REPORT OF AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE COMMISSION. 29
three Japanese steamers of a smaller type in direct competition out of
San Francisco.
_ Whatever criticism may be made of the two trans-Pacific subveritions
 of the proposed bill, it can scarcely be urged that, judged by
foreign standards, thev are unreasonable and excessive.
THE ATLANTIC SUBVENTIONS.

On the Atlantic the maximum subvention of $300,000 offered for
the first Brazil line is about twice the amount granted under the present
 law, which has absolutely proved to he inadequate. The British
Royal Mail service to the West Indies and South America received at
first $1,200,000 and then $1,350,000 a year, but on the final successful
establishment of the line the amount was gradually reduced. It is
now about $400,000 for a double service to the West Indies, Brazil,
and Argentina, but a new West India line has lately been started with
a subvention of $200,000.
The proposed subvention to the new American line to Argentina is
set at $375,000 a year—the distance being greater than to Brazil. It
has not seemed feasible to unite these South American services, for
such mail as is now carried to Brazil or to Argentina by slower foreign
steamers goes to one country or the other direct. The distance to
South Africa is greater than to Argentina, but the required speed is
less, so that a subvention of $375,000 is not inequitable.
On the Gulf-Brazil route the subvention is set at $275,000, or
$25,000 less than on the North Atlantic route, but the stipulated
speed is ¢ knots lower, which is not an unfair balance. The subventions
 of $75,000 for the Gult-Cuba line and the same amount for
the Gulf-Central American line and of $50,000 for the Gulf-Mexico
line are relatively small amounts, but the distances are short, the ships
tequired are not large, and good steam coal is available.
The exact tonnage of the steamships on these new mail routes is not
specified in the proposed bill. That is a detail which can best be left
to the shipowner and merchant. who know best what a given trade
demands and justifies.

NO “OCEAN GREYHOUNDS.”

Frankly, these proposed new mail subventions do not look to the
Creation of an ‘ocean greyhound?” class. Almost the only “ greyhounds
 ” in the world are to be found on a few North Atlantic lines to
Europe. It has seemed to the Commission that the most useful mail
steamships for distant commerce and the mail steamships which the
American people most desired at the present time were modern, etficlient
 vessels, combining moderate speed with large cargo capacity.
Such ave the steamships called for by the mail subventions of the proposed
 bill. Their speed, it is believed, is adequate but not excessive.
Commercial value is nowhere sacrificed to mere record breaking. At
the same time, the stipulated speed is believed to be always at least
equal, and in most instances superior, to the average rates of foreign
steamers now running in the same or similar services.
For example, only two of all the foreign vessels that last year
received United States mails at New York for South America possess
even a nominal speed of 14 knots. the rate required from all the new