The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-25

NEW YORK, May "a. - James ].
Hill, president of the Northern Securi-
ties company and of the Great North
ern railway, appeared this afternoon
as a witness before the merchant
marine commission, the joint congress
sional committee which is investigat-
ing the causes of the decline of Amer
lean shipping in order to suggest
measures for remedial legislation. Mr..
Hill said:
The first thing necessary is to create
a desire in the people of this country to
own ships. 1t is a purely commercial
question. If there is a profit in it, people
will engage in it; if a loss, it is a question
how long people will stick Our conditions
on the high seas as a nation seem hard
to meet On land in spite of high rates
of labor the United States has been able
to work out a system without an equal.
Why we are not able to do this the
high seas is not clear to me, and as far
as 1 have investigated it 1 believe that no
amount of direct bonuses will build it into
a life worth living.
Market Is Needed.
What the country wants is market
Outside OF cur agricultural products, cot
ton, grain, oil, there are very few things
we can export because cost of production
is SO high. We cannot sell them. If we
could carry those products in our own
bottoms it would be a source of great
profit. They can build ships in England
other countries have owned ships for
the last forty years to a greater extent
than we.
I have had experience in building two
ships, the largest freight carriers in the
world, and l don't want any more.
4
miles of railroad than two ships. 1t has
taken four years instead of two, what
through strikes and other delays.
Should Be Given Confidence.
If we are going to buy a merchant
marine out Of the treasury of the country
1t won't last long We must give people
confidence to invest In Japan they have
built up large marine; they have paid
tonnage, but l do not remember the de-
tails.
Our business on the Pacific is hard. We
have to compete with all nations and they
are fighting very hard for the Oriental
trade. And L think that we have placed
distractions in TIE way of this trade We
cannot comply with the regulations placed
on us and compete with ships of other
nations. We have been forced out.
L don't think you will make much of
a success of buying a merchant marine. 1t
pie interested, but there does not seem to
be much disposition on the part of people
to go into shipping
Mr. Hills Ships Costly.
In answer to a question of Repre-
sentative McDermott, Mr.. Hill said
that his two big ships cost 2S to 80
per cent more to build here than
abroad, adding:
Besides, we have very few sailors even
on pleasure ships. Go to Puget sound-the
heads of the unions are the boarding
house keepers. A man who is dead broke
and broken down by excesses is the man
sent to US. Same way along shore you
hire 200 men as stevedores, good compe-
tent men, and tell them to come next
day. They don't come as long as they
have money; the others are sent.
Suppose your firemen leave your ship at
some port What are you going to do?
Hire AsiaticS and the result is that while
you are nominally sailing under the
American flag you are sailing under a
foreign. You might just as well try to