Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-07

might be supplied greatly to the advan-
tage of our farmers and manufacturers,
as well as the public generally.
Mr.. George MARBLES of the Cudahy
Company of Omaha writes: You must
be aware that the United States govern
men- at present Is paying the few Amer
lean steamships which carry the mail
three or four times what it pays foreign
vessels for the same service"
That Is not true. Under existing laws
our expenditures for ocean mails are
about equally divided between American
steamships and steamships of the great
maritime powers-England, France. Ger
many and Japan-Which in some cases,
by the very terms of their mail contracts.
are constituted parts of their respective
navies in the event Of war. Thus we are
backing up the navies of other nations
and assisting to support their national
defenses while we are doing nothing for
our own.
What Uncle Sam Pays.
In 1905 we paid s.. $50. $50 for the trans
portation Of our foreign mails. OF this
sum s1,666.116 went to American ships
and sS90,164 to foreign ships.
In 1905 we paid 50 695.2s7 for the trans
portation of our foreign mails, of which
81. 467 ,255 went to American ships and
81. .O32 to foreign ships.
In 1909 we paid 81. ,665 for the trans
portation OF our foreign mails. of which
81, 245 went to American ships and
81 .607 40 to foreign ships.
Thus you will see that the amount paid
to American ships has fallen i'm four
ference of s56s,sol: while the amount
paid to foreign ships has increased from
SSS9.l64 to- 81 601 .i20-a difference of
$71S,2
In other words, American ships have
lost more than half a million dollars an
n M al q ia
gained nearly three-quarters OF a million
in mall pay annually from our Treasury
in four years.
Mr.. MARBLES also asserts that outside
of comparatively small sum for the
construction of ships which can be used
I'm war time the British government pays
nothing in the way of subsidies, and fully
90 per cent of British shipping receives
no subsidy IN any shape or FORM
That is not SO. The Cunard line alone
receives an annual subsidy Of $1,000. 7SS
from the British government. and the Pc
ninsular and Oriental receives 81 ,4S4. 13O
The North German Lloyd receives 81 1885,
100 from the German government. The
Messageries Maritlmes receives $2,546,-
a56 and the Compagnie Generate receives
s., 254 from the French government
The Nippon Yusen Kaisha receives ST.
s51 .4S7 and the Togo Kaisen receives
The Austrian Lloyd receives S1,S25 900
from the Austrian government. The Com
panic Transatlantica receives S1.629, 92S
from the Spanish government, and the
Navigazione Italiana receives $1.S15774
from the Italian government.
Millions for Carrying Mail.
Thus these ten companies alone re-
ceived the sum of $17,5OOVoO from
seven different governments for carry
ing the mails without. reference to
cargo. naval reserve subsidies and 9TH
er forms of encouragement that nave
built up their merchant marines
Mr.. Chamberlain, the commissioner
of navigation, has prepared an elabor-
ate table, showing that almost every
civilized nation except the United
States pays subsidies for the encour-
agement of its merchant marine, and
the following are the amounts for the
latest year for which returns have been