The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-26
STEVENS FAYORS
AMERICAN SHIPS
Files Committee Report on
Vessels In the Government
Service.

WASdlNGION, IL. u, MdfCn 20
Representative Stevens, of Minnesota,
today filed the favorable report author
lied by the house committee on mer-
chant marine and fisheries on an
amended senate bill "to require the
employment Of vessels of the United
States for public purposes" The bill
requires all government supplies trans
ported by sea to be carried in vessels
either owned by the government or fly
ing the American flag.
The report bases. the necessity for
the bill on the ground that it never is
safe to depend upon foreigners for the
defense of our own country. 1t says
the United States now owns thirteen
passenger and freight transports, and
that should those be inadequate for the
necessary transportation of govern
ment supplies and troops, ships flying
the American flag only may be used in
addition, and that the government can
not. expect American ships to be avail
able to an emergency. The report re-
fers to the present conflict between
Russia and Japan and says:
'It is realized that the safety and
hope of Japan1lies in it's splendid navy
having control of the sea, as well as in
its equally splendid merchant marine,
which can transport more than 100000
men,. with their equipment and sup
plies, from. 200 to 500 miles away from
home to give battle to the mighty Rus
sian empire on foreign soil. Japan
would be crushed were it not for this
ample supply Of merchant vessels"
These Think Otherwise.
Representative Lucking submitted a
minority report signed by himself and
Messrs. Spight, Goulden and McDer-
mott. This report declares the bill to be a
''step in the policy of substituting our
merchant marine, for which for seven
years the most active, persistent, inf1u-
entail and unblushing lobby has been
pounding the life out of both branches
of congress-" The report says that
outside of the goods transported in
vessels owned by the government,
there was paid in freights for such
carrying, in the year 1901, $4,523, 954,
and that this carrying is done princi-
palIy to the Philippines, and, like the
major portion of all our war and naval
expenditures Of the present day, has
been rendered necessary by the Ill
advised subjugation and retention Of
those islands"
The report says the bill is a most
bare faced misrepresentation Of public
moneys, and adds:
OF the seventeen vessels now engaged in
this traffic on the Pacific all are manned
exclusively Except officerS) by Chinese
sailors, who work for one-third or one
fourth the wages that American sailors
receive; so that the American sailors have
been completely supplanted by these
Chinese in the very Pacific. ocean com
panies who are pressing the bill, and who
are in part, to get its gratuities.
In some respects this bill is worse than
any pronounced subsidy measure which
has been advocated in congress, because
it gives an absolute monopoly to few
corporations and individuals who may
and probably will form a combine and hold
up the government for all it will stand.
coastwise Bill Postponed.
Representative Grosvenor, chairman
Of the house committee on merchant
marine and fisheries, today made a re-
port from that committee in favor Of
the passage of the senate bill applying
the coastwise laws Of the United
States andsthe Philippine islands after
July 1, 1905. The report from the
senate committee on this bill is adopt
ed by the house committee with the
added comment that the committee
believes that before the period when
the law becomes effective, July 1. 1905,
there will be found ample American
shipping to handle the trade. The mi
nority will file their views later.
In the report Of the vote ON report
ing the Philippine shipping bill it was
stated that two Republicans voted with
the minority. This, it is said, was a
mistake, as only one Republican voted
in the negative. The negative Repub
lican votes were on another PROPOSE
ton.