STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR.

On June 30, 1899, the merchant marine of the United States, including all kinds of documented shipping, comprised 22,728 vessels, of 4,864,238 gross tons. On June 30, 1898, it comprised 22,705 vessels, of 4,749,738 gross tons. The following table shows the geographical distribution, motive power, and material of construction, and trade of vessels of the United States for the fiscal year 1899, compared with the fiscal year 1898, and also the construction for the two years:

The statistics printed on the preceding page and set forth in detail in tables at the end of this volume furnish an analysis, from various points of view, of the merchant marine of the United States.

MARITIME GROWTH OF NATIONS.

If we wish to ascertain our rank in the world as a maritime commercial power, and our share in the world's carrying trade, to discover whether our rate of progress has equaled that of shipping generally, we must make comparisons with the shipping statistics of foreign nations. For this purpose the statistics of the Bureau Veritas, one of the world's great classification societies, will be used for the following reasons: First, they are confined to seagoing vessels, which alone are to be considered in questions of international trade. The official statistics of other countries as well as of the United States cover lake and river navigation of certain classes of vessels not adapted to deep-sea trade. Second, these figures take the minimum basis of 50 tons for sail vessels and 100 tons for steam vessels. The official records of the United States include documented vessels of 5 tons as a minimum; of Great Britain, 15 tons; France, 2 tons; Norway, 4 tons; Russia, 25 tons; Italy, 2 tons, and Belgium, 40 tons. Comparison on such varying bases is apt to be misleading. Finally, the fiscal years of countries vary. For the purpose in view the figures of the Bureau Veritas are the most complete and reliable known to this office, and they are without bias.

It is deemed necessary to separate the statistics of seagoing sail tonnage and steam tonnage. Natural causes have been in operation for some years to reduce rapidly the former. Since 1873 the world's seagoing sail tonnage has been reduced 40 per cent. The operation of natural causes was accelerated by the opening of the Suez Canal at the end of 1869 and the establishment of tolls in 1873 which were virtually prohibitory on sail vessels. The prevalent calms of the Red Sea are another obstacle to the use of that route by sail vessels. As it is not proposed to consider sail tonnage, except incidentally, in the pages following relating to foreign trade, the statistics showing its decline are presented in concise form. It will be noted that the percentage of decline in the United States is the same, 40 per cent, as for the world generally; the decline in Great Britain has been more rapid than in the world generally, while Norway alone has contrived to maintain a sail tonnage equal to that of quarter of a century ago. explanatory.

The table is self

While the world's sail tonnage in twenty-five years has decreased from 14,185,836 tons to 8,693,769 tons, the world's seagoing steam tonnage has increased from 4,328,193 gross tons to 18,887,132 gross tons, an increase of 336 per cent, or nearly at the rate of 14 per cent yearly. The following table shows the gross tonnage of the seagoing steamships of over 100 gross tons of the world for the years indicated, with the percentage of the total under the flag of each of the ten principal maritime nations, which own nine-tenths of the total. Under the total tonnage, for comparison, is stated the total steam tonnage of the Atlantic and of the Pacific coasts registered under the flag of the United States for the foreign trade.

The development of Japan is the most remarkable. At the beginning of the quarter of the century that country's steamships were not separately stated, but included in six of 3,459 gross tons assigned to Asia. There is thus no base on which to compute that country's increase. Norway has gained over 1,400 per cent and Germany nearly 700 per cent. The gain of the British Empire is 311 per cent, while the gain of the rest of the world, excluding the British Empire, is 364 per cent. The absolute gain of the United States is relatively a heavy loss. In relative standing Great Britain and France retain, respectively, the first and third place. The United States has lost to Germany the second place and taken the fourth, held by the Empire at the close of the Franco-Prussian war. Japan, which had no rank, has become seventh, and Norway has advanced from the ninth to the fifth position. If from seagoing steamships could be separated those engaged exclusively in coasting trade, the United States would rank slightly ahead of Japan. The points of resemblance and difference between these nations in natural resources, in national characteristics, theories of government, and other matters readily occur to the mind. To ascertain why the United States, so successful in most lines of human industry, should be a laggard in shipbuilding and mercantile navigation, industries essentially national and more closely a part of the State and more subject to State control than any others, we may confine investigation to those points in which our country differs from all the others named.

First. All the ten countries named, except the United States, have adopted the "free-ship" system, and admit to the national registry ves

sels built in other countries. Great Britain, in point of fact, rarely admits vessels built elsewhere, as she builds more cheaply at home.

Second. Nearly all the countries named, except the United States, can operate vessels at a lower cost (excluding factors based on the first cost of construction, such as depreciation, insurance, and interest) than can Great Britain.

Third. All the countries named, whether adhering to free-trade or protection theories, except the United States and Norway, have for some years and for some purpose consistently pursued some method of government assistance and contribution to shipping.

Fourth. All the countries named, except the United States (until 1891) and the neutral powers, Holland and Norway, have regarded the merchant marine as a source of national strength, and as such entitled to national consideration.

Fifth. All the countries named, except the United States, have regarded the merchant marine as a source of national wealth and a share of the ocean-carrying trade as an object to be sought, not to be abandoned.

66

FREE-SHIP POLICY.

The policy of admitting to the national register and to national privileges vessels built in foreign countries, popularly known as the free-ship" policy, has been adopted within recent years by all maritime nations except the United States. In the case of nearly all other maritime nations the adoption of this policy has been preceded, accompanied, or soon followed by legislation designed to promote domestic shipbuilding by the aid of the Government. The reasons for this course are not far to seek, though they are not, perhaps, on the surface. In the abstract and on the surface the "free-ship" policy is merely the economic rule of buying in the cheapest market. In the concrete, however, it has meant for many years and now means the purchase of British-built vessels. Excluding Great Britain, each maritime nation practically confines its shipbuilding to its own flag. Thus, during the last ten years, Great Britain built 2,135,099 tons of steel steamships for foreign countries, of which 501,354 tons were for Germany alone, and 226,358 tons for Norway. During the decade Germany built only 74,548 tons for foreign nations, of which 41,252 tons were built during the past two years, while other countries during the ten years built only 75,171 tons of steel steamships for other flags than their own, respectively.

The tonnage just mentioned has been wholly vessels built in British yards, but never navigated under the red ensign. The importance of the "free-ship" policy to Great Britain is emphasized by the fact that during the same ten years 2,021,962 tons of British iron and steel steamships have been transferred to the flags of foreign nations under whose laws such transfer was permitted. It is worth notice that two-thirds of the tonnage thus transferred consisted of iron steamships, the places of which on British lists have been supplied by more modern steel construction. Iron is no longer used for the hulls of vessels.

Steel steamships are the most effective means of present international transportation. The following summary, compiled from the statistics of Lloyds Register for 1899-1900 will show at a glance the present situation as to construction. The figures give the number of steel steamships of various sizes now in existence which were built in Great Britain and Ireland, and those which were built in all the rest of the world. By far the greater part of these vessels are slow steam

ships, but included in the number are, with a few exceptions of iron or wooden vessels, all the seagoing steamships of 14 knots or upward.

Great Britain's preponderance as a maritime power is familiar to all. The importance to Great Britain of the adoption by other nations of the "free-ship" policy is indicated by the following analysis of the summary above, showing the place of build of steel steamships under flags other than the British:

Great Britain has thus not only built and now navigates under her own flag 3,877 steel steamships, but she built over half of the 3,615 steel steamships which now navigate under foreign flags. If the analysis were to be pushed even further it could be shown that of the 1,777 steel steamships built elsewhere than in Great Britain, nearly, if not fully, one-half have been built under favorable conditions created by legislation designed to promote national shipbuilding.

The analysis just concluded is not designed as an encomium on Great Britain, though one is necessarily impressed by the testimony the figures give to the industrial strength of that nation. It does, however, appear to be a complete reply to the theory advanced in the last year or two, in some quarters, that modern steel steamships can at this time be built in the United States as cheaply as in Great Britain. Three-fourths of the most modern construction of the world's merchant fleets are to-day the product of British shipyards. Even with the great decrease in the cost of steel production in the United States, compared with the cost in Great Britain, there must be a great increase in the number and extent of our shipbuilding plants before we can enter into competition with Great Britain, or even Germany, in this industry. It has been stated that at first blush the "free ship" policy is merely the economic rule of buying in the cheapest market. It has just been shown that Great Britain has built 3,877 steel steamships under her own flag, and has built over one-half of the steel steamships operated under foreign flags, evidence that must be regarded as conclusive as to the whereabouts of the cheapest market. If the full effect, however, of the policy is to be understood, reasons must be shown why 1,838 out of 5,715 steel steamships built in Great Britain are navigated under foreign flags instead of remaining under the British flag. These reasons will be found to be two-fold, based in part on legislation and in part on natural conditions.

The laws of Spain virtually restricted trade between the Peninsula and the colonies to vessels under the Spanish flag. Practically, the