The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-04

e and confession of her nephew, Frank
as learned that the crime was committed
f eighteen dollars.
of foreign ships and the lower cost of
maintenance of these ships-due, in
both cases, primarily, to lower wages.
table is given showing that nearly all
of the foreign powers grant shipping
subsidies. France pays more than S.
100000 each for the encouragement of
their merchant marine.
AS the first essential step in the re-
Mobilization of merchant shipping,
the commission proposes to create a.
force of naval volunteers composed
of the best officers and men of Amer
fishing vessels. Necessarily small at
first, means for a healthy and sure
expansion of tie force is provided by
the payment of substantial retainers
as Involvement to enroll. 1t is I'M
derstood that officers and men shall
receive their seaman'S pay besides
hts retainer during their period of
actual naval instruction. The navy
department has asked for a reserve of
90, 600 men in the bills it has presented
to congress. The report quotes the
commissioner of navigation to show
that not more than 10000 American
citizens are included in the enrolment
of employees on all the American YES
sells on salt water which go out of
sight of land for any time during the
year. Commenting on this lack of
material Tor naval volunteer force,
the commission says: "Out of these
20, 600 officers and men probably not
more than One-half would be eligible
for naval VOLUNTEER service. It is
therefore manifest that ship owners
must not only be encouraged to en-
ploy these naval volunteers, but en-
couraged to build more ships to de-
velop an increased naval service, as
well as to advance the interests of
commerce"
The proposed rate of SIS per gross
ton, the commission says, is unques-
tionably sufficient to equalize condi-
lions for American sail vessels as
against foreign sail vessels, save in the
France. 1t is declared also that this
rate is sufficient to equalize conditions
for American cargo steamers, save in
exceptional instances, but it is ad-
mitted without controversy that the
naval subvention will not of itself en-
courage the building of swift and ex-
pensiVe steamships. 1t is the Judg-
ment of the commission that in the
restoration of the American merchant
marine it is the useful, Woodworking
ship of steam and sail which should
have the first and friendliest consider
alton. The reason assigned for this
is that the American people in the
main are producers of bulky COM
modfties, so far as concerns their ex-
port commerce.
1t is strongly emphasized by the
tions offered in the proposed bill are
not bounties outright or mere COM
merciaI subsidies, but are distinctly
based on important public services to
be given by the ships and ship owners
that receive them. AS to the con-
stitutionality and expediency of such
guarded subventiOns, it is said there
can be no question whatever, in the
subventions given to both vessels and
men for the prospective naval service
by the fathers of the republic and con-
tinued by their immediate successors.
In the proposed bill not one dollar
is added to the expenditures for any
one of the FIVE established contract
ocean mail lines. The present ocean
mail act is not amended except as
to certain specific new routes TO De
esta blished and the new requirements
as to naval volunteers. The reduced
compensation under the mail law of
1891 was insufficient to establish con-
tract mail lines to the greater coun-
tries of South America, to Central
America, to Africa or to the Orient,
and the commission recommends in
the proposed bill a substantial increase
of compensation on certain speclned
routes where American steam service
will be most likely to increase the for
eign markets for American merchan-
disc. As a rule. the ten new ocean
mail routes specified must be created
from the beginning, not only the lines,
but the ships themselves.
The last feature of the proposed
bill is a plan to increase the tonnage
taxes on all vessels American and
foreign, now entering our ports in the
foreign trade. The commission says
the present rates of tonnage taxes in
the United States are lower than
those of the principal maritime ma
tons. The original purpose of such
charges was to provide a fund for
lighting the coast for the benefit of
shipping. A comparison is made show
ing that in 1903 the light dues col
lected in the United Kingdom
to $2.74O,980, while the ex-
penses of the British lighthouse estab-
1ishment were $2.497,020; in the
United States tonnage tax receipts in
1903 were $SS5,S41, while the ex-
penses of the lighthouse establish
ment We're S4,5Ss,1o5- 1t is not the
purpose of the commission, however,
to raise through tonnage taxes an
amount sufficient to meet the entire
cost of the lighthouse establishment.
The commission believes that the
sum of $3.OO0.00O is not an unreason-
sells in the foreign trade toward the
maintenance of the national light
house. buoy and bea con system, which
doubtless, this year Will cost about
100000. Rates proposed in the bill
have been adjusted so as to produce
as nearly as may be that sum-
As to the cost of the proposed Iegis-
lation the commission says the aver
age of the annual retainers for officers
and seamen of the naval volunteers
would be close to $50 each and that it
is probable that in the first year no
could be enrolled and qualified. AS to
the subventions for the ships them
selves the total REGISTERED gross tonnage
OF the United States steam and SAIL