Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-19
AMERICAN SHIPPING

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the people. Chiefest of all so held are
the maritime interests of the nation.
Recent and pending naval maneuvers
have developed a criminal neglect on
the part of our national law makers,
flashing the unwelcome truth in the
faces Of the people that, though our
fighting power afioat is second only TO
one other nation, it is last to all other
nations by reason of total lack of an
auxiliary from our merchant marine.
Rear Admiral Cowles, chief of the
bureau Of equipment. appeared before
the house committee on naval affairs
on Thursday last and informed its
members that the cost of transporta-
tion of coal for the fleet now sailing to
San Francisco will be S1,000,OO0. With
out making any corrective recon1men-
dations, he called attention to the fact
that with single exception the Golfers
chartered to accompany the fleet are
foreign bottoms, American owners hav-
ing declined to give charters even at
the so per cent advance over foreign
quotations, which the government
offered.
The reason for their refusal was that
American vessels could make more
money by plying in the coastwise trade.
The exception noted was the collier Vir-
ginia, whose owners give a charter at
a slight advance because they purposed
transferring the craft to the Pacific
trade.
To the uninitiated it must seem
strange that an American master would
refuse a so per cent higher rate for a
ship than a foreign firm could profitably
work for. 1t is not so to the American
ship owner. He knows, to his sorrow,
that the past twenty years of railroad
control of the senate has frozen out all
foreign agencies for American shipping,
and that where the Englishman, or
German, is sure of return freight from
almost any port of Importance In the
world, he must purchase ballast to
return with, and wait the next chance
charter to pay his rates, dues, taxes
and help.
The practical application of this state
of things nautical is pictured by the
American consul general at Hong Kong
thus:
1.-THE enjoyment of American foreign
trade by non-American ships may be
Illustrated thus: The 119 ships of the
United States arriving in 1906 brought
to Hong Kong a total of Il, 4S0 tons
from the United States, yet the flour
receipts alone for the year, nearly all
from America, were 1885 tons, and OF
kerosene oil, mainly an American prod
uct, total of 72,S6s tons, to make no
mention of cotton piece goods and gen.
eral merchandise. So of exports, Amer
lean ships took from Hong Kong but
56.149 tons, not all of which went to the
United States. All the remainder OF the
huge exports went in foreign ships. OF
the S,744,2s7 tons of imports into Hong
Kong for 1906 American ships brought |
Al, 43O tons; of the 1,940,274 tons of ex-
ports only Sc, 149 tons went in American
bottoms. OF the 2,s7s,360 tons in tran
sit only 25.S29 tons are credited to
American ships These figures have to
do with ocean traffic.
"As for river trade from Hong Kong |
as a center to Canton and the Delta, |
while six other nations figure in the
statistics, not one item is credited to
the United States"
Upon these deplorable and humiliat-
ing facts he comments as follows: 1.-THE
share of American ships in the immense
traffic of this port is humiliating to
those who know the proud place they
held in the early days of this colony
and earlier in the Canton trade. The
present day liners from San Francisco
and Seattle are the largest ships that
come to Hong Kong. In these leVia-
thans every American takes pride, and
for passenger travel they are in high
favor; but while in tonnage capacity
the rank of the United States is not
small, the huge ships OF the Great
Northern, Pacific Mail and other lines
bringing up the total, the fact remains
that a great body of the imports and
exports of our Pacific and Atlantic ports
are carried in ships flying foreign nag.
The total number of ocean ships arriy-
ing and clearing at Hong Kong in 1906
was 1884, of which 1897 were British;
and of the 42S7 foreign (non-British)
the Germans listed 1852, the Japanese
594, the Norweglans 552, the French ABS,
the Chinese 4O5, the Portuguese 14S and
the Dutch 125, while there were 119
arrivals and departures credited to the
United States. While the immense indi-
vidual tonnage of the few American
ships that come to this port made
total of 6l3,115, yet the German ships
aggregated over four times as much
the Japanese over twice as much, and
the French somewhat more than the
American"
These are official utterances and ably
voice the imperative need of some form
of government aid to the men who are
willing to invest their money in Ameri-
can ship building.
While corporate power aided and
abetted by a servile backing in the
senate, controlled all legislation it was
impossible to obtain such laws as would
rejuvenate the marine interests. with
out building up a far worse monopoly
afloat than has cursed the people
ashore; but now that the great trusts
ara in a. .uuiescent state owing to an