THE UNITED STATES
While a navigation code founded in 1790 and 1792, and developed in 1816,
1817, and 1820, after the model of the then existing English code,[FS]
has been retained in modified form through enactments in subsequent
years, a system of general ship-subsidies, though repeatedly proposed,
has never been adopted by the United States. From 1793 to 1866 bounties
were given to fishing vessels and men employed in the bank and other
deep-sea fisheries,[FT] but no subsidies to the merchant marine were
granted till 1845, and these were only postal subsidies--payments in
excess of an equivalent for services to be rendered in ocean
mail-carriage. The law enacted that year had for its declared purpose
the encouragement of American ocean steamship-building and running. With
this act, therefore, the real history of Government aid to domestic
shipping in this country begins.
At the time of the adoption of this policy America was still leading the
world in ocean sailing-ships with her splendid fleets of fast-sailing
packets and "clippers", while England had taken the lead in steamships.
The law of 1845 was the culmination of a move begun in Congress in 1841,
the year after the first Cunarder had crossed from Liverpool to Halifax
and Boston. Its aim was to parry England's bold stroke for maritime
supremacy with her State-aided steamship lines, and directly to "protect
our merchant shipping from this new and strange menace."[FU] The first
move of 1841 was for an appropriation of a million dollars annually for
foreign-mails carriage in American-owned ships.[FU]
The law of 1845 (March 3) authorized the postmaster-general to contract
with American ship-owners exclusively for this service to be performed
in American vessels, steamships preferred, and by American citizens, for
a period of from four to ten years, with the proviso that Congress by
joint resolve might at any time terminate a contract. The subsidy was
embodied in the rates of postage thus fixed: upon all letters and
packets not exceeding a half-ounce in weight, between any ports of the
United States and any foreign ports not less than three thousand miles
distant, twenty-four cents, with the inland postage added; upon letters
and packets over one half-ounce in weight, and not exceeding one ounce,
forty-eight cents, and for every additional half-ounce or fraction of an
ounce, fifteen cents; to any of the West India Islands, or islands in
the Gulf of Mexico, ten cents, twenty cents, and five cents,
respectively; upon each newspaper, pamphlet, and price-current to any of
the ports and places above enumerated, three cents: inland postage to be
added in all cases. The postmaster-general was to give the preference to
such bidder as should propose to carry the mails in a steamship rather
than a sailing-ship. Contractors were to turn their ships over to the
Government upon demand for conversion into ships of war, the Government
to pay therefor the fair full value, as ascertained by appraisers. The
postmaster-general was further authorized to make ten-years' contracts
for mail carriage from place to place in the United States in steamboats
by sea, or on the Gulf of Mexico, or on the Mississippi River up to New
Orleans, on the same conditions regarding the transfer of the ships to
the Government when required for use as war ships.[FV]
The next year, 1846, in the annual post-office appropriations act (June
19), provision was made for the application of twenty-five thousand
dollars toward the establishment of a line of mail steamers between the
United States and Bremen; and early in 1847 (February 3) a contract was
duly concluded for a Bremen and Havre service, the first under the law
of 1845.
This was a five years' contract entered into with the Ocean Steam
Navigation Company, upon the basis of an earlier agreement (February
1846) with Edward Mills of New York, which Mr. Mills had transferred to
the new organization. The subsidy was fixed at one hundred thousand
dollars a year for each ship going by Cowes to Bremen and back to New
York once in two months a year, and seventy-five thousand dollars a year
for each ship going by Cowes to Havre and back to New York. The
contractors were to build within a year's time four first-class
steamships of not less than 1400 tons, nor less than a thousand
horsepower; and were to run their line "with greater speed to the
distance than is performed by the Cunard Line between Boston and
Liverpool and back."[FW] Provision for the subsidy thus called for was
promptly made in this item in the post-office appropriation bill for the
ensuing year, approved March 2: "for transportation by steam-ships
between New York and Bremen according to the contract with Edward Mills,
$258,609."[FX]
The next step was the enactment of a law which had for its declared
objects "to provide efficient mail services, to encourage navigation and
commerce, and to build up a powerful fleet in case of war."[FY] This
measure, approved March 3, 1847, entitled "An act to provide for the
building and equipment of four naval steamships," made provision for the
construction, with Government aid, of merchant mail-steamships under the
supervision of the Navy Department that they might be rendered suitable
if needed for war service.
The act directed the secretary of the navy to accept on the part of the
Government certain proposals that had been made for the carriage of the
United States mails to foreign ports in American-built and
American-owned steamships. These proposals had been submitted to the
postmaster-general (March 6, 1846) by Edward K. Collins and associates
(James Brown and Stewart Brown) of New York, and A.G. Sloo of
Cincinnati: one for mail transportation by steamship between New York
and Liverpool, semimonthly, the other between New York and New Orleans,
Havana, and Chagres, twice a month. The secretary was directed to
contract with Messrs. Collins and Sloo in accordance with the provisions
laid down in this act. These required that the steamers be built under
the inspection of naval constructors and be acceptable to the Navy
Department; that each ship carry four passed midshipmen of the navy to
serve as watch-officers, and a mail agent approved by the
postmaster-general. Mr. Sloo's ships for his West India service were to
be commanded by officers of the navy not below the grade of lieutenant.
The secretary was further directed to contract for mail-carriage beyond
the Isthmus,--from Panama up the Pacific coast to some point in the
Territory of Oregon, once a month each way; but this service could be
performed in either steam or sailing ships, as should be deemed more
expedient.[FZ]
All the contracts thus provided for were concluded the same year. Each
was to run for ten years. The first executed was that with Mr. Sloo. It
called for five steamships of not less than 1500 tons, and a
semi-monthly service. The line was to touch at Charleston, if
practicable, and at Savannah. The ships were to have engines by direct
action; and each ship was to be sheathed with copper. The subsidy was
fixed at two hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year, a rate of
$1.83-1/2 per mile, the distance to be sailed out and back being 158,000
miles.[GA] Mr. Sloo immediately set over his contract to George Law,
Marshall O. Roberts, and Bowes McIlvaine, of New York.[GB] The second
contract was for the Pacific service, connecting with the mail by the
Sloo line across the Isthmus. This was made with Arnold Harris of
Arkansas. It provided for a monthly service between Panama and Astoria,
Oregon, calling at San Diego, Monterey, and San Francisco, with a
subsidy of one hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars per annum. Three
steamers were to be furnished, two of not less than a thousand tons
each. Upon receiving the contract Mr. Harris immediately transferred it
to W.H. Aspinwall of New York, representing the newly formed Pacific
Mail Steamship Company.[GC] The third was the Collins contract. This
stipulated for a semi-monthly service between New York and Liverpool
during the eight open months of the year, and a monthly service through
the four winter months, with five steamers, each of not less than 2000
tons and engines of a thousand horsepower. The first ship was to be
ready for service in eighteen months after the date of the contract,
November 1, 1847. The subsidy was fixed at $19,250 per twenty round
trips, or three hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars a year, a rate
of $3.11 a mile for sailing about 124,000 miles.[GD]
By subsequent acts the secretary of the navy was authorized to advance
twenty-five thousand dollars a month on each of the ships called for by
these several contracts from the time of their launching to their
finish; and the date of the completion of the first Collins steamer and
the opening of the New York and Liverpool service was extended to June
1, 1850.[GE]
At the same time that the secretary of the navy was executing these
contracts the postmaster-general under the authority of an act "to
establish certain Post Routes and for other purposes," also approved
March 3, 1847,[GF] was contracting for a steamship mail-service between
Charleston and Havana, with a subsidy of forty-five thousand dollars per
annum. This contract was entered into with M.C. Mordecai of Charleston,
who agreed to furnish steamships suitable for war purposes, and to
perform a monthly service.[GG] Several other propositions for steamship
service to various foreign countries were made to the postmaster-general
at this time, but none was accepted.[GH]
The pioneer Bremen-Havre line began its service on the first day of June
1847, with two steamers. These were the _Washington_ and the _Hermann_,
built in New York, strong and large, of 1640 tons and 1734 tons,
respectively, side-wheelers, bark-rigged. At first they made the run to
Bremen in from twelve to seventeen days, much better time than the
average clipper.[GI] But up to 1851 they had no regular schedule of
sailings, and, their speed being unsatisfactory, few mails were sent by
them. The subsidy payments, therefore, were made for each voyage
separately.[GJ] They had also ceased to command the patronage of
travellers. Nevertheless, as a committee of the Senate in 1850 reported,
they were believed to have been "profitable to their owners as freight
vessels, and of essential service in promoting the interests of American
commerce."[GK] The full service, with twelve trips to Bremen and twelve
to Havre, was finally begun in 1851, when two more, and larger
ships,--the _Franklin_ and the _Humboldt_, each of 2184 tons, were added
to the Havre line. Four years before, the original company, because of
financial difficulties, had organized a separate corporation for the
Havre service. In 1852 Congress extended the contract to 1857;[GJ] and
Southampton was made the point of shifting the mails.
The New York and Chagres, the Charleston and Havana, and the Pacific
line, were all under way before the close of 1848. The Pacific line was
the first in operation. The service began with the three steamers called
for by the contract, the first sailing from New York on the sixth of
October, the other two early in December. They were the _California_,
1050 tons, the _Panama_, 1087 tons, the _Oregon_, 1099 tons, all built
in New York. The New York and Chagres line was started also in December
with the sailing of the _Falcon_, 1000 tons, a purchased steamer which
the Navy Department accepted temporarily, while the new ships were
building, that the service might be immediately begun. The opening of
the new territory south of Oregon acquired through the Mexican War, and
the beginning of the rush of the "Argonauts" to the newly discovered
gold fields of California, had made all concerned anxious to get these
connecting steamship lines a-going.
At first the service was halting because of unavoidable circumstances.
The Pacific Company were unable at once to meet the demands. Sufficient
or competent crews could not be obtained on the California coast during
the gold excitement,[GL] at fever heat in 1849. But it was not long
before more ships were put on, and the service improved and prospered.
By September, 1849, the Chagres company had their first completed ship
in commission. This was the _Ohio_, 2432 tons, built in New York. By
June, 1850, the second, the _Georgia_ (and the third of the line, for
the _Falcon_ was retained) was running. Soon afterwards the _Illinois_
was added. At about the same time the Pacific company had added two more
to their fleet--the _Columbia_ and the _Tennessee_. In 1851 the
postmaster-general was authorized to increase the Pacific trips to
semi-monthly; and the subsidy was increased. An additional contract
(March 13) was then made with Mr. Aspinwall, as president of the Pacific
Mail.[GM] This called for the enlargement of the line within a year, to
six steamers; and for semi-monthly trips from Panama to Oregon and back,
with stops and mail delivery at named points in California; and
increased the company's subsidy by one hundred and forty-nine thousand
two hundred and fifty dollars per annum. Thus the yearly total became
three hundred and forty-eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars.
Before the semi-monthly trips were begun, San Diego and Monterey were
dropped for the regular service, to be served by a slower line.[GN] Also
this year (1851) two more steamers were added to the fleet.
By this time on the Atlantic side the Collins Line was in promising
operation. The service had auspiciously begun in 1850 with four of the
five steamships called for by the contract. These were the _Atlantic_,
2845 tons, the _Arctic_, 2856 tons, the _Baltic_, 2723 tons, and the
_Pacific_, 2707 tons, each some seven hundred tons larger than the
measurement stipulated--"at least 2000 tons." All were built in New
York ship-yards; were especially designed for fast sailing; and in size,
model, finish, and fittings were pronounced to be "such steamers as the
world had never seen."[GO] In all respects they were superior to the
Cunarders with which they were aggressively to compete; and it was the
boast of the Americans that they would "beat the English in steam
navigation, as they had beaten them in fast sailing." All associated
with the enterprise were of large experience in maritime affairs. Mr.
Collins, a native of Truro, Cape Cod, and long a shipping merchant of
New York, had been at the head of fast clipper-ship lines--the New
Orleans and Vera Cruz packet line, and the more famous "Dramatic line"
(the ships named for plays and players) of transatlantic sailers. The
commanders of the steamers were all tried clipper captains.
The _Atlantic_ made the initial voyage, steaming gallantly out of New
York harbor on the twenty-seventh of April, a month before the contract
time for the beginning of the service. The _Pacific_ followed in June,
the _Baltic_ in November, the _Arctic_ in December. They beat the
Cunarders' time on the average by a day. Their popularity was
immediately established. Their passenger traffic rapidly increased. But
the severe condition of the mail contract, with their quick sailings
allowing only short stays in port, made it impossible for the company to
secure a profitable share of the freight business without a heavy outlay
for slower cargo boats. Within a few months after the start of the line
the Cunard Company had cut freight rates from seven pounds ten shillings
per ton to four pounds. So, while the Collins ships continued steadily
to outsail the Cunarders and got the bulk of the passenger traffic, the
Cunarders got most of the freighting. Moreover, the Collins ships were
far more expensive to run. Indeed, the cost of the rapid service was
enormous. Mr. Collins stated before a committee of Congress that to
save a day or a day and a half in the run between New York and Liverpool
cost the company nearly a million dollars annually.
Accordingly more subsidy was asked for. This was granted in 1852, the
act being stimulated by England's move late in 1851 in raising the
Cunards' subsidy to £173,340 ($843,000), for forty-four trips a year:
about nineteen thousand dollars per voyage. The extra allowance lifted
the Collins subsidy to $853,000 for twenty-six trips a year,
thirty-three thousand dollars per voyage, a rate of upward of five
dollars a mile.[GP]
The competition now became sharper. Still the Collins Line maintained
its record sailings, and continued to beat the English. Then it was
sharply checked by a grave disaster. On the twenty-fourth of September,
1854, the _Arctic_, when forty miles off Cape Race, rushing through a
fog, was rammed by a French steamer, and sunk with three hundred and
seven souls. This calamity had a depressing effect on the company's
affairs. Two years later, in 1856, Congress determined to reduce the
subsidy, and notice of the discontinuance of the extra allowance of 1852
was ordered.[GQ] Only a few weeks after this action another disaster,
even more appalling than the first one, befell the company. On September
23 the _Pacific_ sailed from Liverpool for her homeward voyage with a
full complement of passengers; passed to sea out of sight; and was never
more heard of. She was replaced by the _Adriatic_, the fifth ship called
for by the contract, which was launched the year before, the largest,
finest, swiftest, and most luxurious then afloat; and the company
struggled on against accumulating odds.
At length, in 1858, Congress abandoned the subsidy system and returned
to the method of payment for foreign mail-carriage according to the
actual service rendered, with a proviso, however, favoring American
ships, such to receive the inland-postage plus the sea postage, while
foreign ships were to have the sea postage only.[GR]
This was the final blow. The last voyage of the Collins Line was made
in January, 1859. Then it perished. In April following, the ships were
seized by the mortgagees and sold. So closed the career of the pioneer
United States ship company in the transatlantic service. The splendid
_Adriatic_ passed to English ownership and the American flag gave way to
the British. For several years this ship "held the transatlantic record
with a passage of five days nineteen hours from Galway to St.
John's."[GS]
Of the other subsidized lines, the ships of the Bremen service were
withdrawn and laid up after the subsidy ceased. The Havre line continued
a while longer with two ships that had replaced the _Humboldt_ and the
_Franklin_, both of which had been lost,--the _Humboldt_ wrecked at
Halifax on December 5, 1853; the _Franklin_ stranded on Montauk Point on
July 17, 1854. Then with the charter of the two new steamers by the
Government in 1861 for use in the Civil War, the Havre line also
disappeared.
The cost to the Government of this first steamship subsidy venture,
covering the thirteen years between 1845 and 1858, was approximately
fourteen and a half million dollars.[GT]
Meanwhile, within this period, the American wooden sailing-ships
continued to be the glory of the seas, and the American clippers reached
their highest development. The appearance of steamships on the North
Atlantic and the Pacific had inspired the producers of the "wonderful
American sailing-ships" to greater efforts for their perfection; and the
clipper, surpassing all other types of sailers in size, sea-qualities,
and speed, was the result of the intensified rivalry of canvas and
steam.[GU] The American clipper-ship era fairly opened with the advent
of the Collins Steamship Line.[GV] Between 1850 and 1855 clipper-ships
were built for nearly every trade,[GW] and they were on every sea. Some
of the first were employed in the transatlantic packet service. More
became engaged particularly in the "booming" trade to California, in the
long-voyage traffic to China and India.[GX] "When John Bull came
floating into San Francisco, or Sydney, or Melbourne, he used to find
Uncle Sam sitting carelessly, with his legs dangling over the wharf,
smoking his pipe, with his cargo sold and his pockets full of
money."[GY] The Crimean War, 1853-56, opened a new and prosperous market
for American fast sailing-ships, as transports. To meet the demand
American ship-yards produced in 1855 more tonnage than they had ever
built before.[GZ] The sailing-ship interests strenuously opposed the
subsidy system. They denounced it as class legislation unjustly favoring
the few, and urged its abolishment.[HA] How strong this influence was in
bringing about the change in policy is a mooted question.
* * * * *
No further move for fostering the American merchant marine with State
aid directly or indirectly, was made till 1864. Then the
steamship-subsidizing policy was revived, first with a proposition for
the establishment of an American mail-line to Brazil. A subsidy of two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year was proposed, one hundred
and fifty thousand to be paid by the United States and one hundred
thousand by the Brazilian Government. Congress endorsed the scheme. The
act embodying it (May 28)[HB] authorized the postmaster-general to
contract for a monthly service between the two countries, touching at
St. Thomas, W.I., by first-class American sea-going steamships of not
less than 2000 tons. The steamers were to be built under naval
inspection, and to be subject to taking for war service. Bids were to be
openly advertised for. The contract was to run for ten years. Thus was
established the pioneer American line between Philadelphia and Rio de
Janeiro, which continued from 1865 to 1876, and was then abandoned.
In the same session of Congress a bill was introduced, authorizing an
annual subsidy of five hundred thousand dollars for an ocean
mail-steamship service to Japan and China via Hawaii. This also received
favorable consideration, and was passed February 17, 1865. The service
was to be monthly, performed by American-built ships of not less than
3000 tons, also constructed under naval inspection. Tenders for the
contract were to be advertised for, but bids only from United States
citizens were to be entertained. The contract was to run for ten years.
Only one bidder appeared (as was evidently expected)--the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company. The contract went to that company, and under it, in
1867, their prosperous Asiatic service began. At the outset they were
released from the obligation of stopping at Hawaii, and Congress voted
another subsidy--seventy five thousand dollars per annum--for a distinct
Hawaiian service.[HC] The contract for this service, also advertised
for, went to the California, Oregon, and Mexican Line.
* * * * *
Thus far the granting of postal subsidies for the establishment of
steamship lines alone had engaged the advocates of State aid to American
shipping. Now was agitated the institution of a general subsidy system
as a means of fostering the rehabilitation of the merchant marine of all
classes in ocean service, sailing-ships as well as steamers. The
situation had become acute. Through the great loss of tonnage in the
Civil War, and through the steadily advancing change from wood to iron
in ship construction and from sail to steam propulsion, the American
merchant marine had been brought distressingly low. From 1861, when the
United States was standing second in rank among the nations in the
extent of her ocean tonnage, to 1866, this tonnage had declined from
2,642,648 to 1,492,926 tons: a loss of more than forty-three per cent;
while England, the first in rank and chief competitor, had in the same
period gained 986,715 tons, or more than forty per cent. Moreover, of
this increase in English tonnage, a large percentage had been in
steamers, one ton of which class was estimated to be equal in
efficiency to three tons of sailing-ships; while, by substituting
largely iron for wood, England had gained a still further advantage in
her much larger class of iron vessels, doubly as durable as those of
wood.[HD]
The matter was brought up in Congress by a resolution of the House,
March 22, 1869, calling for the appointment of a select committee, "to
inquire into and report at the next session of Congress the causes of
the great reduction of American tonnage engaged in the foreign carrying
trade, and the great depression of the navigation interests of the
country; and also to report what measures are necessary to increase our
ocean tonnage, revive our navigation interests, and regain for our
country the position it once had among the nations as a great maritime
power." Of this committee Representative John Lynch of Maine was made
chairman.
The committee gave a series of hearings mainly in Atlantic seaboard
cities, and submitted their report on February 17, 1870, accompanied by
two bills recommended for passage; the one, a bounty bill, the other,
relative to tonnage duties. With these measures the history of years of
effort to establish the principle of general ship-subsidies in the
American economic system properly begins.
The Lynch bounty bill, entitled "An act to revive the navigation and
commercial interests of the United States," made provision for the
remission of duties upon the raw materials entering into the
construction of sailing and steam-ships; for the taking in bond, free of
duty, of all stores used in vessels in sailing to foreign ports; and for
bounties, or subsidies, to American sailing and steam-ships engaged in
foreign commerce, already built as well as to be built: the aid being
extended to those already built because they had been sailed during the
Civil War and since "at great disadvantage."[HE] The amount of duties to
be remitted was to be equal to the amount per ton collected on the
materials required for certain defined classes of ships: on wooden
vessels, eight dollars a ton; on iron, twelve dollars a ton; on
composite vessels (vessels composed of iron frames and wooden
planking), twelve dollars a ton; on iron steamers, fifteen dollars a
ton. Where American materials were used in the construction of iron or
composite vessels, allowance was to be made of an amount equivalent to
the duties imposed on similar articles of foreign manufacture. The
bounties were thus classified: to owners of American registered ships
engaging for more than six months in a year in the carrying trade
between America and foreign ports, or between ports of foreign
countries, a dollar and a half per ton upon a sailing-ship each year so
engaged, and a dollar and a half upon a steamer running to and from the
ports of the British North American provinces; four dollars upon a
steamer running to and from any European port; and three dollars to and
from all other foreign ports.[HF]
The intent of the second bill, "imposing tonnage duties and for other
purposes," was the readjustment of the existing tax upon tonnage so that
it should fall "more equitably upon the different classes of vessels
affected thereby."[HF] It removed all tonnage, harbor, pilotage, and
other like taxes imposed upon shipping by State and municipal authority
(except wharfage, pierage, and dockage); and imposed a duty of thirty
cents per ton on all ships, vessels, or steamers entered in the United
States.
The committee's measures were ably advocated, but they finally went down
in defeat.
* * * * *
In 1872 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company came forward with an offer to
add another monthly mail-steamship service to Japan and China, for an
additional subsidy of a half million dollars a year. At the same session
a project to establish a subsidized line to Australia was introduced;
another, for a subsidized line from New Orleans to Cuba. These failed,
while the scheme of the Pacific Mail won. A bill authorizing such
contract was enacted June 1, that year, after prolonged and warm
debates, and by close votes in House and Senate. Two years afterwards it
was discovered that bribery had been employed in securing the passage of
that act; the charge being that a million dollars had been spent by a
corrupt lobby in pushing the bill through.[HG] Upon these disclosures,
and because the company had failed to fulfil its conditions, Congress,
by act of March 3, 1875, abrogated the contract.[HH] In 1877 the first
contract with the Pacific Mail for the Japan and China service, expired.
During its ten years' term the company had received from the Government
a total of $4,583,333.33.[HI]
With the Pacific Mail exposure the word subsidy became unsavory to the
public taste, and for some years after no subsidy measure, however
carefully guarded or respectably backed, could find favor in Congress. A
second project for subsidizing a new line to Brazil, proposed by John
Roach, the noted American shipbuilder, in 1879, was among those
ventured, only to fail.
* * * * *
A decade later, in 1889, when conditions seemed to be growing more
propitious, the subject was revived with vigor by the introduction of a
navigation subsidy bill proposed by the American Shipping League.[HJ]
From this evolved in 1890 a tonnage bounty bill reported in the House by
Representative James M. Farquhar of New York.[HK] The final outcome,
indirectly, of these moves was the reëstablishment of the postal subsidy
system, abandoned in 1858, in the enactment March 3, 1891, of what is
known as the Postal Aid Law.
This one ship-subsidy law now on the statutes was in its original draft
one of two proposed measures, termed respectively the Mail Ship Bill and
the Cargo Ship Bill, both reported in the Senate by Senator William P.
Frye of Maine. The Cargo Bill provided for navigation bounties to
sailing-ships and steamers. The objects of these measures, as stated by
the promoters, were "(1) to secure regular and quicker service to
countries now reached; (2) to make new and direct commercial exchanges
with countries not now reached; (3) to develop new and enlarge old
markets in the interest of producers and consumers under the
reciprocity treaties completed and under consideration; (4) to assist
the promotion of a powerful naval reserve; (S) to establish a
training-school for American seamen."[HL]
Both bills passed the Senate, but the House rejected the Cargo Bill and
passed the Mail Bill only after amending it essentially. The subsidy
rate was cut one-third on steamers of the first class--the highest class
of ocean liners,[HM]--and was reduced on the second class. The act as
finally approved comprises the following features:
Empowering the postmaster-general to contract for terms of from five to
ten years with American citizens for carrying the mails on American
steamships between ports of the United States and ports in foreign
countries, the Dominion of Canada excepted; the service on such lines
"to be equitably distributed among the Atlantic, Mexican Gulf, and
Pacific ports." Proposals to be invited by public advertisement three
months before the letting of a contract; and the contract to go to the
lowest responsible bidder. The steamships employed, to be
American-built, owned and officered by American citizens; and the
following proportion of the crews American citizens, to wit: "during the
first two years of each contract, one-fourth thereof; during the next
three succeeding years, one-third thereof; and during the remaining time
of the continuance of such contract, at least one-half thereof." The
subsidized steamships are ranked in four classes: in the first class,
iron or steel screw steamships, capable of making a speed of twenty
knots an hour at sea of ordinary weather, and of a gross tonnage of not
less than 8,000 tons; second class, iron or steel, speed of sixteen
knots, 5,000 tons; third class, iron or steel, fourteen knots, 2,500
tons; fourth class, iron or steel, or wooden, twelve knots, 1,500 tons.
Only those of the first class eligible to the contract service between
the United States and Great Britain. All except the fourth class to be
constructed under the supervision of the Navy Department, with
particular reference to prompt and economical conversion into auxiliary
cruisers, of sufficient strength and stability to carry and sustain at
least four effective rifled cannon of a calibre of not less than six
inches; and to be of the highest rating known to maritime commerce.
The subsidy, or rate of compensation, as it is termed, for mail-carriage
is thus fixed in each class: first class, not exceeding four dollars (in
the original draft six dollars) a mile; second class, two dollars a
mile, by the shortest practicable route for each outward voyage; third
class, one dollar a mile; fourth class, two-thirds of a dollar a mile
for the actual number of miles required by the Post Office Department to
be travelled on each outward bound voyage. Pro rata deductions from the
compensations, and penalties, are imposed for omission of a voyage or
voyages, and for delays or irregularities in service. No steamship in
the contract service is to receive any other bounty or subsidy from the
national treasury. Sanction is given to naval officers to volunteer for
service on the contract mail steamships; and, while so employed, they
are to receive furlough pay in addition to their steamship pay, provided
they are required to perform such duties as appertain to the merchant
service. The training-school for seamen is established by a provision
requiring that the contract steamers "shall take cadets or apprentices,
one American-born boy for each thousand tons gross register, and one for
each majority fraction thereof, who shall be educated in the duties of
seamanship, rank as petty officers, and receive such pay for their
services as may be reasonable."[HN]
The first advertisements for proposals under this act resulted in
contracts with eleven existing lines, of the third and fourth classes.
No bids were received for the North Atlantic service calling for
American-built steamships in the first class. But an offer was made by
the American Line[HO] to begin the performance of the service with two
British-built liners--the _City of New York_ and the _City of
Paris_--acquired from the Inman Line, if these steamers were admitted
to American registry, the company agreeing immediately to order two
similar ships from American shipyards and add these to their fleet. The
proposition was accepted, and a supplementary act was passed (May 10,
1892), legalizing such registry.[HP] The new American ships were
promptly built,--the _St. Louis_ and the _St. Paul_, launched November,
1894, and April, 1895, respectively,--each 11,600 tons, "larger,
swifter, safer, and more luxurious"[HQ] than the two British-built
vessels: a perfection of workmanship deemed a matter for congratulation
by patriotic Americans. To this extent at least the subsidy law was
declared to have been beneficent.
It had become evident, however, that the law was not fostering the
establishment of new American-owned and American-built steamship lines
as its promoters had hoped. In 1893 the contract service had been
reduced by the discontinuance of three of the routes. In 1894 only three
contracts were in operation. Up to 1898 no lines had been established on
the Pacific under the law.
In the judgment of the subsidy advocates the law's failure to produce
the anticipated results only proved its inadequacy in not providing
enough subsidy. Accordingly, further measures were proposed affording a
more generous supply.
In December, 1898, Senator Mark Hanna, of Ohio, brought forward a bill
providing liberal navigation and speed bounties to all American vessels
engaged in the foreign trade. This measure, as defined by its title,
proposed "to promote the commerce and increase the foreign trade of the
United States, and to promote auxiliary cruisers, transports, and seamen
for Government use when necessary." The subsidy was again termed
"compensation." It was to be payable on gross tonnage for mileage sailed
both outward and homeward bound, according to speed. The rate to
steamships showing on trial test a speed above fourteen knots was to
increase proportionately; sailing-ships and steamers of less trial speed
than fourteen knots, were to receive the lowest rate. This was fixed at
one dollar and fifteen cents per gross ton for each hundred of the
first fifteen hundred miles sailed both outward and homeward bound, and
one cent per gross ton for each hundred miles over one hundred miles
both ways. The additional speed bounties ranged from one cent per gross
ton for steamers of 1,500 tons and speeding fourteen knots, to 3.2 cents
for those over 10,000 tons and showing twenty-three knots. The act was
to be in force for a term of twenty years, and no contracts were to be
made under it after ten years.
The Hanna bill met strong opposition, and was finally dropped. A
substitute measure, drawn by Senator Frye, of Maine, took its place.
This also was lost with the adjournment of the Fifty-seventh Congress.
At the opening of the next Congress, in December, 1901, Senator Frye
introduced his bill in an amended form. This offered subsidies to
contract mail-steamships based upon tonnage and speed, and practically
restored the rates of the original Postal Aid Bill. It further provided
a fixed subsidy upon tonnage to other American steamers and
sailing-ships, registered, and to be built in the United States. The
bill passed the Senate, but failed with the House.
* * * * *
In 1903 the matter was taken up with greater vigor, by President
Roosevelt. In his annual message to Congress December 7, the President,
"deeply concerned at the decline of our ocean fleet and the loss of
skilled officers and seamen," recommended the appointment by Congress of
a joint commission to investigate and report at the next session, "what
legislation is desirable or necessary for the development of the
American merchant marine and American commerce, and, incidentally, of a
national ocean mail service of adequate auxiliary naval cruisers and
naval reserves."
In response Congress by act of April 28, 1904, created the Merchant
Marine Commission with power to make the broadest kind of an inquiry.
This body was composed of five Senators and five Representatives, two of
the Senators and two of the Representatives members of the minority
party. Senator Jacob H. Gallinger of New Hampshire was chairman. Eight
months between the adjournment and reassembling of Congress was devoted
to its appointed task. All the larger ports of the country were visited,
its itinerary embracing the principal cities on the North Atlantic
seaboard, on the Great Lakes, on the Pacific coast, and on the southern
coast and Gulf of Mexico. Hearings were given in all these places to
hundreds of citizens: commercial bodies, shipbuilders, shipowners,
shipping merchants, merchants in general trade, manufacturers, bankers,
lawyers, editors, doctrinaires. So wide indeed was the investigation,
and so liberal the "open door" rule, admitting for consideration any
"intelligent suggestion offered in good faith," that "alien agents" of
foreign steamships were heard with the rest.[HR] While differences of
opinion as to methods and policies naturally were encountered, the
commission declared that it found public sentiment, as this was sounded
throughout the United States, "practically unanimous not in merely
desiring, but in demanding an American ocean fleet, built, owned,
officered, and so far as may be, manned by our own people." This
sentiment was "just as earnest on the Great Lakes ... as on either
ocean."[HR]
The results of the investigation were embodied in an elaborate report,
comprising majority and minority reports of the commission, and the mass
of testimony taken at the hearings: the whole filling three large
pamphlet volumes, in all of nearly two thousand pages.[HS]
The majority reported a bill. This was presented as merely an extension
of the principles of the Postal Aid Act of 1891, involving "no new
departure from the established practice of the Government." Its ocean
mail sections were intended "simply to strengthen the existing act on
lines where it has happened to prove inadequate." The subsidies which it
granted were termed, inoffensively, "subventions," and its promoters
protested that these "subventions" were "not in any opprobrious sense a
subsidy or bounty." They were "not bounties outright, or mere commercial
subsidies such as many of our contemporaries give." They were "granted
frankly in compensation for public services rendered and to be
rendered."[HT]
The proposed measure, however, was more than an extension of the act of
1891. Its scope was indicated by its title: "To promote the national
defence, to create a force of naval volunteers, to establish American
ocean mail lines to foreign markets, to promote commerce, and to provide
revenue from tonnage." The subsidies offered comprised mail subventions
to steamships; subventions to general cargo carriers and deep-sea
fishing-ships, both steam and sail; and retainers to officers and men of
American merchant ships and deep-sea fishing vessels enrolling as naval
volunteers. It opened with provisions for the establishment of a naval
reserve.
The new mail subsidies provided for ten specified lines of "steamships
of the United States" of sixteen, fourteen, thirteen, and twelve knots
speed, to the greater countries of South America, to Central America, to
Africa, and to the Orient, with a total maximum subsidy for the ten
lines of $2,665,000 a year. In all contracts it was to be specified that
the steamships must carry in their own crews a certain increasing
proportion, up to one-fourth, of men enrolled as naval volunteers. The
subventions to American general cargo carriers, or the "tramp" type of
ships, and deep-sea fishing-vessels, steam or sail, were fixed at these
rates: those engaged in the foreign trade for a full year, five dollars
per gross ton; so engaged for nine months and less than a year, four
dollars; for six months, two dollars. These subsidies were conditioned
upon these requirements: the employment in the crews of a certain
proportion of naval volunteers; one-sixth of the crews to be citizens of
the United States or "men who have declared their intentions to become
citizens;" ships to carry the mails when required free of charge; all
ordinary repairs to be made in the United States; the ships to be in
readiness for Government taking for naval service in time of need. The
payments in this class were to be made on contracts for a year at a
time, renewable from year to year; and no vessel was to receive them for
a longer period than ten years. The retainers to officers and men of the
merchant marine and deep-sea fishing-ships as inducements to enroll as
naval volunteers, were fixed at rates ranging from a hundred dollars a
year for the master or chief engineer of a large steamship to
twenty-five dollars for a sailor or fireman, and fifteen dollars for a
boy, these retainers being independent of their regular pay. The
provisions relating to tonnage revenue increased the tonnage taxes on
all vessels, American and foreign, entering American ports, with a
rebate of eighty per cent of the tonnage duties allowed to American
ships carrying American boys as apprentices and training them in
seamanship or engineering for the merchant service and naval
reserve.[HU]
The minority report, signed by three of the four Democratic members of
the commission, although outlining measures of relief which, in the
judgment of the signers, would "accomplish substantial and permanent
good without injustice to any other American interest and without doing
violence to any fundamental principle of right or of organic law,"
proposed no bill. While the minority "saw objections to the entire bill"
recommended by the majority, they were disposed to withhold any
opposition except to the sections providing for direct subsidies. These
they declared to be "so obnoxious to Democratic principles and to the
economic sense of the country" that they were compelled to enter their
"earnest protest against their enactment into law." Instead of
subsidies, the remedial legislation which they outlined included: a
return to the discriminating-duty policy; and the putting on the free
list of all materials which enter into the construction of ships no
matter whether intended for foreign or domestic trade,--thus admitting
ships built from foreign materials, in whole or in part, to the
coastwise trade, from which they are now excluded. The minority held
also that it would probably "be necessary to remove the duties not only
for materials but from all materials sold cheaper abroad than at home,"
meaning steel and iron products. "In this way, and in this way only,
will our shipbuilders be enabled to obtain our materials at the prices
at which they are sold to foreign shipbuilders."[HV]
The report of the commission was submitted to the Fifty-eighth Congress,
third session, January 4, 1905.[HW] No action was had on the bill in
that Congress. It was referred to the committee on commerce; reported
back to the Senate with sundry amendments and a minority report against
it;[HX] was debated tentatively; and finally passed over at the request
of its sponsor, Senator Gallinger, who expressed himself as satisfied
that the bill could not receive the consideration it deserved at that
session. Meanwhile both Houses had directed a continuance of the
commission's inquiry. In May the chairman, Senator Gallinger, held
conferences in New York with several representatives of the shipping
interests who had not been heard; and later sessions were held in
Washington, at which other statements were received and considered.
At the opening of the Fifty-ninth Congress, December 4, 1905, Senator
Gallinger submitted a supplementary report of the commission, and with
it introduced a new bill--the previous bill in a new draft.[HY] At the
same time Representative Charles H. Grosvenor, of Ohio, the first House
member of the commission, introduced the bill to the House.
This draft added several new features to the original bill. The most
important were provisions for increasing the subsidies payable under the
law of 1891 to the single American contract line to Europe, and to the
Oceanic Line from San Francisco to Auckland and Sydney. These provisions
added two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the former's subsidy of
seven hundred and fifty thousand, and two hundred and seventeen thousand
to the latter's of two hundred and eighty-three thousand. The reasons
given for these increases were: in the case of the American Line,
because this line "meets the fiercest competition of the State-aided
corporations of Europe, soon to be intensified by the new subvention of
one million one hundred thousand dollars granted to the Cunard Company
by the British Government, on terms so liberal as to make it equivalent
to one and a half million dollars a year"; and in the case of the
Australasia Line, because it "operates in Pacific waters where cost of
fuel, labor, etc., is considerably greater than at Atlantic ports; ...
is required to maintain a very high speed; ... employs exclusively white
crews instead of the Asiatics utilized by many other Pacific companies."
Another provision, as a special encouragement for American shipowners to
enter the Philippine trade, added a subvention of thirty per cent above
the regular rate, or six and a half dollars a ton. The naval volunteer
retainers were extended to seamen of the Great Lakes and coastwise
trade.[HZ]
In the Senate the bill fared well as a whole. Like the original bill it
came back from the committee on commerce amended, though slightly, and
with a minority report against it: the minority again emphasizing their
"unqualified opposition to this renewed effort to donate to certain
favored interests moneys collected by the Government for public purposes
under its power of taxation."[IA] It was closely fought by the
opposition in debate, opened with Senator Gallinger's argument in its
behalf on January 8, 1906. But it successfully ran the gauntlet. Further
amended in several particulars, but unscathed in its essential parts, it
passed the Senate, February 14, by a vote of 38 to 27, five Republican
Senators and all the Democrats voting in the negative.[IB]
In the House its progress was less prosperous. It lay with the committee
on merchant marine and fisheries into the second session of this
Congress; and more hearings were given. Reframed after the enacting
clause, but practically the same in principle, it was reported back
January 19 (1907) by Mr. Grosvenor, accompanied by an explanatory
report of the majority of the committee;[IC] and bill and report were
referred to the whole House on the state of the Union. Later the views
of the minority were filed.[IC] On January 23 a message from President
Roosevelt in behalf of the measure was received. The president
particularly urged the "great desirability of enacting legislation to
help American shipping and American trade by encouraging the building
and running of lines of large and swift steamers to South America and
the Orient." As striking evidence of the "urgent need of our country's
making an effort to do something like its share of its own carrying
trade on the ocean," he directed attention to the address of Secretary
Root before the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress at Kansas City,
Mo., the previous November, giving the results of the secretary's
experiences on his recent South American tour. The proposed law, Mr.
Roosevelt repeated, was in no sense experimental. It was "based on the
best and most successful precedents, as for instance on the recent
Cunard contract with the British Government." So far as South America
was concerned, its aim was to "provide from the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts better American lines to the great ports of South America than
the present European lines." Under it "our trade friendship" would "be
made evident to the South American Republics."[ID]
Backed by the explanatory report and this message, the friends of the
measure opened the debate, February 25, Mr. Grosvenor leading. It was a
great debate, long and hot. Numerous amendments were put in; some
changing the proposed routes, others adding new ones. At length on March
1, three days before the end of this Congress, the much amended bill was
passed, and went back to the Senate for concurrence.[IE]
As it now stood it was shorn of the provisions for lines from the
Pacific coast to Japan, China, the Philippines, and Australasia. The new
subsidized lines were all to run to South America. Two of these were to
run from the Atlantic coast to Brazil and Argentina, respectively; one,
from the Pacific coast to Peru and Chile; and one from the Gulf of
Mexico to Brazil. On all four lines sixteen-knot steamers were required,
with speed on the average above the European mail lines to South
America. The subsidies were reserved exclusively to ships to be built in
the United States, so that the mail service could not be performed by
existing steamers; thus a wholly new ocean-mail fleet was
guaranteed.[IF]
The bill was reached in the Senate March 2, and strenuous efforts were
made by Senator Gallinger and others to push it through. But it failed
in the closing hours of the session to reach a vote. So this measure
fell.[IG]
Another effort was made in the Sixtieth Congress. In his message at the
beginning of this Congress (December 2, 1907) President Roosevelt
recommended an amendment to the act of March 3, 1891, "which shall
authorize the postmaster-general in his discretion to enter into
contracts for the transportation of mails to the Republics of South
America, to Asia, the Philippines, and Australia at a rate not to exceed
four dollars a mile for steamships of sixteen-knots speed or upward,
subject to the restrictions and obligations" of that act. In other
words, to give the same subsidy to steamers in these services as allowed
to the twenty-knot American mail transatlantic line, instead of two
dollars a mile.[IH] A bill to this effect was introduced in the Senate
December 4[II]; on February 3, 1908, was reported back from the
committee on commerce so amended as to provide the four-dollar-a-mile
subsidy to American sixteen-knot steamers on routes of four thousand
miles or more to South America, the Philippines, Japan, China, and
Australasia; was debated at length; further amended; and finally,
passed, March 20. In the House it was referred to the committee on post
office and post roads;[IJ] issued therefrom in a dew draft;[IK] debated;
and finally failed to pass. Thereupon the subsidized service to
Australia by way of Honolulu and the Samoan group was abandoned.
Again the measure was pressed in the Sixty-first Congress. It now had
the backing of President Taft. In his annual message December 9, 1909,
"following," as he graciously said, "the course of my distinguished
predecessor," he earnestly recommended the passage of a "ship-subsidy
bill looking to the establishment of lines between our Atlantic seaboard
and the eastern coast of South America, China, Japan, and the
Philippines." The bill, as introduced by Senator Gallinger (February 23,
1910), provided for subsidized lines of the second and third classes on
routes to the points named by Mr. Taft, four thousand miles or more in
length outward voyage, or on routes to the Isthmus of Panama: the second
class to receive the subsidy rate per mile provided in the law of 1891
for steamers of the first class, and the third class the rate applicable
to the second class. If no contract should be made for a line between a
Southern port and South American ports, and two or more should be
established from Northern Atlantic ports, it was required that one of
the latter should touch outward and homeward at two ports of call south
of Cape Charles. The total expenditure for foreign mail-service in any
one year was limited--not to exceed the estimated revenue therefrom for
that year.[IL]
The bill came back from the committee on commerce in March without
amendment, and with a report.[IM] In June it was put over for
consideration in December of the third session of this Congress. When at
length it was reached, Senator Gallinger submitted a substitute. This,
instead of naming the points to be covered, provided for subsidized
routes to South America south of the equator outward voyage; provided
for one port of call instead of two on the Southern Atlantic coast;
guarded against "discrimination detrimental to the public interest," in
other words "combines," by a provision that no contract be awarded to
any bidder engaged in any competitive transportation business by rail,
or in the business of exporting or importing on his own account, or
bidding for or in the interest of any person or corporation engaged in
such business, or having control thereof through stock ownership or
otherwise; and fixed the limit of the total expenditure for foreign mail
service in any one year at four million dollars. This substitute was
finally passed on February 12, 1911, by a vote of 39 to 39, the chairman
casting his vote in the affirmative. In the House the measure went to
the committee on post office and post roads; and there rested.
Various other subsidy bills and measures for the revival of the ocean
merchant marine without subsidies, were put into this Congress, as in
previous ones, but few escaped from the committees; and these few fell
short of passage.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FS: Wells, chaps. 4 and 5, pp. 58-94. Also Rept. of
commissioner of navigation for 1909.]
[Footnote FT: U.S. Statutes at Large. Also Rept. of commission of
navigation, 1909.]
[Footnote FU: Marvin, pp. 240-241.]
[Footnote FV: U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. V, p. 748.]
[Footnote FW: This contract in Executive Document, 30th Cong., 1st sess,
no. 50.]
[Footnote FX: U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. IX, p. 152.]
[Footnote FY: Meeker.]
[Footnote FZ: U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. IX, p. 187.]
[Footnote GA: Meeker.]
[Footnote GB: For the Sloo contract see Exec. Does., 32nd Congr., 1st
sess., no. 91.]
[Footnote GC: For this contract see Exec. Docs., 32nd Cong., 1st sess.,
no. 91.]
[Footnote GD: Meeker. This contract in Exec. Docs., 32nd Cong., 1st
sess., no. 91, pp. 71-74.]
[Footnote GE: Navy appropriation bills, Aug. 3, 1848, March 3, 1849.]
[Footnote GF: U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. IX, p. 188.]
[Footnote GG: Exec. Docs., 30th Cong., 1st sess., no. 51.]
[Footnote GH: Exec. Docs., 30th Cong., 1st sess., no. 51.]
[Footnote GI: Marvin, p. 243.]
[Footnote GJ: Meeker.]
[Footnote GK: Report in the Senate Sept. 18, 1850, in Exec. Docs., 32nd
Cong., 1st sess., no. 91, pp. 14-15.]
[Footnote GL: Meeker.]
[Footnote GM: For contract see Exec. Docs., 32nd Cong., 1st sess., no.
91, pp. 154-157.]
[Footnote GN: Exec. Docs., 32nd Cong., 1st sess., no. 91, pp. 5-7.]
[Footnote GO: Marvin, p. 247. The measurement of these steamers is
differently given by Spears: p. 26. "When done, the ships were found to
have fine models--they rode the waves in a way that excited the
admiration of all sailors. But the keelsons under the engines were only
40 inches deep, while the keels were 277 ft. long, and there was 'give'
enough to rack the engines to pieces." Spears, p. 267.]
[Footnote GP: Meeker.]
[Footnote GQ: U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. XI, p. 101; chap. CLXI, Aug.
18, 1856.]
[Footnote GR: Same appropriation act for ocean steamship service, June
14, 1858.]
[Footnote GS: Marvin, p. 279.]
[Footnote GT: Meeker gives the details as follows: Bremen line (1847-57)
$2,000,000; Havre line (1852-57) $750,000; Collins line (1850-58)
$4,500,000; New York to Aspinwall (1848-58) $2,900,000; Astoria and San
Francisco to Panama (1848-58) $3,750,000; Charleston to Havana (1848-58)
$500,000.]
[Footnote GU: Marvin, p. 253.]
[Footnote GV: Bates, p. 133.]
[Footnote GW: Same, p. 143.]
[Footnote GX: Marvin, p. 254.]
[Footnote GY: George Frisbie Hoar.]
[Footnote GZ: Marvin, p. 258.]
[Footnote HA: Bates, p. 142.]
[Footnote HB: United States Statutes at Large, vol. XIII, p. 93.]
[Footnote HC: Session of 1866-67.]
[Footnote HD: Report of the select committee on the merchant marine, in
Repts. of Committee, 1870, 41st Cong., 2d Bess., House Kept., no. 28.]
[Footnote HE: House Rept., no. 2378, 51st Cong., 2nd sess.]
[Footnote HF: House Report, no. 28, 41st Cong., 2d sess.]
[Footnote HG: House Docs., no. 598, also Miscellaneous Docs.; nos. 74
and 255, 42d Cong., 2nd sess.]
[Footnote HH: House Docs., no. 268, 43rd Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote HI: Meeker.]
[Footnote HJ: House Docs., Rept., no. 601, 51st Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote HK: Text of this bill in Bates, pp. 411-416.]
[Footnote HL: House Rept., no. 3273, 51st Cong., 2d sess.]
[Footnote HM: Marvin, p. 414.]
[Footnote HN: United States Statutes at Large, vol. XXVI, p. 830.]
[Footnote HO: Originally the International Navigation Company
established in Philadelphia in 1871, and beginning service between
Philadelphia and Liverpool with four American-built steamships.]
[Footnote HP: United States Statutes at Large, vol. XXVII, p. 27.]
[Footnote HQ: Marvin, p. 421.]
[Footnote HR: Report of The Merchant Marine Commission (1904), vol. I,
p. III.]
[Footnote HS: Report of The Merchant Marine Commission, together with
the testimony taken at the Hearings, 3 Vols., p. 1985; Senate Report,
no. 2755, 58th Cong., 3d sess.]
[Footnote HT: Same: Report of the majority, vol. I, pp. XXIII, XXX,
XXXI.]
[Footnote HU: This bill in Report of the Merchant Marine Commission,
vol. I, pp. XLVI, LI.]
[Footnote HV: Rept. of The Merch. Marine Com., Views of the Minority,
Vol. I, p. LVI.]
[Footnote HW: Senate bill, 6291, 58th Cong., 3d sess.]
[Footnote HX: Senate Report no. 2949, 58th Cong., 3d sess.]
[Footnote HY: Senate Report no. 1, 59th Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote HZ: Senate Report no. I, 59th Cong., 1st sess. This bill is
Senate no. 529.]
[Footnote IA: Senate Report no. 10, 59th Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote IB: Cong. Record, vol. 40, part I, 59th Cong., 2d sess.]
[Footnote IC: House Report no. 6442, 59th Cong., 2d sess.]
[Footnote ID: House Doc. no. 4638, 59th Cong., 2d sess.]
[Footnote IE: Cong. Record, vol. 41, part 5, 59th Cong., 2d sess., p.
4378.]
[Footnote IF: Cong. Record, 59th Cong., 2d sess., p. 4688.]
[Footnote IG: Same, p. 4653.]
[Footnote IH: Senate Report no. 168, 60th Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote II: Senate bill no. 28, 60th Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote IJ: Cong. Record, 65th Cong., p. 3743.]
[Footnote IK: House bill no. 22301, 60th Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote IL: Senate bill no. 6708, 60th Cong., 2d Sess.]
[Footnote IM: Senate Report no. 354, same.]