Naval Auxiliaries for Use in the Merchant Marine; Hearings Before a Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Naval Affairs, House of Representatives, Sixty-Third Congress, Second Session, on S. 5259, a Bill to Establish One or More United States Navy Mail (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 Excerpt: ...capital owns employ almost no American labor. This proposed legislation, in its mail and naval subvention sections, gives the Gulf States assurance of a new and important industry, absolutely essential to them if they are to realize to the full the magnificent advantages opened by the great Isthmian Canal. Under this proposed legislation, the Gulf cities can build their own ships, officer, and largely man them--thus giving their boys a new field of employment--repair their own ships and supply them with their own materials, and thus keep at home all the profits of their ocean trade that now go over the sea to Liverpool, London, Hamburg, Bremen, Havre, Marseille, Trieste, and Genoa. The Isthmian Canal, built by American money, will bring not pride, but humiliation, to the American people if it floats, in foreign commerce, only foreign and no American ships. THREE PACIFIC LINES. Three of the ten contract mall lines of the proposed bill are on the Pacific Ocean. Like the Atlantic and Gulf services, they follow natural trade routes of large present and larger future importance. As the President of the United States said in the annual message to Congress, In which he recommended the creation of this commission, "The establishment of new lines of cargo ships to South America, to Asia, and elsewhere would be much in the interest of our commercial expansion." Two new contract lines of mail and cargo steamers are therefore proposed in the accompanying bill, not only to Japan and China, but to the Philippines. These are very long routes, and in the Pacific coal Is costly. It has thus been necessary to set the trans-Pacific subventions at a figure that may seem high, but that is not high considering the expense and the importance of the service. Indeed, the ...