- Oregon and Washington. — Tables of Grain Export. - Puget Sound Lumber Export, Table.-Oregon and Washington Grain, Flour, and Lumber Export, Table. - Vessels owned in Oregon and Wash- THE MARINE INSURANCE BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES. Reports from Collectors of Customs. "Free Trade" the Cause of Insurance Decay. - Insurance Report from New York. -State- ment of President Jones of the Atlantic Insurance Company of New York: Premium Rates on Hulls; Rates for Steamers; Rates on Sail Vessels; Rates on Cargoes; Premiums on Cargoes, Table; The Nationality of Underwriting Capital in New York; Compa- nies discontinuing Business, Table; Statement of the Marine In- surance Companies of New York. - Insurance Report from San Francisco. Letter of Secretary Fowler of the California Insur- ance Company of San Francisco; Rates on Hulls and Cargoes, Tables; List of Marine Insurance Companies on Pacific Coast; California Companies retired from Business.-Differential Rates and their Differences, Table. Differential Rates on Cotton Cargoes. - . 277 THE MARINE INSURANCE BUSINESS AS CONDUCTED IN FOREIGN The Report from Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. - The Report from - - 296 - Faults of Admeasurement. Favoritism to Steamers and Foreign Ship- - Discrimination against our own Shipping. — Origin of the Free- port Provisos. - Refunding of Tonnage Taxes. Pretenses for Tonnage-tax Refunds. Repeal of the Law. - Tonnage-tax Col- lections, 1890.—The Principle of Just Taxation. — The Tonnage of Subsidy. British Tonnage under Subsidy or Subvention. - Sub- Action of the Maritime Conference. - International Correspondence. - Comparison of Freeboards, Steam Vessels. Comparison of Freeboards, Sail Vessels. Discriminations. — Table III. for Spar- deck Steamers. Table IV. for Awning-deck Steamers. - Sharp- ness of Hulls considered, Illustration. — Imposition on Wooden Advantage governs Trade. The Principles of Transportation. — The Slow Teaching of Experience. - The Brazilian Trade. - The Un- popular Steam Tramp. The Lake, versus Ocean, Cargo Steam- Deadweight Ability, Lake Steamer. - Deadweight Ability, British Steamer. Strength. Stresses and Factors of Safety, Table. - Workmanship and Durability. — Cost, etc. Whalebacks compared with Tramps. Cost of Steamer and Consorts to- gether. - Cost of running Whalebacks. Lake Traffic Manage- ment. Comparative Cost of manning British Cargo and Amer- and Living of Foreign and American Crews. - Reduction in Crews of British Sail Ships.— Reduction in Crews of British Steamers. Shortening of Freight Steamer Crews. Tables of Seamen's Wages. - Monthly Wages out of New York, Steamers.-Wages of Sea- men at Atlantic Ports. Wages out of Cleveland and Chicago . . 338 The Office of the Secretary of the Treasury. The Reports of the Secretaries: Hamilton, Wolcott, Gallatin, Dallas, Crawford, Rush, Ingham, McLane, Taney, Woodbury, Ewing, Forward, Spencer, Bibb, Walker, Meredith, Corwin, Guthrie, Cobb, Chase, McCulloch, Boutwell, Richardson, Bristow, Morrill, Sherman, Folger, McCul- The Desperate Struggle of our Marine. -The Tonnage Bill. — An Explanation of the Tonnage Bill. - The Cost of the Tonnage Bill. - Amount of Bounty under the Substitute Bill, for Sail Vessels and Steamers. The Total of Bounties. The Payments of Following First Principle.-Protection by Discriminating Duties. — Protection by Export Bounties. — The Carriage of Free and Reciprocity Goods. -How Subsidies, Subventions, and Bounties act. Protection by Shipbuilding Premiums. - Mr. Blaine's Partially Protective Plan. Regulation of Triangular Trade. - Free Pilotage. - A Protec- The Load-line Problem. - Of Freeboard Rules. A Bill for Free- board or Load Marks. — Comparison of Freeboards, Tables. The Mail Subsidy Bill. - The Shipping League Bill. - Growth, Thrift, and Decline of Shipping, Table. - Foreign Trade and Transporta- tion. Subsidies and Payments for Ocean Mail Service, Table 439 AMERICAN MARINE. CHAPTER I. THE NATIONAL INTEREST IN A MARINE. IT may be laid down as fundamental, that every interest which largely employs and rewards labor, develops resources and augments wealth, aids social progress and increases knowledge, is of national concern. But especially is this true of those trades and pursuits whose growth strengthens the state, guards its independence, and makes its safety sure. In line with this maxim, our foremost statesmen, from Washington down, have endeavored to square their work. In our early history Mr. Jefferson declared that Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, and Navigation constituted the four pillars of our prosperity. Mr. Webster expressed a similar thought in 1824. He said that it was a fundamental axiom that the great interests of the country were united and inseparable; that agriculture, commerce, and manufactures must flourish together or languish together, and that all legislation was dangerous which proposed to benefit one of them without looking to the consequences that might fall upon the others. As It is, therefore, for fitting and peculiar reasons that shipbuilding, navigation, and commerce have always called for national care and promotion from politic maritime states. a maritime people, not only have we a common right in the sea, and consequently a national interest in all its pursuits, but the protection of our trade abroad, resistance to aggression and retaliation for wrongs, and our defense against naval attacks, must be effected by ships and seamen. As a maritime people, our home is not only on our own soil, and our industries those of the land, but our abode is likewise on the ocean, and our pursuits include the work of the sea. On the sea, as on the land, our people live and toil; therefore, on both elements must our national power be shown. As an independent nation, we must build up and maintain, as well in peace as in war, a marine and navy of our own, or possess no real greatness as a state, no influential rank among the powers of the world, and no valid voice in its affairs. Sovereignty of the Sea. The ocean is a vast domain. Of the earth's surface, seventy-three per cent. is water and twentyseven per cent. is land. While military power has been most displayed ashore, history tells of many struggles for possession of the sea. Although the oceans and navigable seas belong in common to all the nations of the earth, only the maritime states and people can enjoy their advantages and profit from their pursuits. These benefits may thus be proved: though the maritime nations fly their flags over forty per cent. only of the habitable land, yet, through their shipbuilding and navigation, they virtually rule all the land and sea, and the world entire. When we consider that in territory, population, production, coast lines, harbors, and foreign trade we rank now either first or second in the world, the idea presents itself that in future we may rightfully stand preeminent among the maritime powers, if only we do but claim our rights and cultivate our natural interest in the domain of the sea. Necessity for Ships. rights that are not asserted. To assert our rights at sea, we must sail it with our ships. With no marine, we shall have no rights and receive no benefits from the wide domain which is given into our hands. Such a situation would be that of a people planted in the heart of a continent, disunited and distant from the sea. To choose a lot like theirs evidences no statesmanship guiding our course; discloses neither enterprise nor skill, independence nor courage. It is not becoming to American character and the high civilization of our people. It sacrifices our self-respect, while it forfeits our title to rank among navigating nations, who alone control the world. To give up the ship and relinquish the sea is to yield so much of right, of possession, and advantage, that our delinquency would surely bring disrepute and invite attack from inferior powers. Nations are like men; they concede no In the present state of maritime advancement, so much of the |