senger to do the same service in the United States. The higher the expense for such transportation, and the greater the difficulties to be encountered, the more the United States should be willing to pay. Just as the Government, or an individual, pays a company, or a person, to do any work for it, in accordance with the conditions surrounding this undertaking, so the United States should take into consideration what are the conditions surrounding the carrying of the mails on comparatively fast steamers to distant ports of foreign lands. If the United States pays a certain man $1,000 for carrying the mail one year in a stage coach between two towns in Vermont, or Colorado, so that people living in this section may have good service, it is difficult to understand why the same Government should not be willing to pay a proportionate amount to carry mails between, for instance, New York City and Buenos Aires, the great commercial entrepot of South America, and other important places in foreign lands. Without, however, going further into this argument, beyond simply emphasizing that I argue in favor of practical every-day methods being applied to American steamship service, without any regard to actual subsidies, I state now what supports me in my argument. Ar First: No one can dispute the importance of building up closer relations of commerce and friendship between the United States and the great staple countries of South America, like the Argentine Republic. The foreign trade of Argentina last year amounted to $360,000,000, of which the share of the United States was only $24,000,000, counting both exports and imports; the great proportion of the remainder was with European countries. gentina is the United States of South America, and is destined in trade and influence to dominate all South America. Its capital city and chief port, Buenos Aires, has a population of one million, and is growing more rapidly than any city in the world, with the exception of New York and Chicago. When I left Buenos Aires in April, 1904, there were seven first-class fast mail and passenger steamship lines running between Buenos Aires and the principal ports of Europe, like Liverpool, Southampton, Hamburg, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Genoa, and Naples; there was not a single line of similar steamers between Buenos Aires and New York, or any North American port. In other words, there were almost two steamers per week of this kind, aside from a large regular freigh fleet running between southern South America and Europe, while no direct mail or passenger steamers with fast freight facilitie: were leaving Buenos Aires for or coming from the United States Expressed in another way, which should come home to every busi ness man in the United States, the situation is this: A merchan or banker in Buenos Aires can write to Europe and get an answe within 55 days, but he can not write to the United States and obtain a reply in less than 75 or 30 days. It is needless to poin out that such conditions are booming trade with Europe and de pressing trade with the United States in a field that has a mag nificent future. Second: Just before leaving Argentina, General Roca, th President of that Republic, informally stated to me that Arger tina stood ready to do her share in cooperation with the Unite States to pay a reasonable sum for the carrying of the mails b tween Buenos Aires and New York, in steamers which would als have passenger and fast freight facilities. He said that there wa no other influence that would do more than this to promote close relations between the two great republics of North and Sout America. The newspapers and all classes of men, irrespective calling, are favorable to such legitimate payment for services th may be done by a steamship company, and can not understar why the United States will not do its part, especially when the believe that it would add millions and millions of dollars American trade with South America. The reason why no stear ship company can now afford to put on first-class vessels betwe New York and Buenos Aires is that it can not compete succes fully against these European lines, most of which are paid w by the governments for carrying their mails, and which in sor instances have entered into contracts with freight steamship lin between the United States and southern South America not carry passengers, or put on fast mail and freight ships. Th desire naturally not only to keep the business in Europe, but keep passengers, the number of which is increasing greatly every year, from coming to the United States instead of Europe. From reliable data placed in my hands I have reason to believe that 5,000 to 10,000 representative influential men of Argentina would come to the United States every year for trade and travel, and that our trade with that country would be increased 50 to 100 per cent per annum (or to $40,000,000 to $60,000,000 per annum, and even more) if such steamship service were established. In other words, if the United States were willing to join with Argentina and pay what might be termed a reasonable wage to a steamship company for carrying the mails between New York and Buenos Aires and other South American ports, like Rio Janeiro, Santos, and Montevideo, there would be a beginning of the end about all this talk of European trade controlling South America in trade and politics. Third: During the last journey I made around the world, leaving San Francisco and going by the way of Japan, China, India, the Mediterranean, and Europe, I did not see in any important port along the highway of empire a single large merchant vessel flying the American flag. There were, on the other hand, the flags of Great Britain, Germany, and France and often that of Japan. I need not enlarge upon this condition of affairs to prove that something should be done for the upbuilding of our merchant marine. There is something the matter somewhere! During the four years that I was United States Minister in Siam I never saw one American merchant vessel enter the harbor of Bangkok, which is one of the most prosperous and important cities of Southeastern Asia, with a large and growing trade with the outer world, but every day I witnessed vessels coming in and going out flying the flags of England, Germany, Japan, and not infrequently those of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. There are to-day a half dozen fast mail and passenger steamers running between Europe and the east of Asia which are well paid by their governments for carrying the mail, while there is only one line flying the American flag between the west coast of the United States and the Orient. In harmony with this condition can be noted that the trade of Europe with Asia is six or seven times that of the United States. Ten years ago, when I first traveled up and down the coast of Asia, from Japan to India, I seldom if ever saw merchant vessels under the Japanese flag; to-day they can be found in almost every port, in addition to running to Europe and the United States. The Japanese Government and business men ascribe this wonderful development almost entirely to the liberal sums the Japanese Government voted to Japanese ships for carrying the mails in appropriate vessels. The world's production of pig iron from 1790 to 1902. 1885 1889 7,600,000 8,250,000 1895 1896. 897 .898. 899 1900 901 902. 903 4,050,000 7.420.000 2,690,000 1,630,000 2,310,000 19,100,000 25,160,000 4,247,000 28,867,000 40,490,000 40,798,000 *Partial estimate. NOTE-Official figures for the United States, the United Kinglom, Germany and France. Figures for all other countries taken rom the French and Swedish Mineral Statistics. Statement of number and tonnage of steam and sailing vessels of over 100 tons, of the principal countries of the world, as recorded in Lloyd's Register for 1903-4. Value of Foreign Carrying Trade of the United States in American and Foreign Vessels, etc.-Total United States Imports and Exports. A full day's work must be paid in full dollars.—Major McKinley, at Canton, 1896. "I believe that the protective system has been a mighty instrument for the development of our national wealth and a most powerful agency in protecting the homes of our workingmen.”. Harrison. "To increase production here, diversify our productive enterprises, enlarge the field and increase the demand for American workmen; what American can oppose these worthy and patriotic objects?”—McKinley. "Every citizen of the United States has an interest and a right in every election within the Republic where national representatives are chosen. We insist that these laws relating to our national elections shall be enforced, not nullified.”—Garfield. "A currency worth less than it purports to be worth will in the end defraud not only creditors but all those who are engaged in legitimate business, and none more surely than those who are dependent upon their daily labor for their daily bread."-Hayes. "The right of railway corporations to a fair and profitable return upon their investments and to reasonable freedom in their regulations must be recognized; but it seems only just that, so far as its constitutional authority will permit, Congress should protect the people at large in their interstate traffic against acts of injustice which the State governments are powerless to prevent."Arthur. Subsidies and Payments for the Ocean Mail Service of Great Britain and the United States from 1848 to 1903. The Resuscitation will not be promoted by recrimination. distrust of the present will not be relieved by a distrust of the future. A patriot makes a better citizen than a pessimist.-President McKinley before Manufacturers' Club, Philadelphia, June 2, 1897. While American labor is more efficient and more productive than labor elsewhere, it yet remains incontestibly true that there are thousands of commodities which can not be made by our artisans in competition with low-priced labor elsewhere.-Hon. Henry M. Hoyt. "The present phenomenal prosperity has been won under a tariff made in accordance with certain fixed principles, the most important of which is an avowed determination to protect the interests of the American producer, business man, wage-worker, and farmer alike.”—Roosevelt. |