REPORT OF AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE COMMISSION. 35

Some of our expenditures for rivers and harbors, light-houses, etc.,
have of course been on the Great Lakes or rivers of the interior, where
foreign vessels seldom or never go, but by far the largest part of these
disbursements has been made in navigable waters on or adjacent to the
ocean. The costly deepening of harbors has especially inured to the
benefit of foreign ships, for coastwise commerce, as a rule, has not
required it, and the number of heavy-draft American vessels in the
foreign trade is trivial. Only six American steamships of 10,000 tons
gross register or upward now run in the trade of the Atlantic seaboard.
and they all go out of the port of New York.
Our liberal river and harbor appropriations have always, as one sure
result, enabled great foreign steamship companies to build immense
craft and thereby increase their dividend rate per ton with the cordial
assistance of the United States Treasury. No other government in
the world has displayed such eager altruism in opening channels for
the almost exclusive use of foreign flags. Meanwhile, the few American
 ships that visit foreign waters have been met there by tonnage,
light-house, dock, and other charges, almost invariably higher than—
indeed, often several times as high as—the charges on foreign ships in
deep and secure American seaports.
This anomalous condition of affairs points straight to the necessity
of an immediate revision of our tonnage-tax system. The Commission
believes that in the proposed bill it has offered a method of providing
increased revenue from tonnage, that, while just to the United States,
18 not unfair to the ships of foreign governments, long the chief beneficiaries
 of our generous policy of maritime expenditure.
RSTIMATED COST OF THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION.

As to the important practical question of the cost of the proposed
legislation, the average of the annual retainers provided in section 1
of the bill for officers and seamen of the naval volunteers would be
close to $50 each. It is probable that in the first year no more than
3,000 naval volunteers could be enrolled and qualified—for this process,
at. first unfamiliar, wiil necessarily be slow. These naval volunteer
retainers, therefore, for the fiscal year ending June 80. 1906, would
call for a maximum expenditure of $150,000.
As to the subvention for the ships themselves, the total registered
gross tonnage of the United States, steam and sail, on June 30, 1904,
was 888,628 tons. But it is well known that all this tonnage was not
actually engaged in foreign commerce. Many steamships, whose
employment is really coastwise, sail under register because they happen
to touch at one foreign port. For instance, eight ships of a total of
52,857 tons of the American-Hawaiian fleet are registered, though
engaged regularly in trade between New York, San Francisco, and
Hawaii. Other vessels sail under register for similar purposes of convenience,
 including many small steam craft running to Alaska and on
the Yukon River.
The actual foreign-going steam tonnage of the United States is easily
ascertainable. It can be selected, ship by ship, from the short list of
registered steel and iron steam vessels of above 1,000 tons. Smaller
craft than these, or wooden craft of any size, are not likely to make a
serious effort in foreign commerce. But from this list of registered
steam vessels must be excluded—