REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONER OF NAVIGATION.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION, Washington, November 30, 1910.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith my annual report. The statistical information required by law may be found in the appendixes and statistical tables."

By statute it is the province and duty of the Department of Commerce and Labor to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce, the shipping and fisheries industries, and the transportation facilities of the United States. The law requires the Commissioner of Navigation to "investigate the operation of the laws relative to navigation, and annually report to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor such particulars as may, in his judgment, admit of improvement or may require amendment."

OCEAN-MAIL BILL.

The most important of the laws relative to navigation which in my judgment admit of improvement or require amendment are still, as they have been for years, those which affect the development of American shipping in foreign trade. Our tonnage registered for foreign trade now amounts to only 782,517 gross tons, the smallest amount in seventy years, except for the year 1898. When from this tonnage are subtracted vessels which have outlived their usefulness but still retain their registers, vessels in trade between our Atlantic and Pacific coast ports by way of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which by law are required to be registered although cargoes on this route can be carried only by American ships, and the tonnage on the Yukon River, the remainder comprises little outside of steamers under the ocean-mail act of 1891 and the five trans-Pacific liners under the American flag. Last year American ships carried only 8.7 per cent of our exports and imports, the smallest percentage in our history, save in 1901. Unless conditions shall be changed by the action of Congress, the outlook for the future will remain more discouraging than it has been in many years. The practical method of immediate improvement is the extension of the ocean-mail act of 1891. For years the Presidents of the United States in their annual messages and the heads of the departments of Government concerned directly or indirectly with shipping have outlined general national

a Appendixes and statistical tables not printed in this volume. See note on page 603.

policies which would be promoted by such legislation. The reports of this Bureau for years have stated in detail facts in support of the proposition. It is not considered necessary to reiterate in this report such detailed statements, for they are already accessible. Such an extension of the act would not only be in the line of policies pursued from time to time by the United States, but it would also be in accord with methods adopted successfully by other maritime nations. The proposition is in no sense experimental.

In the interests of American shipping in foreign trade-apart from its relations to the ocean-mail service and to the national defense, with which this Bureau is only indirectly concerned-the passage of Senate bill 6708 at the coming short session is earnestly recommended. The bill reads:

A BILL to amend the Act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, entitled "An Act to provide for ocean mail service between the United States and foreign ports and to promote commerce." Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Postmaster-General is hereby authorized to pay for ocean mail service, under the Act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninetyone, in vessels of the second class on routes to South America, to the Philippines, to Japan, to China, and to Australasia, four thousand miles or more in length, outward voyage, or on routes to the Isthmus of Panama, at a rate per mile not exceeding the rate applicable to vessels of the first class, as provided in said Act, and in vessels of the third class on said routes, at a rate per mile not exceeding the rate applicable to vessels of the second class, as provided in said Act: Provided, That if no contract is made under the provisions of this Act for a line of ships between a port on the Atlantic coast south of Cape Charles and South American ports, the PostmasterGeneral shall, provided two or more lines are established from North Atlantic ports, require that one of said lines shall, upon each outward and homeward voyage, touch at at least two ports on the Atlantic coast south of Cape Charles, regard being had in the selection of such ports of call to geographical location and to the volume of the export and import business of the ports so selected: Provided further, That the total expenditure for foreign mail service in any one year shall not exceed the estimated revenue therefrom for that year.

In brief, the bill provides that American ocean mail steamships of 16 knots or upward and of 5,000 gross tons or over shall be paid $4 a mile on the outward voyage on the routes specified instead of $2 permitted by the act of 1891. These vessels must meet the numerous requirements of that act.

The trans-Andine railway connecting Valparaiso on the Pacific coast with Buenos Aires on the Atlantic coast of South America is already in operation. The ocean-mail system of Great Britain has already been adapted to the changed conditions created by the railway through the consolidation of the Royal Mail Steamship Company and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. The mails and passengers of Europe for Chile and Peru and vice versa are thus already transported more quickly than when they had to be carried either through the Straits of Magellan or by way of the Isthmus of Panama. We are promised that the Panama Canal will be opened to navigation on January 1, 1915, a date only four years hence. Unless it is proposed at the outset to abandon entirely to foreign shipping ocean communication between the United States and the west coast of South America through the Panama Canal, legislation to secure the establishment of American mail lines through the canal should be undertaken at once. Four years is a very short time within which to assemble the capital, establish terminals and trade connections, and build the ships required for the

purpose. It should be borne in mind, too, that mails and passengers for Argentina can be carried more quickly from the United States through the canal to Valparaiso and thence by the transAndine railroad than they can be carried directly by the Atlantic route. The distance from New Orleans through the canal to Valparaiso is 4,038 nautical miles and from our other principal seaports on the Atlantic and Gulf slightly more. The bill in question accordingly admits of the establishment of one or more American steamship lines through the canal to the west coast of South America. The longer legislation on this subject is delayed the more difficult will be the attainment of this end.

While Congress has already provided liberally for the construction of the Panama Canal and has passed or has under consideration propositions relating to the relations of the canal to our political welfare, no bill has yet been passed with a view to the impetus which the canal should give to our maritime commercial power.

PANAMA CANAL TOLLS.

There is ample precedent for the payment from the Treasury of the United States of tolls which will accrue on vessels of the United States passing through the Panama Canal, and the passage at the coming session of Congress of a bill providing for such payment is recommended in the interest of American shipping. Many acts of Congress provide that certain fees shall be charged and collected by collectors of customs, inspectors of steam vessels, and shipping commissioners for the issue of various marine documents, the inspection of vessels, and the shipment of crews. By the act of June 19, 1886, Congress provided that no fees shall be charged or collected for such services to vessels of the United States, but that the Secretary of the Treasury shall allow and pay from any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated the fees hitherto imposed upon the owners of such vessels of the United States. Such fees in the main are still collected from the owners of foreign vessels. This system is in entire accord with our treaty obligations, by which we are bound to accord to foreign vessels in our ports equality of treatment with American vessels. If foreign governments elect to pay the entry and clearance fees, etc., which their ships incur in ports of the United States, it is quite within their power to make the necessary appropriations in the same manner that the Forty-ninth Congress provided for the payment from the Treasury of such charges when imposed on the owners of vessels of the United States.

Again, as stated in this report last year

The refund of Suez Canal tolls as a means of promoting national shipping is a specific part of the policy of Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Sweden, and indirectly through their subsidies to national mail lines using the canal such refund is in effect part of the policy of Germany, France, Holland, Japan, Italy, and Spain. The British Peninsular and Oriental subsidy chances to be almost exactly the sum of its Suez Canal tolls, $1,600,000.

The first paragraph of article 3 of our treaty of November 18, 1901, with Great Britain provides:

The canal shall be free and open to the vessels of commerce and of war of all nations observing these rules, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against any such nation, or its citizens or subjects, in respect of the conditions or charges of traffic, or otherwise. Such conditions and charges of traffic shall be just and equitable.

It would be inappropriate in this place to consider the question whether in view of the exceptional relations of the United States to the Panama Canal consistently with this treaty Congress could pass an act that vessels of the United States shall be exempt from tolls. The proposition to pay from the Treasury of the United States tolls on American vessels is in no manner inconsistent with the paragraph.

STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR.

On June 30, 1910, the merchant marine of the United States, including all kinds of documented shipping, comprised 25,740 vessels of 7,508,082 gross tons. On June 30, 1909, it comprised 25,688 vessels of 7,388,755 gross tons. The following table shows the geographical distribution, motive power, material of construction, and trade of vessels of the United States for the fiscal year 1910, in comparison with similar data for the year 1909, and also the construction for the two years.

COMPARISON OF MERCHANT MARINE OF 1909 AND 1910.