Page. M. World's tonnage.. 241 1. World's steam and sail tonnage for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1892, and 1893, by countries... 242 2. World's steam and sail tonnage for 1895, by countries (Bureau Veritas)..... 244 3. World's steam and sail tonnage for 1895, by countries (Lloyd's Register) 4. Total tonnage and proportions of steam and sail as power; wood, iron, and steel as material of construction in world's tonnage for 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895 (Lloyd's Register), with British, French, and German in detail... 245 246 249 5. Total tonnage and proportion of steam and sail, and potential tonnage 6. Annual construction of the world, steam and sail, wood, iron, and steel, for 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894 (Lloyd's Register).. 250 Construction of section 4136 by the Solicitor-General, 1891 7. Details of world's construction, output of foreign yards for 1894, construction during 1895 (Lloyd's Register) 8. Vessels lost during 1894 N. Miscellaneous... 1. Repaired wrecks... 2. Effects of deceased seamen.. Decision of United States circuit court, southern district of New York. 251 258 259 259 259 260 261 261 3. Display of torch.... 262 Opinion of Attorney-General on the effect of the act of February 19, 262 4. Registry, enrollment, and license bonds issued during the fiscal year 1893-94, and abolished by act of 1895.. Extract from the report of the Commissioner of Labor, statistics of 8. Suicides among the engine force on American merchant steamships. 270 270 271 272 STATISTICAL TABLES. 1. Registered, enrolled, and licensed vessels, by States and customs districts, on June 30, 1895.. 277 2. Summary of Table 1, by States.. 285 3. Registered, enrolled, and licensed steam vessels, by States and customs districts, on June 30, 1895.. 286 4. Registered, enrolled, and licensed iron and steel vessels, by customs districts and States, on June 30, 1895.. 291 5. Registered, enrolled, and licensed iron and steel steam vessels, by customs districts and States, on June 30, 1895.. 294 6. Iron and steel sail and steam vessels and barges, by customs districts and States, on June 30, 1895.. 297 7. Total registered, enrolled, and licensed sail vessels (wood and iron or steel) 300 301 9. Balance sheet, showing rig of increase and decrease of all vessels for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1895. 302 10. Registered, enrolled, and licensed sail and steam vessels, by years, from 1789 304 11. Sail and steam vessels, canal boats, and barges, by customs districts and States, on June 30, 1895. 308 12. Summary of Table 11, by States. 316 13. Classification of sail and steam vessels by size, by customs districts and States, on June 30, 1895.. 317 14. Vessels in cod and mackerel fisheries on June 30, 1895. 332 15. Vessels in whale fisheries on June 30, 1895.. 333 16. Employment of vessels on June 30, 1895. 333 17. Vessels in foreign, coasting, and fishing trades, by years, from 1789. 334 18. Annual construction: Sail and steam vessels, canal boats, and barges, by customs districts and States, built in year ended June 30, 1895... 338 21. Summary of Table 20.. 19. Summary of Table 18, by States.... 20. Rig of sailing vessels, by customs districts and States, built in year ended June 30, 1895.. Page. 344 345 347 22. River, lake, and ocean steamers, by customs districts and States, built in year ended June 30, 1895.. 348 23. Summary of Table 22.. 353 25. Iron and steel vessels (sail, steam, barges) built in year ended June 30, 1895 ... 24. Canal boats and barges built in year ended June 30, 1895.. 26. Tonnage built annually in New England, on the seaboard, Western rivers, and Great Lakes, by years, from 1857. 27. Comparison of construction for 1894 and 1895.. 28. Sail and steam vessels built, by years, from 1797.. 29. Vessels sold to foreigners, by years, from 1821.. 30. Yachts (documented) on June 30, 1895.... 31. Yachts (documented) built in year ended June 30, 1895.... 32. Yachts (documented), iron and steel, built in year ended June 30, 1895.. 353 353 354 354 355 357 358 360 360 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF NAVIGATION. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF NAVIGATION, Washington, D. C., October 16, 1895. SIR: It is made by statute the duty of the Commissioner of Navigation annually to report to the Secretary of the Treasury such particulars in the laws relative to navigation as may, in his judgment, admit of improvement or require amendment. The laws relating to navigation are for the regulation and benefit of citizens who are engaged in the keenest competition with most powerful interests. Our navigation in the coasting trade at many points must meet the competition of the railroad interest, always organized and alert to promote the enactment of measures for its own benefit, and usually successful. Our navigation in the foreign trade must contend against the rivalry of foreign nations, which spare no effort to conduct the world's commerce and command the seas with their merchant fleets. In such close contention, even when natural advantages are equal, restrictive legislation may easily turn the scale against our maritime interests, and place them at such disadvantage that successful competition becomes well-nigh impossible. Our navigation laws abound in restrictions which serve no useful purposes whatever. They subject our shipowners, shipbuilders, navigators, and seamen to restraints, conditions, and penalties such as no other maritime nation to-day imposes upon its merchant marine. Their certain operation, under present conditions of international trade, is to make our merchant marine as small as possible, instead of as powerful as possible, and unquestionably they have had the effect of compelling American capital, willing to invest in maritime enterprises, to resort to the protection of foreign flags and foreign laws, framed in a more liberal spirit than our own. They have contributed toward the almost total extinction, within a third of a century, of the race of American seamen. The laws in point are not recent acts. As original propositions they would find few advocates to-day. It is believed that the only reason for their continued existence is the fact that the lawmaking power and the people have been engaged in the solution of larger questions of our internal development and have not had the opportunity and inclination to investigate their present operations. The ocean carrying trade of the United States is valued annually at from $100,000,000 to $125,000,000, or barely 8 per cent of the annual receipts of the railroads of the country. While the latter employ nearly 500,000 men, the whole number of seamen required to man our registered tonnage is only about 20,000, of whom much less than one-half are American citizens, while the number of men in the Navy of the United States is nearly double the number of merchant seamen engaged under the American flag in transoceanic voyages. These comparisons are instituted only to show that there is a substantial reason in human interest why the navigation laws have not been scrutinized by Congress. It is not believed that the reason is a valid one, for a powerful merchant marine is a source of national wealth and national strength and prestige, and the lack of it, especially at a time when the upbuilding of the Navy makes such progress, is a source of national mortification, the removal of which may well enlist the most thoughtful efforts of statesmanship and legislation. The laws relative to navigation have been reviewed in the preparation of this report, and the recommendations following are almost entirely in the line of the removal of restrictions upon our merchant marine, comprising under that term the interests of shipowners, shipbuilders, masters, and seamen in the merchant service. THE FREE SHIP BILL. I have the honor respectfully to renew the recommendation made last year in favor of the repeal of that restriction of law which denies the use of the American flag, the privilege of American registry, and the protection of the laws of the United States to vessels owned by American citizens and navigated in foreign trade, unless built in the United States. The reasons for this recommendation were set forth in some detail in the annual report of the Bureau for 1894. The President of the United States, in his last annual message, and the Secretary of the Treasury, in his last annual report, recommended the removal by Congress of this restriction of law. The effect of this law, under existing industrial conditions, is not only to encourage but virtually to compel American capital, willing to embark in transoceanic navigation, to organize under the laws of other nations and resort to alien flags. Thus, in effect, an American law forces Americans to enhance the maritime importance of foreign nations at the sacrifice of our own. Such, of course, has not always been the effect of the law and will not always continue to be its effect. During the first sixty years of our national existence the United States built the best and cheapest vessels in the world. Our virgin forests, close to the seaboard, gave us materials for marine construction on more advantageous terms than those upon which competing nations could obtain them. Industrial conditions, not the registry law, gave to this country its great power on the seas for more than half a century. The comparatively recent and wonderful development of our iron and steel industries points to a time, doubtless early in the next century, when industrial conditions once again will enable us to build the best and cheapest vessels in the world, but industrial conditions, not tenacious adherence to our copy of a law of George III, will then restore to this country its proper rank as a maritime power. The registry law never has determined and never can determine the market in which vessels designed for international trade are bought. In that respect it differs radically from a tariff law, and only confusion of thought and action can result from the belief that their operations are similar. |