indications of recovery are yet
perceptible.
The causes have been often set forth
and are familiar to every reader. Perhaps
the public has not fully realized that the
chief causes have been that capital has
found in this country larger and more
profitable uses than in shipbuilding and
that the su bstitution of iron and steel for
wood as material for ships naturally threw
the business of building ships into the
hands of the English. who, at that time,
produced more and cheaper iron than we
dld. Americans have employed their
money to better advantage in building
railroads. which have yielded an average
OF 10 per cent to their constructors, than
they would have done in building steamers,
which have yielded far smaller income
and sometimes no income at all; and on
the other hand it is only within the past
three or four years that we have been
able in this country to make Bessemer
steel plates as cheaply as they could be
made in Great Britain. The growth of
iron and steel shipbuilding in this country
has been steady. In 1870 the new tonnage
Of iron steamers built was 1902, in 1880 it
was 1888, in 1857 it was 34.261. in 1898 it
was S1,42S. In order to stimulate ship
building Congress passed in 1872 an act
(whose provisions were enlarged in 1890
admitting materials for shipbuilding free
but the act did not lead to any extensive
Importation of foreign material. In 1898
such mpOrtations only amounted to SOS, 743
olt1a Nha
to stimulate our iron and steel founders to
surpass the English in the quality of their
goods. The great shipbuilder CramD says
that the act is Of little value to the Ameri-
can shipbuilder. and adds 'that we are
now in position TO undertake any class
of construction that can be desired" OBJ
tanning material from American factories.
In fact. the substitution OF steel for iron
as material for shipbuilding has a ten
dency to transfer the industry to this
country, as the substitution of iron for
wood transferred the industry from this
country to England thirty years ago. The
United States are the largest producers Of
Bessemer steel in the world, and labor
saving machinery and superior ingenuity
are enabling American foundries to make
it in competition with the most expert
workmen IN the world. In the census
year the United States produced 4,277, OH |
tons of steel, as against production of
3.679.0 43 in Great Britain and 2, 10, S21 tons
in Germany. Much Of the progress made
in the steel industry has been due to the
of the new navy. When the
first contracts were given out steel shaft
ing and gun forgings had to be imported
from abroad. Now they are all made
here, and our shipyards can turn out ships
equal in size. speed and general workman
ship to any which can be built in the ship
yards OF Great Britain or France, using
nothing but material OF domestic manu.
facture.
How much, however. remains to be done
to raise our merchant navy to the foreign
level may be inferred from the fact that OF
46S steamers plying between American
and foreign ports 272 are British. rs Ger
man, 8 Spanish, 9 French, % Norwegian,
Italian and only rs American.