The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-04-01
OUR MERCHANT MARINE.

Two representatives of The Ranch made an in
s~pection visit to the great Hill ocean liner Mime
sofa while she was loading at the Great Northern
dock in Seattle. For several weeks she had been
lying there undergoing repairs and installing a
wireless telegraph apparatus. A change in her
sailing route has been made so that she will visit
the Philippines in addition to China and Japan,
to which her trips have been made recently. In
consequence of the large amount of active work
necessary visitors were only allowed to go aboard
one day in each week.
Everywhere men were busily engaged in prep
arations for the voyage. The fittings and furnish
ings of the staterooms of the different classes, OF
the kitchens, dining rooms and saloons, the pom
derous engines and multifarious machinery Tor
handling and supplying the ship and for loading
and unloading and slowing her cargo, were all
receiving the finishing touches of sklllful hands
for their respective duties.
Men were equally busy outside and aboard in
handling the cargo. Loading was in progress at
four points simultaneously At one port a carload
of flour was going in by conveyor; at another a
carload of stewards supplies of vegetables, grocer
les, ETC., was being slowed for use during the voy-
age: at one hatch cotton from the South was be-
ing hoisted into the hold for Oriental manufac-
ture: at another cases of canned and sailed fish
was being loaded from one of the Sound vessels.
A total of 1920 bales of cotton and 11,053 barrels
of -four were taken to the Orient that came from
the fields of the North and the South, besides the
fish from the Coast. Besides there was a con-
SlR0m00C OF government supplies ll Mdull
Added to these material supplies was the load
of humanity going on trips of business and pleas
ure. Sailing from Seattle March 20 the vessel will
return June 4.
That is the mission of the great ocean liners
that constitute the merchant marine of our cOun-
try. All too few are these peaceful emissaries of
our nation. The companion of this one went to
pieces on a rock in the Orient and no other will
take it's place under present conditions. Other ma
lions are substituting their merchant vessels and
are absorbing the carrying trade from our ports,
More freight goes to the Orient under Japanese
flags than under the Stars and Stripes. To other
points more is carried under foreign flags than
under Old Glory. Only about one per cent of
our ocean traffic goes under the American flag.
Under Canadian competition freights eastward
from the states between the Rocky Mountains and
the Mississippi River have been lowered, and I'M
der the important decision rendered last year by
the Interstate Commerce Commission freights
have been turned eastward to go from Atlantic
ports to the Orient via the Suez Canal, rather than
send them by their natural routes through the
Coast cities.
The completion of the new transcont1nental
railroad lines and the construction of the Panama
Canal will tend to modify the situation, but there
are other factors that imperatively demand the
thoughtful consideration of our solons at Wash
ington.
AS one is permitted to stand on the bridge OF
the Minnesota and gaze at the panoramic scene
of activity below that covers her entire length OF
$50 feet and breadth of 1876 feet, it gives force to
the inquiry whether the flag at her masthead must
give way to that of some other nation that gives
more care and attention to the needs of its mer-
chant marine. We hope and trust that there may
soon be sailing from our Sound cities several
counterparts of the Minnesota carrying the Stars
and Stripes.