The evening times., 1899-09-04
. II UIIl bCI -II % a1lIt-44 . IIW1
,ays.
Transatlantic Hails.

Mails are now brought across the At
lantic TO New York in nine days from Ber-
lin and eight days from Paris. Seven days
is not a low limit at the present time for
mail steamships from Liverpool TO New
York. The running time OF our fast mail
train from New York TO San Francisco is
now four days and three hours. Any letter
ought to reach San Francisco from Berlin
o. Paris within thirteen and one-half days.
and letters doubtless do cover that distance
in shorter time. The distance from San
Francisco to Shanghai by way OF foko-
hama is ), 10S nautical miles. 4 seventeen
knot steamship such as the two Pacific
mail steamships now building at Newport
News can traverse this distance in fourteen
days, and probably will do it in fifteen
days. The establishment of fOrtnightly
American service from San Francisco TO
Shanghai, which is one OF the objects pro-
posed and to be accomplished by legislation
introduced at the last session OF Congress,
will bring Berlin and Paris, not 10 mention
British ports, within twenty-eight or twen-
ty-nine days of Shanghai. and under ia
vorable but not extraordinary conditions
within twenty-seven days, while the best
British achievement and the best German
promise by subsidized routes is now thirty
two days and the average is thirty-three
or thirty-four.
If quick mail communication between tie
capitals of western Europe and China and
Japan were all that is 10 be accomplished
by the expenditure of $500. 900 annually on
their steamship lines, time and money
could be saved by the development of the
American route We shall be disappointed,
however, if We look 10 these quarters for
support OF bill which would increase
American shipping and at least incident
ally improve the worlds ocean mail facil-
tiles.
Whatever may have been the fact in the
recent past there is very little substance
in the notion that the present large sub
sides TO foreign lines to Asia are TO Sc
cure the quickest transit for the mails.
There is not much more in the claim that
they are for necessary political purposes.
The new German contract does not even
prescribe a regular connection with kiao-
Chou but leaves that matter open for fu-
ture decision. The only connection with
German possessions in New Guinea pro-
vided under the new or old contract is
tweIye-knot steamship of $500 gross tons,
similar to our Cherokee, which once in
eight weeks runs between Singapore and
New Guinea. On the Aaiatic coast. this
side of Singapore. SPANS political inter-
est. the Philippines, which have now come
to be ours, was greater in population and
y
Germany, France, Italy, and Austria Hun
gary combined, and on political grounds We
have better reason than any other nation,
with the possible exception of Japan, to
develop our shipping on the Pacific by the
most feasible means at hand.
Liberal Backing.
"In point of fact. the Peninsular and
Oriental, the North German Lloyd, the
Messageries, Marities, the Societa Navi-
gazione Italiana, and the Lloyd Austriaco
companies are now backed up literally by
their respective Governments as a means
of promoting trade, and especially the ex-
port trade in manufactured goods of Great
Britain, Germany, France. Italy, and Aus
tria- Hungary with China and Japan. There
is no effort at concealing this fact in the
reports of the companies every year, and
there is nothing discreditable about it to
conceal. 1t will not be discreditable for
the United States to adopt the same pol
icy. Whether it be profitable or not de-
pends on balance of the value to the
country of the trade to be acquired and the
extent of the investment necessary 10 OBJ
tain it.
ITO the Government which makes these
foreign contracts it means carriage OF the
mails and the increase of national prestige,
to the manufactures and labor of the coun-
try they mean increased opportunities for
commerce, TO the ship owners they are a
comfortable addition to receipts and an
l NIAyrrD mi m a n