The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-26

and AZ cents a pound (or $50 short toni
for other articles, calculated on the actual
net weight of the mails conveyed"
In the light of the facts stated before,
there can be no question that the bill now
before the house known as the Hanna
Payne subsidy bill is brought here for one
purpose, and for one purpose only, and
that is to increase the compensation now
paid to the International Navigation COM
pany
l have carefully read the hearings before
the committee on the merchant marine and
fisheries, that reported the bill to the
house, and found that the witnesses ex-
amined were almost all of them interested
in this company; that the attorney for this
company, a man of distinguished ability,
has prepared the bill, and that nearly every
amendment that was offered In the COM
mittee and accepted by it was proposed by
him.
There are other reasons that incline me
to this belief. There is a claim made In
the report of the committee that this bill
is In the interest not only of American
shipbuilders and shipping, but also in the
interest of the American sailor. COM
parison Of the bill with the present law re-
flutes that proposition.
Under the act of March 8, 1891, vessels
carrying the mail are required for the first
two years of their contract to have one
fourth of their crew Americans. For the
cans, and after that one-half must be
American sailors. The contract with the
International Navigation company is over
five years old, and therefore, under the law,
they are required to have one-half of their
crew American seamen; but as they are
obliged to pay the American more than the
French, Spanish or italian sailor, this pro-
vision of tho law has become burdensome
to them, and they provide in the new bill
the Hanna-Payne bill-that only one-fourth
of the seamen must be Americans, which,
of course, Is great reduction from the
number they were required to have under
the act of 1891. Yet, with unblushing eff
frontery, they claim in their report that
the bill is intended to increase the number
of American sailors.
Again, under the act of March 3, 1891,
each vessel was required to carry one boy
under the age of q for each 1000 gross tons
and one for each majority fraction, to be
educated in seamanship and rank as petty
officers. This provision of the law has also
become burdensome to them, because In
their bill, prepared by the officers and
agents of the international Navigation
company, and known as H. r. 1872, 1t pro-
vides that vessel shall carry one boy for
each 1000 tons gross, to be trained in sea-
manship engineering or other maritime
knowledge
AS each of the vessels of the Internation-
al Navigation company, as shown In the
figures above, has majority fraction over
the division of 1000 gross tons, they will
be enabled to dispense with the training
and education of four of these boys.
In other words, under the present law
they are required to carry and educate 46
boys in seamanship and to give them the
rank of petty officers, but under the new
law they will be required to carry only A2
boys, give them no rank and train them In
engineering and other maritime knowledge.
I suppose the "other maritime knowledge"
includes washing the decks, waiting on the
ables, or some other employment less ex-
pensive to the company than that given
young men who rank as petty officers.
We might infer from the report made by
the republican members of the committee
on the merchant marine and fisheries ac-
companying the Hanna-Payne bill that our
government has never tried the experiment
of aiding the merchant marine with grants
Of money, when, on the contrary, it has
done a great deal of this. From 1850 to
1858 It paid the Collins line $5212, 091, ana
the four steamers probably cost the COM
pany less than SO, 900, 000 so that the gov
eminent in the course of eight years pre-
scented the company with its entire fleet
and two and a quarter millions to operate
1t with. but yet the line collapsed.
From 1867 to 1877 the Pacific Mail received
for its China and Japan service s4.5S3, 1879.
From 1850 to 1860 there was paid for the
anna 50, 467, 1853. Between New York and As
pinwall, from 1S4S to 1860, there was paid
81 So From New York to Havre, South
ampton and Bremen there was paid be-
tween 1S48 and 1858 $50, and in the
next ten years an additional sum of $s96,724.
From 1866 to 1875 John Roach's Brazil line
received $50 900 a year, and the renewal of
the subsidy was defeated in the congress