The San Francisco call., 1904-08-06
Continued From Page 4, Column 5

interesting point He said that at one
time the vessels of the Pacific Mail
feet were operating under the postai
subsidy act of 1891, but notwithstand-
ing the subsidy his company steadlly
lost money and was finally compelled
to cancel its contract with the Gov
ernment, since which time it has made
money. Schwerin explained this ap-
parently incongruous state of affairs
by stating that the mail contracts re-
CURED the vessels of his fleet to sail
faster than they could under normal
conditions The result was that they
burned more coal, destroyed more
boilers and broke more machinery
than the Government subsidy covered.
Upon abrogating the contract the
company's vessels returned to normal
conditions, repair and coal bills fell
off and the company was able to make
a profit. Schwerin commended all of
these points to the commission when
it sits down to write the bill having as
its object the expansion of the Amer
ican merchant marine. In closing on
this point he said that while he fa-
vored a general subsidy, the subsidy
should cover the cargo carried and
not the mileage.
Schwerin then went into an interest
ing discussion Of the comparative cost
of operating vessels under the American
and foreign flags. The statistics pre-
sented by him went to show that with
white or European crews, as they are
commonly called, shipped at this port
at the port wages the cost of operating
ships is from two to three times greater
than to operate the same ships with
European crews shipped at foreign
ports and under foreign flags, and
greater again than when operated by
Asiatics. This, he said, would explain
to any reasoning business man why the
Pacific Mail carried Asiatics on its
trans-Pacific lines. The Chinese, he
said, also gave better service than
Europeans in positions not requiring
great strength, and the item of their
maintenance alone resulted in the saw
ing of hundreds of thousands of dollars
a year to his company.
The next point touched upon by
Schwerin was in relation to the cost Of
building vessels here and in foreign
shipyards. He said the Korea and ST.
IBERIA cost his company in round figures
SO, ZOO 900, and there is yet due on them
considerably over $1,000, 000 The cost
of the Manchuria and Mongolia was
$4,000, 600. No payments have yet been
made on these vessels. These same
vessels could be duplicated in England
for much less sum, he said, perhaps
80 or So per cent less, but had they been
purchased there they would have been
4 til rse-fo CO11r .iY1
gave some further comparisons to show
that no inducements are held out to
shipbuilders to patronize American
yards, and on the question Of repairs he
cited an interesting example, saying:
mot long ago one of our big ships,
the Algoa, ran on the rocks. After she
was foated an examination disclosed
the fact that she needed extensive re-
pairs. We advertised for bids The
lowest bid we received here was $93, 900,
while the Victoria, B. c., yard agreed
to do the work for $4,000 It was an
nounced that the great difference was
due not alone to the fact that here the
dockage charge was 100000, as against
$4,000 in the north, but to the high
wages demanded by the San Francisco
workingmen. After much pickering the
contract was awarded to a local firm,
it agreeing to do the work for the sum
of the Victoria bid plus the estimated
cost Of taking the damaged ship to
Seattle.
1T is the exorbitant wages and dock
age charges here that result in great
loss to the American people. 1t has
been the custom of our company to
have repairs on our trans-Pacifc liners
made in Hongkong owing to the labor
situation here, but at the present time
there is no dock in the Oriental port
large enough to hold our new ships.
We would rather have the cleaning and
painting of our new ships done in the
Orient, all other things being equal,
because-and / regret to say 1.-THE
Chinese laborers do better work than
the Americans"
Regarding the free ship theory
Schwerin said:
"The difficulties and great expense
that confront those that would build
ships in American yards do not neces-
sarily suggest the free ships would be
a remedy for existing evils. / am con-
fdent that the free ship theory will be
eliminated from the question if an in
CiedSAhS, AON uiAilliohlilS, SupSluS q
subsidy that will increase from year
to year during it's term instead of di-
minish.
Il do not attempt to point out what
may be considered an infallible rem
edy and / will say that in my opinion
you will never find a remedy without
the cooperation of practical shipping
men. 1 don't believe any cold blooded
bill can be framed that will relieve the
situation, but 1 do believe that great
aid could be given by a progressive, not
aggressive, subsidy Capital must be
encouraged and shipyards as we'll as
ship owners protected and aided"
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