2.

TONNAGE OF AMERICAN AND FOREIGN VESSELS ENTERED AND CLEARED IN THE FOREIGN TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1860-1910

B. American Vessels Engaged in Commerce, 1860-19141

During the Civil War the tonnage of American vessels engaged in foreign commerce decreased almost 40 per cent, that engaged in coastwise trade (not including the Great Lakes) increased more than 20 per cent, while the tonnage engaged in lake commerce increased approximately 50 per cent. Between 1865 and 1911 the tonnage of the first decreased from more than 1,500,000 to less than 1,000,000; the second increased from 2,800,000 to about 3,500,000; while the third increased from 450,000 to a little more than 2,000,000. The most significant fact, therefore, about the tonnage of American vessels has been the absolute decline in that engaged in foreign trade and the increase of that along the coast and on the Great Lakes.

C. President McKinley on the Merchant Marine, 18991

Since the Civil War the merchant marine of the United States has been on a decline. In 1860 about two-thirds of the commerce of this country was carried in American vessels; by 1910 it had declined to less than one-tenth. In 1899 President McKinley called attention to the state of affairs as follows:

The value of an American merchant marine to the extension of our commercial trade and the strengthening of our power upon the sea invites the immediate action of the Congress. Our national development will be one-sided and unsatisfactory so long as the remarkable growth of our inland industries remains unaccompanied by progress on the seas. There is no lack of constitutional authority for legislation which shall give to the country maritime strength commensurate with its industrial achievements and with its rank among the nations of the earth.

The past year has recorded exceptional activity in our shipyards, and the promises of continual prosperity in shipbuilding are abundant. Advanced legislation for the protection of our seamen has been enacted. Our coast trade, under regulations wisely framed at the beginning of the Government and since, shows results for the past fiscal year unequaled in our records or those of any other power. We shall fail to realize our opportunities, however, if we complacently regard only matters at home and blind ourselves to the necessity of securing our share in the valuable carrying trade of the world.

Last year American vessels transported a smaller share of our exports and imports than during any former year in all our history, and the measure of our dependence upon foreign shipping was painfully manifested to our people. Without any choice of our own, but from necessity, the Departments of the Government charged with military and naval operations in the East and West Indies had to obtain from foreign flags merchant vessels essential for those operations.

The other great nations have not hesitated to adopt the required means to develop their shipping as a factor in national defense and as one of the surest and speediest means of obtaining for their producers a share in foreign markets. Like vigilance and effort on our part cannot fail to improve our situation, which is regarded with humiliation at home and with surprise abroad. Even the seeming sacrifices, which at the beginning may be involved, will be offset later by more than equivalent gains.

1 Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Edited by James D. Richardson ([Washington], 1896-1903), X, 134–5.

The expense is as nothing compared to the advantage to be achieved. The reestablishment of our merchant marine involves in a large measure our continued industrial progress and the extension of our commercial triumphs. I am satisfied the judgment of the country favors the policy of aid to our merchant marine, which will broaden our commerce and markets and upbuild our sea-carrying capacity for the products of agriculture and manufacture; which, with the increase of our Navy, mean more work and wages to our countrymen, as well as a safeguard to American interests in every part of the world.

D. A Plea for Ship Subsidy, 1901 1

President Roosevelt, in his first message to Congress (December 3, 1901), called attention to the state of the merchant marine of the United States and suggested that the government take some action whereby this branch of industry should be restored.

The condition of the American merchant marine is such as to call for immediate remedial action by the Congress. It is discreditable to us as a Nation that our merchant marine should be utterly insignificant in comparison to that of other nations which we overtop in other forms of business. We should not longer submit to conditions under which only a trifling portion of our great commerce is carried in our own ships. To remedy this state of things would not merely serve to build up our shipping interests, but it would also result in benefit to all who are interested in the permanent establishment of a wider market for American products, and would provide an auxiliary force for the Navy. Ships work for their own countries just as railroads work for their terminal points. Shipping lines, if established to the principal countries with which we have dealings, would be of political as well as commercial benefit. From every standpoint it is unwise for the United States to continue to rely upon the ships of competing nations for the distribution of our goods. It should be made advantageous to carry American goods in American-built ships.

At present American shipping is under certain great disadvantages when put in competition with the shipping of foreign countries. Many of the fast foreign steamships, at a speed of fourteen knots or above, are subsidized; and all our ships, sailing vessels and steamers alike, cargo carriers of slow speed and mail carriers of high speed, have to meet the fact that the original cost of building American ships is greater

1 Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Edited by James D. Richardson ([Washington], 1896-1903), X, 429-30.

than is the case abroad; that the wages paid American officers and seamen are very much higher than those paid the officers and seamen of foreign competing countries; and that the standard of living on our ships is far superior to the standard of living on the ships of our commercial rivals.

Our Government should take such action as will remedy these inequalities. The American merchant marine should be restored to the ocean.

III. COMMERCE ON THE GREAT LAKES,

A. Interlake and Local Traffic, 19001

An interesting account of the lake traffic in 1899 is found in the Report of the Industrial Commission. The following extract from the Report deals with the principal ports, tonnage and seasons of navigation.

The traffic from one lake to another is recorded in such a manner as to show the relation between Lake Superior and the other lakes. It thus appears that the greater proportion of the freight moves between Lake Superior and Lake Erie; 86 per cent of the east-bound tonnage passing through the Sault Ste. Marie canals was bound for Lake Erie ports in 1900, and nearly 96 per cent of the west-bound tonnage originated at Lake Erie ports and was destined for Lake Superior ports.

MOVEMENT OF EAST AND WEST BOUND FREIGHT

1 Final Report of the Industrial Commission (Washington, 1902), Volume XIX of the Commission's Report 468-70.

Local traffic on the Great Lakes is comparatively undeveloped, with the exception of the traffic on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. Nearly the whole of the commerce moved is carried from one end of the system to the other. About four-fifths of the iron ore mined in the Lake Superior region is transported to Lake Erie ports, and nearly the whole of the remaining fifth is taken to Milwaukee and Chicago. The local traffic on Lake Michigan consists mainly in the cross-lake traffic of the railroads having termini on both sides. The cars are loaded bodily on car ferries and taken across from one side to the other. Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Kewaunee, Menominee, Marinette, and Gladstone on the western side, and Frankfort, Ludington, Muskegon, and Ottawa Beach on the eastern side, enjoy the most of this traffic. Lake Michigan is the only lake that is open to navigation all the year.

In point of local traffic the southern shores of Lake Erie have developed package freight lines between themselves and Buffalo at the one end and Detroit at the other. The fastest steamers on this body of water connect Cleveland with the above terminal ports. For a long time lake passenger and packet lines were successfully operated in competition with railroads, but such is not now the case. Such traffic is chiefly conducted by steamship lines in intimate relations with or under the control of the railroad lines. These are really collectors and distributors of freight, acting as an extension of the scope of railroad territory. Most, if not all, of the trunk lines have their lines of steamships which make regular connections with upper lake ports and with the terminal ports on the lower lake shores.

On Lake Michigan, centering at Milwaukee and Chicago and points farther north on both coasts, for the whole year round local traffic is carried on in connection with the railroads. Constant communication between the east and the west coasts is maintained in spite of ice by steam-driven car floats, constructed so as to break their way, even in the coldest weather.

The main movements of traffic occur between the upper lake ports on the one hand and the lower lake ports, south of the St. Clair River, notably Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Ashtabula, Conneaut, Erie, and Buffalo, on the other. . . .

The season of lake navigation is about eight months in length. It usually opens in the latter part of April and closes in the early part or about the middle of December. Movements from the upper lakes are dependent on the opening of the connecting straits. The Straits of Mackinac are usually covered with ice during the closed season of navigation and freight movements from Chicago, Mil