OCEAN MAIL SERVICE.

b5

navigation bounties to mail lines to the Philippines, Argentina, New
York, Cuba, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and 1,943,400 pesetas
($375,076) for steam connections with the Canaries and Balearic
Islands and Spanish possessions in Africa. The shipbuilding bounties
are not estimated, but the amount presumably will not be large. The
rates per gross ton for vessels built in Spain are for steel passenger
steamers $35.70, for steel cargo steamers $32.80, for wooden sail
vessels $19.13. During 1908 the shipbuilding bounties amounted to
only $38,000. The general navigation bounties are limited to 2,750,000
pesetas ($530,750) a year, and only 350,000 tons may share in them.
The general rate is 0.4 peseta, or 7.7 cents, per gross ton per 1,000 miles.
_ The principal subsidized mail routes, to be carried out in most
instances by the principal Spanish steamship corporation, the Compafiia
 Trasatldntica, may be thus summarized:

Spang Main RoUTEs.

Route.

Voyages.

1. To the Philippines .- Cimeen
2. To Argentina. ...coooeee aacncnen-a
8. To PortoRico,Cuba, Venezuela, and
Colombia.
4. To Cuba and Mexico ...-..- + alice wun
B. To New York, Cuba, and Mexico...{.....do CREREY
6. To Fernando P6..een.--. ome dlinnpitir

Every 4 weeks. .
Monthly..eeuuee
..do. wn

Total.cvan

a Average.

Subsidy.

Total.

Per
mile.

3500, 488
335,133
300,903
281, 605
274,709
166, 200

$1.70
2.81
1.91

2.81
L91
1.29

1,858,128

» Minimum.

Number.


b

Steamships.

Speed.

Tonnage.

nots.
122
133-15
12413

4, 500

134-16
125.17

29,000
b 7,500
39, 000
b&,000
+ 2,000
2 400

i 1]

Besides the subsidies tabulated above, the Spanish law provides for
10-knot cargo boats a subsidy of 950,000 pesetas (3183350) for 12
voyages to New York and Habana and $129,310 for 24 voyages to
Argentina.
Over ten years after the loss of the Philippines, Spain deems it
desirable to spend about $500,000 annually in maintaining communication
 under the national flag with the archipelago. For 14-knot
steamers to Argentina, once a month, Spain is willing to appropriate
at the rate of $4.60 a nautical mile outward, the rate for 16-knot
American steamships defeated in the House of Representatives last
March. The recent subsidy legislation of other countries in fact shows
that various shipping propositions which have passed the Senate of the
United States during the past ten years, and failed in the House, have
been studied elsewhere, and that some of their features, adapted to
varying national conditions, have been gy in the laws of
other countries. Spain has already provided for a subsidized line
through the Panama Canal. The Spanish law increases Spanish
tonnage taxes to 14 cents at each entry, which may be commuted by
payment of an annual tax of 2 pesetas, or 39 cents, the annual maximum
 under our tariff act of August 5, 1909, being 30 cents.