Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-24
PLEA FOR MORE SHIPS
Extension of Ocean Mail Serv-
ice Urged.
Mr.. GALLINGER'S APPEAL
Would Have Lines to South America
and Orient. a
FEW OF OUR CRAFT ON PACIFIC
Effect Pointed Out Of Spending a
Few Million Dollars a Year in
Aiding the Shipping.
FEW OF OUR CRAFT ON PACIFIC

Senator Gallinger Of New Hampshire to-
day addressed the Senate in favor of the
passage of his shipping bill TO enlarge
the scope of the mali subsidy law.
she measure provides that the Post
master General shall pay for ocean mail
service under the act OF March ,. 1891
in vessels of the second class on routes
to South America, the Philippines. Japan.
China and Australia 1900 miles o. more
in length. outward voyage. at a rate per
mile not exceeding the rate applicable to
vessels of the first class as provided
in the act referred to.
A National Humiliation.
In the course of his speech Mr.. Calm
ger said:
The most smartins and humiliatins
episode of the entire year is the revela-
alton which the Pacific cruise OF the great
battleship feet is affordng. that our
merchant marine is now sllrunk To such
skeleton that it does not contain enough
ocean-going steam GOLFERS to provide the
indispensable fuel for our battleships
their voyage from the American port of
Hampton roads to the American port of
San Francisco. We have barges and
coasters, hundreds OF them. but almost
no OceI-WdteI freight SHIPS ol the klilQ
requisite TO accompany and supply bat
tleship fleet. So the Navy Department
has reluctantly chartered foreign steamers
to perform this national service. and to
the humiliation of the absence of our
own commercial flag from the ports of
South America which the battleship fleet
will visit is added the humiliation of
the presence there of these attendant
GOLFERS. flying the flags and manned by
the subjects of European governments"
No New Issue Raised.
After describing the provisions of the
bill he continued:
1.-The bin raises no new issue intro
duces no new. principle 1t leaves exist
ing and pros. erous steamship services
exactly they are now. and without
changing one iota the tried and approved
methods of the present law. increases the
compensation on routes which sixteen
years of experience have concluSively
proved to be inadequate-the long costly
and the orient. the routes where our lack
of steamship service is severest and our
need of such service most imperative.
Mail Service to South America.
Not one American steamship of any
Chile or Peru. An American mail service
NONRESIDENT Not one American steam
ship now runs from either our Atlantic
or our Pacific coast to Australasia. The
mail service to both of these continents
must be created from the very beginning.
Five American steamers of the Pacific
Mail now run across the Pacific to Japan
and China, but only one of these goes
regularly to the Philippines. One Ameri
can steamer of the Great Northern Com
pany and two of the Boston Steamship
Company run from Puget sound TO Japan.
China and occasionally to the Philippines,
but it is understood that two. if not three,
of these vessels are for sale, and that
at any time. unless relief is given to them
the service may be totally abandoned.
The general ma-iager of the Pacific Mail
Company stated before the Society OF
Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
a few weeks ago that the tifty-year-old
charter of his company. soon to expire.
might be surrendered and the line with
drawn within a twelvemonth.
American Ships on Pacific.
Last March there were fifteen Ameri-
can steamships plying across the Pa
cific ocean. Now only eight are left.
gress was defeated almost one-half of our
feeble American Pacific naval reserve
has disappeared. and when Admiral Evans
steers up through the Golden Gate from
the Straits of Magellan we shall have the
grotesque disproportion in the Pacific OF
two battleShips to every commercial Nes-
sci engaged in foreign trade-a sight
which has never yet been seen beneath the
sun.
and unless the new. shipping bill is
speedily passed we shall see even
more grotesaue dspropOrt' on than that
sixteen battleShipS and not one CONNER
cial steamer in the Pacific away from the
ports Of the United States. For the rem
nant of our merchant marine in that
mighty ocean is now facing the absolute
extinction which long since overlook our
commercial feet on the routes TO South
America.
Appeal to Patriotism.
II am confident, however. that there
will be a strong. patriotic majority in
both houses of Congress TO sustain the
new legislation which is proposed. and
which the business interests of the entire
country SO eagerly and unitedly support.
This BILL so brief and yet so potent will
save and strengthen our Pacific lines of
communication. and create new lines to
the southern hemisphere. l predict that
if it becomes d law it will promptly cs-
tablish A line from the Atlantic coast to
Brazil. another line to Argentina. a line
from the South Atlantic or guilt
coast to South America. and similar COM
in the Pacific ocean. 1t can do
all this for expenditure
not exceeding three four million dollars
a year. about half of what England and |
France now pay for their steamship serv- |
Ice. less than what Japan pays. and no /
more than the present annual net profit I
derived by the Treasury from the now |
meager and unsatisfactory ocean mail |
service of the United States. The British |
postmaster general puts the British loss |
on the foreign transportation OF British !
mails at about s2.O)O.O00 annually. while !
i'm the last fiscal year we made a profit of !
81. COOOCO on the carriage of our foreign |
mails. Why should not at least this
amount be expended i'm way to encCur-
age the building of American ships for
the foreign trade? And While we would
thus be building up our commercial ia
riIities we would at the same time be
adding to the naval strength of the re-