unequal and ruinous footing. Suppose we buy our ships in Liverpool, shall we get our sailors from Hong Kong? The one measure fits the other. The one would bring about the other. Buying foreign ships, to be sailed by foreign seamen, will give us foreign owners as well as foreign builders. We now have alien merchants and foreign underwriters, and, on this line, whence will come an American marine? And what interest can the American people have in any other?

Tables of Wages. The following tables of seamen's wages are fairly representative for the present time. They are 50 per cent. higher than 50 years ago, and from 50 to 100 per cent. above the wages paid by foreign nations now competing for our trade.

NEW YORK AND WEST INDIA TRADE.

The following table may be taken to represent the wages on first-class vessels on the Lakes generally.

WAGES OF SEAMEN OUT OF CHICAGO, SAIL VESSELS, 1890.

American officers have 83 per cent. higher wages than Brit

ish. This applies to the ocean and the Lakes.

AVERAGE MONTHLY WAGES OF FARM LABOR.

It will be noted that the highest wages paid are in the protected lake and coasting trades, and that the wages in the unprotected foreign trade are the lowest given. In the Southern ports, however, where we have but little shipping in foreign trade, the wages are about the same for all trades, and higher than in the Northern cities visited most by foreign ships. The best American seamen are doubtless those who sail in the best paid domestic trade. The aliens, as a class, number most, proportionately, in the foreign trade.

While the facts thus far given clearly establish the unequal footing and disadvantage on which American vessels are obliged to run in competition with foreign shipping, there is further testimony to be presented in other chapters. The evidence is overwhelming that American ships and seamen must receive governmental care and encouragement, if they are to exist in numbers sufficient for mercantile economy and maritime defense.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.

HAVING considered the principal obstacles and difficulties which have arisen and surrounded our navigation in foreign trade, it be next in order to indicate the measures necesmay sary for their removal. Some of these seem to suggest themselves. It has not been shown, however, that our government itself has a want that should first be supplied. As a preparation and support for all measures proposed or adopted, it is needful that a department of government be established, to take in special charge the general shipping and commercial interests of the country. The magnitude of these interests far transcends that of some others now presided over by separate cabinet officers. We have a secretary of war, although we have no wars, and but a nucleus of an army; and a secretary of the navy, notwithstanding we have only a few fighting ships, and, without a marine of our own, really have no naval power; and we might as well have a secretary of commerce, as of war and the navy, even should we remain dependent on foreign shipping to carry on our trade with the world.

For a long time past has our government been wanting in eyes and ears and understanding of the needs of navigation and commerce. Interests not represented in the cabinet are not kept before the country, and soon lose importance. In our administrations the sea has never had representation proportionate with the land. Since the war, especially, it has been all for the land, and nothing for the sea, in cabinet and Congress. This want of voice for the interests of the sea has caused inattention to their failure and decay.

Governmental supervision of commerce and navigation should be as effective in the United States as where it now exists in all foreign countries that cherish naval and commercial power. A department of commerce would represent in its

work not only the national but the individual interest. It would do for the mercantile, the mechanical, the nautical, and cognate interests connected with the sea, what the Department of Agriculture does for the business of tilling the soil, in originating and promoting advantageous measures in the farming interest, and in removing obstacles to its success. Not only the administration of the laws of Congress concerning commerce and navigation, but the duty of watching and studying their operations, investigating the working of foreign laws and customs, and acquainting Congress with all the facts needed for improvement or defense, in our policy or laws, would devolve upon the department of commerce.

Many a matter of importance to our shipping or foreign trade has been overlooked or adversely settled in cabinet councils, for the want of an officer present, whose business it should be, at all times, to consider the effect of measures with reference to the great interests under his charge. A secretary of commerce would be chosen in view of his fitness and ability to advise upon questions of trade and transportation, as a secretary of state is chosen for his knowledge of diplomacy and international law; as a secretary of the treasury for his ability in finance; an attorney-general for his legal attainments, and so forth.

These, and other thoughts of a similar character have given rise in the past twelve years to the passage of many resolutions by Boards of Trade and Chambers of Commerce, and Conventions of Shipping in our principal cities, favoring a department of commerce in the administration of the government. It is felt by thoughtful citizens, everywhere, that our government is weak and wanting in its policy and attitude toward the sea. That it is not wise, but shortsighted and impolitic. That it is not thoughtful, but neglectful, of gaining maritime wealth and power. That it is not friendly to, but at variance with, naval and commercial development. In short, that it is behind the times with conservatism, in its want of sympathy with ships and shipping enterprises, and its lack of live Americanism seaward.

The Office of Secretary of the Treasury. If it be said that the Secretary of the Treasury administers the law relative to commerce and navigation, and, therefore, is charged with the