Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

WORK OF THE 59TH CONGRESS--SECOND SESSION.

Session began Dec. 3, 1906; ended March 4, 1907.

Total appropriations, $919,948,679.63. Age disability pension bill passed by senate Jan. 11, 1907; by house Feb. 5, 1907; approved Feb. 6, 1997.

Christopher Columbus memorial bill passed by senete March 3, 1907; by house same date; approved March 4, 1907.

Denatured alcohol bill passed by house Feb 7, 1907; by senate March 1, 1907; approved March 2, 1907.

Expatriation bill passed by house Jan. 21, 1907; by senate March 1, 1907; approved March 2, 1907. (See "Citizenship in the United States.") Foundation for promotion of industrial peace bill passed by senate Feb. 27, 1907; by house March 1, 1907; approved March 2, 1907. Immigration bill passed (at first session) by senate May 23, 1906; by house June 25, 1906; agreed to in conference at second session and approved Feb. 20, 1907.

Philippine agricultural bank bill passed by senate Feb. 25, 1907; by house March 3, 1907; approved March 4, 1907.

Political contributions by corporations bill passed by zenate June 9, 1906 (first session); by house Jan. 21, 1907, approved Jan. 26, 1907. Railway employes sixteen-hours bill passed by senate Jan. 10, 1907; by house Feb. 23, 1907; approved March 4, 1907.

Special delivery stamp bill passed by house Feb. 18, 1907; by senate March 1, 1907; approved March 2, 1907.

Writs of error in criminal cases bill passed by senate Feb. 13, 1907; by house on same date. (For work of first session of 59th congress, see The Daily News Almanac and Year-Book for 1907, page 167.)

SALARIES OF CONGRESSMEN.

On and after March 4, 1907, the compensation of the speaker of the house of representatives, the vice-president of the United States and the heads of executive departments who are members of the president's cabinet shall be at the rate of $12,000 per annum each, and the compensation of senators, representatives in congress, delegates from territories and resident commissioner from Porto Rico shall be at the rate of $7,500 per annum each. (Sec. 4 of the legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill, approved Feb. 26, 1907.)

SPECIAL DELIVERY STAMPS.

After July 1, 1907, when in addition to the stamps required to transmit any letter or package of mail matter through the mails there shall be attached to the envelope or covering 10 cents' worth of ordinary stamps of any denomination, with the words "special delivery" or their equivalent written or printed on the envelope or covering, the said letter or package shall be delivered in all respects as though it bore a regulation "special delivery" stamp.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS MEMORIAL. There shall be erected in the city of Washington, D. C.. a suitable memorial to Christopher Columbus, for which $100,000 is appropriated. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the act a commission, consisting of the chairman of the senate committee on library of the 59th congress, the chairman of the committee on library of the house of representatives of the 59th congress, the secretary of state, the secretary of war and the supreme knight of the Order of the Knights of Columbus, shall be created with full authority to select a site and design and superintend the construction of the memorial.

AGE DISABILITY PENSIONS. Any person who served ninety days or more in the army or navy of the United States in the civil war or sixty days in the war with Mexico, who

has reached the age of 62 years or over, shall be entitled to receive a pension as follows: In case such person has reached the age of 62 years, $12 per month; 70 years, $15; 75 years or over, $20. Rank in service will not be considered in applications filed under this act. Persons now receiving pensions and who are eligible may apply under the new law, but no person receiving a greater pension under any other law than he would be entitled to under this act shall be pensionable under its provisions. Double pensions are prohibited.

PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURAL BANK.

For the purpose of aiding in the establishment and operation of an agricultural bank in the Philippines, the Fhilippine commission is empowered to guarantee an income of not exceeding 4 per cent per annum upon cash capital invested in it. The guaranty shall be made to a company organized under the laws of the Philippine islands, with its principal offices in Manila. The bank shall not grant loans except to those engaged in agriculture and for the sole purpose of assisting agriculture in the islands. No loan exceeding $5,000 shall be made except upon the written authority of the secretary of finance and justice of the islands. Interest on loans shall not exceed 10 per cent per annum. POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY CORPORATIONS.

It shall be unlawful for any national bank, or any corporation organized by authority of any laws of congress, to make a money contribution in connection with any election to any political office. It shall also be unlawful for any corporation whatever to make a money contribution in connection with any election at which presidential and vicepresidential electors or a representative in congress is to be voted for or any election by, any state legislature of a United States senator. Every corporation violating this law shall be subject to a fine not exceeding $5,000, and any director or officer of any corporation who shall consent to such contribution shall upon conviction be fined not more than $1,000 nor less than $250, or by impris onment for not more than one year, or by both fine and imprisonment.

DENATURED ALCOHOL.

Notwithstanding anything contained in the act entitled "An act for the withdrawal from bond tax free of domestic alcohol when rendered unfit for beverage or liquid medicinal uses by mixture with suitable denaturing materials," approved June 7, 1906, domestic alcohol when suitably denatured may be withdrawn from bond without the payment of internal-revenue tax and used in the manufacture of ether and chloroform and other definite chemical substances where the alcohol is changed into some other chemical substance and does not appear in the finished product as alcohol. Rum of not less than 150 degrees proof may be withdrawn for denaturation only in accordance with the provisions of the act of June 7, 1906, and of this act. The act provides for the establishment under the supervision of the commissioner of internal revenue of central denaturing bonded warehouses.

WRITS OF ERROR IN CRIMINAL CASES. A writ of error may be taken by the United States from the District or Circuit courts direct to the Supreme court of the United States in all criminal cases in the following instances:

From a decision or judgment quashing, setting aside or sustaining a demurrer to any indictment or to any count thereof, where such decision or judgment is based upon the invalidity or construction of the statute upon which the indictment is founded.

From a decision arresting a judgment of conviction for insufficiency of the indictment, where such decision is based upon the invalidity or construc

tion of the statute upon which the indictment is founded.

From the decision or judgment sustaining a special plea in bar, when the defendant has not been put in jeopardy.

The writ of error in all such cases shall be taken within thirty days and shall have precedence over all other cases. No such writ of error shall be allowed the United States where there has been a verdict in favor of the defendant.

HOURS OF WORK FOR RAILWAY EMPLOYES.

It shall be unlawful for any common carrier in any territory or the District of Columbia, or engaged in interstate commerce, to require or permit 'any employe to remain on duty longer than sixteen consecutive hours, and whenever he shall have been on duty for that length of time he shall be relieved and not be permitted to resume work until he has had at least ten consecutive hours off duty; and no such employe who has been on duty sixteen hours in the aggregate in any twenty-four-hour period shall be allowed again to go on duty without having had at least eight consecutive hours off duty. No operator, train dispatcher or other employe who by the use of the telegraph dispatches, reports, transmits, receives or delivers orders pertaining to the movements of trains shall be permitted to remain on duty more than nine hours in any twenty-four-hour period in towers, offices and stations operated night and day, nor more than thirteen hours in places operated only in the daytime, except that in cases of emergency employes may remain on duty for four additional hours in the twenty-four on not exceeding three days in any week. The provisions in the act shall not apply in any case of unavoidable accident nor to the crews of wrecking or relief trains. The penalty for each violation of the law is a fine of not exceeding $500.

FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

Trustees-Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller, president; Seth Low of New York, representing the general public, treasurer: John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers of America, representing labor, secretary; Thomas G. Bush of Birmingham, Ala., representing general public; Marvin A. Hughitt, representing capital, and Secretaries James Wilson and Oscar Solomon Straus. Industrial Peace Committee-Archbishop John Ireland, Marcus M. Marks of New York, Ralph M. Easley of New York, Elbert H. Gary, chairman finance committee United States Steel Corporation; Lucius Tuttle, president of Boston & Maine railroad; J. Gunby Jordan of Columbus, Ga.; Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor: Daniel Keefe, president of the Longshoremen's association, and Warren S. Stone, president International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

The origin and purpose of the "Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Peace" are fully shown in the following bill passed by congress March 2, 1907:

Whereas, Alfred Bernard Nobel of the city of Stockholm, in the kingdom of Sweden, having by his last will and testament provided that the residue of his estate shall constitute a fund the income from which shall be annually awarded in prizes to those persons who have during the year contributed most materially to benefit mankind, and having further provided that one share of said income shall be awarded to the person who shall have most or best promoted the fraternity of nations and the abolishment or diminution of standing armies and the formation and increase of peace congresses; and,

Whereas, the Norwegian parliament having, under the terms of said foundation, elected a committee for the distribution of the peace prize, and this committee having in the year 1906 awarded the aforesaid prize to Theedore Roosevelt, president of the United States, for his services in behalf of the peace of the world; and,

Whereas, the president desiring that this award shall form the nucleus of a fund the income of which shall be expended for bringing together in conference at the city of Washington, especially during the sessions of congress, representatives of labor and capital for the purpose of discussing industrial problems, with the view of arriving at a better understanding between employers and employes, and thus promoting industrial peace; therefore,

Be it enacted, etc., That the chief justice of the United States, the secretary of agriculture, and the secretary of commerce and labor, and their successors in office, together with a representative of labor and a representative of capital and two persons to represent the general public, to be appointed by the president of the United States, are hereby created trustees of an establishment by the name of the Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Peace, with authority to receive the Nobel peace prize awarded to the president and by him devoted to this foundation, and to administer it in accordance with the purposes herein defined. Any vacancies occurring in the number of trustees shall be filled in like manner by appointment by the president of the United States.

Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of the trustees herein mentioned to invest and reinvest the principal of this foundation, to receive any additions which may come to it by gift, bequest, or devise, and to invest and reinvest the same; and to pay over the income from the foundation and its additions, or such part thereof as they may from time to time apportion, to a committee of nine persons, to be known as "the industrial peace committee,' to be selected by the trustees, three members of which committee shall serve for the period of one year, three members for the period of two years, and three members for the period of three years; three members of this committee to be representatives of labor, three to be representatives of capital, each chosen for distinguished services in the industrial world in promoting righteous industrial peace, and three members to represent the general public. Any vacancies which may occur in this committee shall be filled by selection and appointment in the manner prescribed for the original appointment of the committee, and when the committee has first been fully selected and appointed each member thereafter appointed shall serve for a period of three years or the unexpired portion of such term.

Sec. 3. That the industrial peace committee herein constituted shall arrange for an annual conference in the city of Washington, D. C., of representatives of labor and capital for the purpose of discussing industrial problems, with the view of arriving at a better understanding between employers and employes; it shall call special conferences in case of great industrial crises and at such other times as may be deemed advisable, and take such other steps as in its discretion will promote the general purposes of the foundation; subject, however, to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the trustees. The committee shall receive suggestions for the subjects to be discussed at the annual or other conferences and be charged with the conduct of the proceedings at such conferences. The committee shall also arrange for the publication of the results of the annual and special conferences.

Sec. 4. That all expenditures authorized by the trustees shall be paid exclusively from the accrued income and not from the principal of the foundation.

Sec. 5. That the trustees herein named are authorized to hold real and personal estate in the District of Columbia to an amount not exceeding $3,000,000, and to use, and dispose of the same for the purposes of this foundation.

Sec. G. That the principal office of the foundation shall be located in the District of Columbia, but offices may be maintained and meetings of the trustees and committees may be held in other places, to be provided for in by-laws to be adopted from time to time by the trustees, for the proper execution of the purposes of the foundation.

Sec. 7. That the Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Peace is hereby authorized and empowered, at its discretion, to co-operate with any

institutions or societies having similar or like purposes.

Sec. 8. That this act shall take effect immediately on its passage.

IMMIGRATION LAW OF THE UNITED STATES. The immigration law as revised by the 59th congress provides for a poll tax of $4 for every alien entering the United States. This tax is not levied upon aliens who shall enter the United States after an uninterrupted residence of at least one year, immediately preceding such entrance, in Canada, Newfoundland, Cuba or Mexico, nor upon aliens in transit through the United States, nor upon aliens arriving in Guam, Porto Rico or Hawaii. The money collected from poll taxes is to go into the treasury and constitute a permanent appropriation for defraying the expenses of regulating immigration.

Wherever the president shall be satisfied that passports issued by any foreign government to its citizens to go to any country other than the United States or to any insular possession of the United States, or to the canal zone, are being used for the purpose of enabling the holders to come to the continental territory of the United States to the detriment of labor conditions therein, the president may refuse to permit such citizens of the country issuing such passports to enter the continental territory of the United States from such other country or from such insular possessions or from the canal zone. [This paragraph was designed to prevent the landing of Japanese laborers on the Pacific coast from the Hawaiian islands.]

CLASSES EXCLUDED.

The following classes are excluded from admission into the United States: All idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons and persons who have been insane within five years; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease; persons who have committed a felony or other crime involving moral turpitude; polygamists or persons who believe in the practice of polygamy; anarchists or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States, or of all governments, or of all forms of law, or the assassination of public officials; prostitutes, or women and girls coming into the United States for any immoral purpose; contract laborers who have been induced to migrate to this country by offers of employment or in consequence of agreements of any kind, verbal or written, express or implied, to perform labor in this country of any kind, skilled or unskilled; any person whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come, unless it is satisfactorily shown that such person does not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes and that said ticket or passage was not paid for by any corporation, society, municipality or foreign government, directly or indirectly; all children under 16 years of age unaccompanied by one or both of their parents, at the discretion of the secretary of commerce and labor. Nothing in the act shall exclude, if otherwise admissible, persons convicted of an offense purely political, not involving moral turpitude. Skilled labor may be imported if labor of like kind unemployed cannot be found in this country. The provisions of the law applicable to contract labor shall not be held to exclude professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, clergymen, professors for colleges or seminaries, persons belonging to any recognized learned profession or persons employed strictly as personal or domestic servants.

It is unlawful to assist or encourage the importation or migration of any alien by promise of employment through advertisements printed in any foreign country. This, however, does not apply to states or territories advertising the inducements they offer to immigration thereto.

All aliens brought to this country in violation of law shall be immediately sent back to the owners of the vessels bringing them. Any alien

entering the United States in violation of law and such as become public charges from causes existing prior to their landing, shall be deported at any time within three years after their arrival.

ANARCHISTS NOT ADMITTED.

No person who disbelieves in or who is opposed to all organized government, or who is a member of or affiliated with any organization entertaining and teaching such belief in or opposition to all organized government, or who advocates or teaches the duty, necessity or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers, either of specific individuals or of officers generally, of the government of the United States, or of any other organized government, because of his or their official character, shall be permitted to enter the United States or any territory or place subject to the jurisdiction thereof. COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION.

Section 39 of the act creates a commission consisting of three senators, three members of the house of representatives and three persons to be appointed by the president of the United States. This commission is to make full inquiry by subcommittee or otherwise into the subject of immigration. It is authorized to send for persons or papers, travel in the United States or in foreign countries, examine witnesses and to employ the necessary clerical help. It shall report to congress the conclusions reached by it and make such recommendations as it may deem proper.

The president is also authorized in the name of the United States to call, in his discretion, an international conference, to assemble at such point as may be agreed upon, or to send special commissioners to any foreign country, for the purpose of regulating by international agreement, subject to the advice and consent of the senate of the United States, the immigration of aliens to the United States; of providing for the mental, moral and physical examination of such aliens by American consuls or other officers of the government at the ports of embarkation or elsewhere; of securing the assistance of foreign governments in their own territories to prevent the evasion of the laws of the United States governing immigration to the United States; of entering into such international agreements as may be proper to prevent the immigration of aliens who, under the laws of the United States, are or may be excluded, and of regulating any matters pertaining to such immigration.

[Under this section the following commissioners were appointed in March, 1907: Senators William P. Dillingham of Vermont, Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and Asbury C. Latimer of South Carolina, to represent the senate; Representatives B. F. Howell of New Jersey, A. P. Gardner of Massachusetts and J. L. Burnett of Alabama, to represent the house of representatives, and Labor Commissioner Charles P. Niell of Texas, Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks of Cornell university, New York, and Ira E. Bennett of California, to represent the country at large.]

DIVISION OF INFORMATION..

Authority is given the commissioner-general of immigration to establish under the control of the secretary of commerce and labor a division of information in the bureau of immigration and naturalization, the duty of which shall be to promote a beneficial distribution of aliens admitted into the United States among the several states and territories desiring immigration. Correspondence shall be had with the proper officials of the states and territories and the division shall gather from all available sources useful information regarding the resources, products and physical characteristics of each state and territory and shall publish such information in different languages and distribute the publications among all admitted aliens who shall ask for such information at the immigrant stations. State or territorial agents may, under regulations prescribed by the commissioner of immigration, be admitted to such stations for the purpose of presenting the inducements of the respective states and territories to aliens to settle therein.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE. Civil-service act approved Jan. 16, 1883.

Officers-Three commissioners are appointed by the president to assist him in classifying the government offices and positions, formulating rules and enforcing the law. Their office is in Washington, D. C. The chief examiner is appointed by the commissioners to secure accuracy, uniformity and justice in the proceedings of the examining boards. The secretary to the commission is appointed by the president.

General Rules-The fundamental rules governing appointments to government positions are found in the civil-service act itself. Based upon these are many other regulations formulated by the commission and promulgated by the president from time to time as new contingencies arise. The present rules were approved March 20, 1903, and went into effect April 15, 1903. In a general way they require that there must be free, open examinations of applicants for positions in the public service; that appointments shall be made from those graded highest in the examinations; that appointments to the service in Washington shall be apportioned among the states and territories according to population; that there shall be a period (six months) of probation before any absolute appointment is made; that no person in the public service is for that reason obliged to contribute to any political fund or is subject to dismissal for refusing to so contribute; that no person in the public service has any right to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person. Applicants for positions shall not be questioned as to their political or religious beliefs and no discrimination shall be exercised against or in favor of any applicant or employe on account of his religion or politics. The classified civil service shall include all officers and employes in the executive civil service of the United States except laborers and persons whose appointments are subject to confirmation by the senate.

Examinations-These are conducted by boards of examiners chosen from among persons in government employ and are held twice a year in all the states and territories at convenient places. In Illinois, for example, they are usually held at Cairo, Chicago and Peoria. The dates are announced through the newspapers or by other means. They can always be learned by applying to the commission or to the nearest postoffice or custom house. Those who desire to take examination are advised to write to the commission in Washington for the "Manual of Examinations," which is sent free to all applicants. It is revised semiannually to Jan. 1 and July 1. The January edition contains a schedule of the spring examinations and the July edition contains a schedule of the fall examinations. Full information is given as to the methods and rules governing examinations, manner of making application, qualifications required, regulations for rating examination papers, certification for and chances of appointment, and as far as possible it outlines the scope of the different subjects of general and technical examinations. These are practical in character and are designed to test the rel

ative capacity and fitness to discharge the duties to be performed. It is necessary to obtain an average percentage of 70 to be eligible for appointment, except that applicants entitled to preference because of honorable discharge from the military or naval service for disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the line of duty need obtain but 65 per cent. The period of eligibility is one year.

Qualifications of Applicants-No person will be examined who is not a citizen of the United States; who is not within the age limitations prescribed; who is physically disqualified for the service which he seeks; who has been guilty of criminal, infamous, dishonest or disgraceful conduct; who has been dismissed from the public service for delinquency and misconduct or has failed to receive absolute appointment after probation; who is addicted to the habitual use of intoxicating liquors to excess, or who has made a false statement in his application. The age limitations in the more important branches of the public service are: Postoffice, 18 to 45 years; rural letter carriers, 17 to 55; internal revenue, 21 years and over; railway mail, 18 to 35; lighthouse, 18 to 50; life saving, 18 to 45; general departmental, 20 and over. These age limitations are subject to change by the commission. They do not apply to applicants of the preferred class. Applicants for the position of railway mail clerk must be at least 5 feet 6 inches in height, exclusive of boots or shoes, and weigh not less than 135 pounds in ordinary clothing and have no physical defects. Applicants for certain other positions have to come up to similar physical requirements.

Method of Appointment-Whenever a vacancy exists the appointing officer makes requisition upon the civil-service commission for a certification of names to fill the vacancy, specifying the kind of position vacant, the sex desired and the salary. The commission thereupon takes from the proper register of eligibles the names of three persons standing highest of the sex called for and certifies them to the appointing officer, who is required to make the selection. He may choose any one of the three names, returning the other two to the register to await further certification. The time of examination is not considered, as the highest in average percentage on the register must be certified first. If after a probationary period of six months the name of the appointee is continued on the roll of the department in which he serves the appointment is considered absolute.

Removals-No person can be removed from a competitive position except for such cause as will promote the efficiency of the public service and for reasons given in writing. No examination of witnesses nor any trial shall be required except in the discretion of the officer making the removal.

Salaries-Entrance to the departmental service is usually in the lowest grades, the higher grades being generally filled by promotion. The usual entrance grade is about $900, but the applicant may be appointed at $840, $760 or even $600.

TRIAL OF WILL J. DAVIS

Will J. Davis, theater manager, was indicted with others Feb. 20, 1904, for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the burning of the Iroquois theater in Chicago, Dec. 30, 1903, in which 596 persons lost their lives. Feb. 9, 1905, the indictment was quashed by Judge Kersten of Cook county and Judge Green of Peoria county, but a new indictment was returned by the grand jury March 4 of the same year. Jan. 23, 1906, Judge Kavanagh denied a motion to quash the indictment, and June 14 Judge Ben M. Smith granted a

FOR IROQUOIS FIRE.

change of venue. Oct. 8 Judge Smith decided that the case should be tried at Danville, Ill. After some postponements the trial began before Judge E. R. E. Kimbrough in that city March 3, 1907. A jury was secured March 5, but the claim was set up by the defense that the Chicago building ordinance under which the indictment was brought was defective, and, the judge taking the same view, no testimony was taken, and on March 9 the jury, by direction of the court, gave a verdict of not guilty.

SHEA CONSPIRACY

Cornelius P. Shea and others were charged with conspiracy in connection with the teamsters' strike in Chicago in May, 1905. They were indicted June 28 the same. year and reindicted July 25, 1906. The first trial began Sept. 13, 1906, and ended Jan. 19, 1907, in a disagreement. The second trial

TRIALS.

began Feb. 3 and ended Feb. 21, 1907, in acquittal. It took ninety days to get the first jury and fourteen to get the second, more than 5,000 talesmen being examined. The estimated cost of the two trials to the county was $45,000.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ON SHIP SUBSIDIES. Sent to congress Jan. 23, 1907.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: I call your attention to the great desirability of enacting legislation to help American shipping and American trade by encouraging the building and running of lines of large and swift steamers to South America and the orient. The urgent need of our country's making an effort to do something like its share of its own carrying trade on the ocean has been called to our attent on in striking fashion by the experiences of Secretary Root on his recent South American tour. The result of these experiences he has set forth in his address before the trans-Mississippi commercial congress at Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 20 lastan address so important that it deserves the careful study of all public men. The facts set forth by Mr. Root are striking, and they cannot but arrest the attention of our people. The great continent to the south of us, which should be knit to us by the closest commercial ties, is hardly in direct commercial communication with at all, its commercial relations being almost exclusively with Europe. Between all the principal South American ports and Europe lines of swift and commodious steamers, subsidized by their home governments, ply regularly. There is no such line of steamers between these ports and the United States. In consequence our shipping in South American ports is almost a negligible quantity; for instance, in the year ended June 30, 1905, there entered the port of Rio de Janeiro over 3,000 steamers and sailing vessels from Europe, but from the United States no steamers and only seven sailing vessels, two of which Iwere in distress. One prime reason for this state of things is the fact that those who do business on the sea do business in a world not of natural competition but of subsidized competition.

us

State aid to steamship lines is as much a part of the commercial system of to-day as state employment of consuls to promote business. Our commercial competitors in Europe pay in the aggregate some $25,000,000 a year to their steamship lines-Great Britain paying nearly $7,000.000. Japan pays between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000. By the proposed legislation the United States will pay relatively less than any one of our competitors pays. Three years ago the trans-Mississippi congress formally set forth as axiomatic the statement that every ship is a missionary of trade; that steamship lines work for their own countries just as railroad lines work for their terminal points, and that it is as absurd for the United States to depend upon foreign ships to distribute its product as it would be for a department store to depend upon wagons of a competing house to deliver its goods. This statement is the literal truth. Moreover, it must be remembered that American ships do not have to contend merely against the subsidization of their foreign competitors. The higher wages and the greater cost of maintenance of American officers and crews make it almost impossible for our people who do business on the ocean to compete on equal terms with foreign ships unless they are protected as their fellow countrymen who do business on land are protected. We cannot, as a country, afford to have the wages and the manner of life of our seamen cut down, and the only alternative, if we are to have seamen at all, is

to offset the expense by giving some advantage to the ship itself.

The proposed law which has been introduced in congress is in no sense experimental. It is based on the best and most successful precedents, as, for instance, on the recent Cunard contract with the British government. As far as South America is concerned its aim is to provide from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts better American lines in the great ports of South America than the present European lines. The South American republics now see only our warships. Under this bill our trade friendship will be mad evident to them. The bill proposes to build large-sized steamships of sixteen knots speed. There are nearly two hundred such steamships already in the world's foreign trade, and over three-fourths of them now draw subsidiespostal or admiralty, or both. The bill will encourage our shipyards, which are almost as necessary to the national defense as battle ships, and the efficiency of which depends in large measure upon their steady employment in large construction. The proposed bill is of importance to our navy because it gives a considerable fleet of auxiliary steamships, such as is now almost wholly lacking, and also provides for an effective naval reserve. The bill provides for fourteen steamships, subsidized to the extent of over $1,500,000, from the Atlantic coast, all to run to South American ports. It provides, on the Pacific coast, for twenty-two steamers, subsidized to the extent of $2,250,000, some of those to run to South America, most of them to Manila, Australia and Asia. Be it remembere that while the ships will be owned on the coas s the cargoes will largely be supplied by the interior, and that the bill will benefit the Mississippi valley as much as it benefits the seaboard. I have laid stress upon the benefit to be expected from our trade with South America. The lines to the orient are also of vital importance. The commercial possibilities of the Pacific are unlimited, and for national reasons it is imperative that we should have direct and adequate communication by American lines with Hawali and the Philippines. The existence of our present steamship lines on the Pacific is seriously threatened by the foreign subsidized lines. Our communications with the markets of Asia and with our own possessions in the Philippines, no less than our communications with Australia, should depend not upon foreign but upon our own steamships. The southwest and the northwest should alike be served by these lines, and if this is done they will also give to the Mississippi valley throughout its entire length the advantage of all transcontinental railways running to the Pacific coast. fail to establish adequate lines on the Pacific is equivalent to proclaiming to the world that we have neither the ability nor the disposition to contend for our rightful share of the commerce of the orient, nor yet to protect our interests in the Philippines. It would surely be discreditable for us to surrender to our commercial rivals the great commerce of the orient, the great commerce we should have with South America and even of our Own communications with Hawaii and the Philippines. I earnestly hope for the enactment of some law like the bill in question. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

PARTY LINES IN CONGRESS SINCE 1879.

To

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »