California trade to Europe, nor, indeed, is it likely they have in any other ocean trade. When compared in fleets with the best ships of all nations, they are found to excel in size, capacity, value of cargo, cheapness of freight, safe delivery, good condition, speed in sailing, efficiency in navigation, escape from disasters, preservation from loss both of life and property, and in reducing to a minimum the perils of the sea. What could we have more, what would we have better, by giving up our own superior building and becoming dependent upon Great Britain for her inferior iron ships? Manifestly we would not get from her the equals of our present fleets, nor vessels of less first cost, nor greater durability. Would we thereby secure what is now wanting, protection for the employment of our ships? Could we any the better obtain living freights, in our own ports even? Not a bit of protection or advantage would we find. Whether of iron or wood, built at home or abroad, American ships would still have to wait till foreign vessels were first engaged at higher rates, or accept "private terms," just as our present ships do, so long as foreign merchants and underwriters are permitted to control the carrying-trade of the United States, solely to the advantage of rival nations. There is not a single benefit to be gained, but several sure to be lost, by substituting imported for domestic ships in American commerce.

The problem of the American ship is one of protection, or abandonment, of the sea. It is most disgraceful to our government that the only thing wanting to our ships is something which itself should supply. Let but the Stars and Stripes be hauled down, and the Union Jack of Britain take its place, and better freights with more frequent engagements will follow, right out of our own ports. For the want of protection in some of the various ways practicable, our ships do not receive fair play, nor compete on equal footing. With the stigma of "free-ship" bills pending in Congress, how can we expect foreign merchants to load our ships at standard rates?

Every free-ship vote in Congress is an impeachment of the good character of our ships. Naturally, every British subject indorses every such impeachment. Nevertheless, we have now a better average sailing ship than is built in Britain, of either wood or iron. We have in abundance, and use in every

instance, better iron and steel in all our metal steamers. And the additional cost of superior materials is the most economical expenditure in building a ship, as the added durability and increased safety abundantly compensate and prove. If Congress will act wisely the people will be patriotic. Our shipbuilders and our ships will not be cast away, but rather their work will be encouraged, shipowners will be protected, and our commerce done by a marine of our own.

CHAPTER XVII.

PACIFIC COAST COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.

The Export of Grain, 1889. Having proved, in the preceding chapter, by the performances of fleets in the California trade, that American ships are superior to European craft, that in safety, size, and speed, in efficiency and cheapness of carriage, they excel the world, we will next consider the gain or loss of foreign freighting to the Pacific States.

In the calendar year of 1889 there sailed from San Francisco 234 ships, aggregating 387,091 tons, grain laden for ports abroad. This fleet carried 12,011,674 centals (536,235 tons gross), valued at $16,430,076. Of this export, 11,171,848 centals (498,822 tons gross), valued at $15,264,145, went to Europe, and the balance to other foreign parts.

The fleet to Europe numbered 213 sail, aggregating 358,205 tons: 167 ships, of 278,885 tons, were British; 30, of 58,601 tons, were American; 11, of 14,551 tons, were German; 3, of 3,277 tons, were Italian; 2, of 2,891 tons, were Swedish and Norwegian. The foreign shipping carried 416,697.05 tons, and the American, 82,046.16 tons gross of cargo.

The average rate of freight paid American ships was £1 10s. 6gd. ($7.423); the British rate was £1 15s. 31d.; the German rate, £1 14s. 61d.; the Norwegian, £1 18s. 3d.; the Italian, £1 16s. 8d.; and the rate of the foreign fleet, as a whole, £1 158. 4d. ($8.58).

The average proportionate excess of rate over American, paid foreign shipping, was 15.65 per cent.

The freight-money paid foreign ships was $3,577,344.17. At the rate paid American ships, it would have been $3,093,142.20, or $484,201.97 less.

As the measurement of the foreign fleet aggregated 358,205 tons, it is apparent that the excess of freightage apportioned to each ton of vessel was $1.35. It is also clear, that this

excess alone would have equaled the bounty proposed in the "Tonnage Bill"1 (which called for $1.40 to the ton) to be paid to 345,858 tons of shipping. This amount of tonnage equals 89.34 per cent. of the entire grain fleet of 1889. It represents more capacity than we have had for years fit for the California. trade with Europe, and as much tonnage as we had in 1889 eligible for bounty under the bill.

The figures above given show the average discrimination for the year. Attention will now be called to the figures for a single month of 1889, in which we find the greater extreme.

The Business of One Month. In December, 1889, there sailed from San Francisco 24 British ships, aggregating 40,221 tons; 4 American, measuring 8,722 tons; and 1 German ship of 1,178 tons, with grain to Europe.

The average British rate of freight was £1 158. 34d. (equal to $8.57) per ton; the average American rate was £1 78. 13d. (equal to $6.59) per ton; and the German rate was £1 12s. 6d. (equal to $7.77).

The British rate in excess of American was 30.04 per cent.; and the German rate (on a wooden ship) was 19.8 per cent.

As a British ship carries 1.4 tons gross of grain for each ton of register measurement, the excess of rate amounted to $2.72 for each ton of the British fleet. This is equivalent to a bounty rate of 38.85 cents per ton of vessel, for 1,000 miles sailed (the "Tonnage Bill" called for 20 cents), which manifestly was overpaid, or abstracted from the pockets of the California farmers, to enrich the monopolizing marine of England.

At 20 cents a ton per 1,000 miles, with a limit of 7,000 miles of voyage, the bounty proposed to be paid American ships by the "Tonnage Bill" amounts to one dollar per ton gross of cargo. As the British fleet of December, 1889, was paid in excess of the American $2.72, and the German ship $1.18, per ton of cargo, the rate of bounty is not extravagant; on the contrary, it seems too small to cover the average discrimination against our flag, and thus to save our Pacific coast farmers from the sacrifices now made on the altar of foreign greed.

The Export of Flour. Having shown that foreign shipping asked and received an excess of $484,202 for freightage 1 Fifty-first Congress (1890). See Chap. XV.

on grain, it will be in order to see what additional excess was paid for the carriage of flour. Foreign tonnage almost monopolized the flour trade in 1889. An American ship took two cargoes to China for Chinese merchants, and another American vessel carried part of a cargo to Liverpool. The balance of the transport was by foreign bottoms, principally British.

In the course of the year there sailed 30 flour-laden ships, aggregating 37,974 tons, with 485,245 centals valued at $1,951,184.

Of this fleet 21, of 27,430 tons, were British; 3, of 5,160 tons, were American; 4, of 3,109 tons, were German; 1, of 1,233 tons, was Norwegian; and 1, of 1,036 tons, was Hawaiian in flag.

Of the flour carried, 429,654 centals, valued at $1,707,833, went to Europe, and the balance to China and Australia. Of the cargoes to Europe, the British flag carried 78 per cent., or 335,879 centals, valued at $1,330,733, at an average rate per ton gross of £1 14s. 81d.; the German flag carried 15.88 per cent., or 68,250 centals, valued at $274,100, at a rate of £1 158. 9d.; our own flag carried 1.39 per cent., or 6,000 centals, valued at $24,000, at a rate of £1 6s. 9d.; the Norwegian flag carried 4.54 per cent., or 19,525 centals, valued at $79,000, at a rate of £2. Thus, all but 1.39 per cent. of this conveyance was done by foreign craft, at an average rate of £1 15s. 1d. ($8.52), against an American rate of £1 6s. 9d. ($6.31), an excess of 31.12 per cent.

The freight-money paid foreign ships was $161,139.78.

The freightage for the same carriage at the rate paid the American ship would have been only $119,341.78. As the tonnage of the foreign shipping employed aggregated 29,135 tons, and the excess of freightage was $41,798, it is seen that each ton received a largess of $1.433. The bounty proposed in the "Tonnage Bill" to American ships was $1.40, or three cents less than the flour producers of California, in 1889, overpaid in the shape of tribute to the rulers of the sea, our own good ships going idle, or taking up inferior work.

If the bounty proposed in the "Tonnage Bill" was paid by the government, it would encourage our shipowners to increase their tonnage, and enable them, with superior ships, to cut down the extortionate foreign rates, perhaps to the full amount of bounty received.