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1904

HEARINGS BEFORE THE MERCHANT

MARINE COMMISSION.

CHICAGO, ILL., June 24, 1904.

The Commission met at 10 o'clock a. m. at the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank Building.

Present: Senators Gallinger (chairman) and Penrose, and Representatives Grosvenor, Minor, Humphrey, and Spight.

ADDRESS OF W. L. BROWN.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Illinois Manufacturers Association I am here to welcome the Merchant Marine Commission and to bring before you our citizens to present their views on the possibility of restoring on the high seas our merchant marine.

It is all a large question. We practically have no merchant marine on our high seas; and if anything can be done to build one, we should all be interested in accomplishing it.

I bespeak for the gentlemen who will appear before you your attention in their efforts to give you their views, whatever they may be.

ADDRESS OF L. E. McGANN.

Mr. MCGANN. Gentlemen, I have been requested by the mayor of Chicago to express to you his regrets at his inability to be present to pay his respects to the Commission and to extend to you a hearty welcome to the city of Chicago.

The purpose of your inquiry is one in which all American citizens are interested, but especially so are the people of Chicago. They desire that you shall have full and complete information, that the conclusions to be drawn from your investigations, as represented in legislation, will operate fairly, freely, and unrestrained on all our people, that every element of favoritism and special legislation may be avoided, and that this inquiry, as all other inquiries by Congress, may have the one purpose of securing the best results for all our people.

Without attempting to give any views of my own, I can assure you of the hearty wish by his honor the mayor for the success of the object you have in view, and that he will be glad to do anything in his power to cooperate with you to secure such local testimony as will enable you to make a report that will bring about the results I have just stated.

For myself I desire to say that I am glad to have this opportunity to pay my respects.

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RESPONSE OF THE CHAIRMAN.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Brown, on behalf of the Merchant Marine Commission I desire to thank you for the words of greeting you have brought from the Manufacturers' Association of Illinois. The Commission will not soon forget the delightful time they had as guests of the association last evening, where they were privileged to meet some 200 of the solid business men of Chicago and to exchange with them, freely and frankly, views concerning the work of the Commission. And Mr. McGann, in behalf of the Commission, I return through you to his honor the mayor our grateful acknowledgment of the kind interest he has manifested in our work, and I beg you to express to him our appreciation of his great courtesy and kindness. It is always encouraging, when a commission of this kind, engaged in an effort to obtain information, meets with the cooperation of the men who occupy the high positions of chief executives of the great cities of our country; and you may be sure, sir, that we are profoundly grateful to his honor the mayor for giving us, through you, this cordial greeting to Chicago.

Now, gentlemen, we are here for the purpose of asking gentlemen to express to the Commission their views on the question before us. We are a Commission created by an act of Congress, charged with the work of investigating and reporting to Congress "what legislation, if any, is desirable for the development of the American merchant marine and American commerce, and also what change or changes, if any, should be made in existing laws relating to the treatment, comfort, and safety of seamen, in order to make more attractive the seafaring calling in the American merchant service."

It is not necessary that I should occupy a moment's time, nor is it necessary for any gentleman who may address this Commission to occupy much time, in calling attention to the deplorable condition of the American merchant marine as it is at the present moment. We once carried in American bottoms 92 per cent of American imports and exports. We now carry about 9 per cent, and the probabilities are that, unless something is done to rehabilitate the American merchant marine, a still further decline will take place from year to year until the American flag will be rarely, if ever, seen on the high seas of the world. It is a great work we have undertaken, a difficult and perplexing work, but we hope to be able to lay the foundation for legislation of a remedial character that will reestablish, to some extent at least, our foreign carrying trade.

I want to say to the gentlemen who have assembled that this Commission has held very interesting meetings in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. This is the fifth hearing the Commission has given to the business men of the country. I desire, furthermore, to say that the Commission, in the discharge of its important duties, has disclaimed everywhere, and desires to disclaim here, any purpose of exploiting any particular theory or the opinion of any particular individual or body of men. We are here for informationinformation that will aid us in the important work we have in hand; and we welcome here, as we have welcomed elsewhere, the opinions of any man, no matter what view he may take of this important subject. Gentlemen, we are prepared to hear testimony. I will first call upon Hon. John Barrett, United States minister to Panama, whose residence abroad and whose investigations of this and allied subjects will enable him, I feel sure, to give the Commission very important information

STATEMENT OF JOHN BARRETT,

United States Minister to Panama and formerly Minister to Argentina and Siam.

Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission, possibly on the assumption that one of your ministers abroad is as much the minister of Chicago as he is of New York, or of the Pacific Coast and the Mississippi Valley as well as of the eastern part of the United States, it is appropriate that a minister should say a few words while he is in Chicago. I have put what I have to say in notes, because I do not wish to be rambling in my observations or to take more of your time than is necessary.

I have the honor to submit herewith a few facts for your consideration in regard to our commerce with South America, and to urge most respectfully that your Commission will see fit to recommend in its report that steps be taken for the furtherance of better steamship communication between New York and the leading ports of eastern South America, particularly Buenos Ayres, Argentina. Inasmuch as I have only recently arrived from Argentina, where I was United States minister, en route to my new post in Panama, this is my first opportunity to appear before your body. What I have to say is founded on a careful study of conditions in South America, especially in the great Republic of Argentina, during the last six months.

By way of emphasis and better understanding of my recommendations, I beg to call your attention to the importance of southern South America. Argentina is to-day one of the most prosperous and progressive countries in the world. Covering an area of 1,200,000 square miles, or as much as all that section of the United States east of the Mississippi River plus the first tier of States west of it; having a magnificent seaboard on the Atlantic of over 1,500 miles, with its interior penetrated by the extensive river system of the River Plate, reaching from about 20° south of the equator to over 55° south, or located almost entirely in the Temperate Zone; possessing a climate suited to an energetic and ambitious race, and producing those products which have a ready sale in the great markets of the world, Argentina certainly commands the attention of the United States. Its capital city, Buenos Ayres, is one of the largest commercial centers of the Western Hemisphere. It has a population of nearly 1,000,000 and is growing more rapidly than any city in the world, with possibly the exceptions of New York and Chicago. Situated about 200 miles from the sea on the River Plate, it is approached by steamers from all portions of the globe. It has a system of docks and wharves unequaled by few ports even of Europe. Over $25,000,000 were expended in their construction.

The commerce with foreign lands of Argentina last year amounted to $360,000,000.

OUR COSTLY LACK OF STEAMSHIPS.

Think of it, this country away down there in the other end of South America! Of this the share of the United States was only $24,000,000, or $16,000,000 exports to Argentina and $8,000,000 imports from that country into the United States. There is no valid reason except that of insufficient steamship relations why our trade with Argentina should not become $50,000,000 per annum instead of the present low figures. Considering that Argentina now has only about 5,000,000 people her commerce averages over $70 per head.

I might say that that is a greater average than any other country in the world, with possibly the exception of the Netherlands. This demonstrates the richness of the country, and as the population grows to greater proportions in the near future the foreign trade will correspondingly expand.

As many of you know, I have been for over ten years a strenuous advocate of closer relations with the Far East. From the time when I had the honor to go to Siam as your minister in 1894 I have been hammering away on that subject, and now that I have gone to another part of the world my eyes have been still further opened. We hear

a great deal about the possibilities of trade with China and Japan, and yet China's foreign trade last year, notwithstanding her population is over 300,000,000, was less than that of Argentina with 5,000,000 people. Ambitious, progressive Japan, with 40,000,000 people, only barely reached higher figures than this wonderful nation of South America. As for the future, therefore, I contend that we should give more attention to South America than we have in the past, or at least divide the interest we show in the Far East. I will not weary you with adding to my argument concerning Argentina the immeasurable possibilities also of trade with Brazil, which is just north of Argentina, or with the lesser countries of Uruguay and Paraquay, which would also be tributary to the steamship service which I advocate.

AT LEAST A MONTHLY LINE.

Coming now to the direct point in hand, it is my opinion, supported by nearly all the authorities I consulted in South America, that at least a monthly line of steamers, carrying mails and passengers and having the freight facilities characteristic of such vessels, should be established, with its terminal points at New York in the United States and Buenos Ayres in Argentina. At present there is no through mail, passenger, and fast freight service between these two ports. There are freight steamers leaving New York every week for Argentina, but they are slow and unsuited for mails, passengers, and fast freight or express. There is one line of fairly good mail and passenger boats running from New York to Rio Janeiro, but no farther.

As if steamers should come from Buenos Ayres to New Orleans or to Cuba and did not come up into the United States! Connections at Rio with Buenos Ayres are not regular, and confusion constantly results in attempting to communicate or travel this way. Nearly all persons in southern South America who wish to proceed to the United States must do so by the way of Europe, and often the mail goes the

same way.

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One point I brought out last night at the dinner of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association was this: When I received a summons from the State Department to proceed to Panama I had to go from Buenos Ayres to Southampton and then from Southampton to New York. had to travel the two sides of a triangle when I wanted to go the hypothenuse, or the direct way, from New York to Buenos Ayres. There were no steamship facilities which could take me in any such time as I could go by that roundabout way. There were no highgrade passenger and mail steamers by which I could go. That is the way four-fifths of the travel, and the mails also, must go between the United States and this great corresponding country in South America; for I do not hesitate to say that Argentina is entitled to be called the

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