COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 29

Vice President, T. N. Jarvis, of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, says:
It is a question whether special inland rates on export traffic can
be extended to other articles than those already designated, and such
a step if taken should only be done after careful and thorough consideration
 of all questions involved.

OCEAN SHIPPING.

Of far greater importance than any defects in the export service
of American railways is the dependence of the United States on
foreign ocean shipping. As a feature of foreign trade policy this
is of serious concern, because it subjects the exporter to distinct disadvantages
 in international trade. For a clear understanding of
the conditions that have obtained, a brief statement is first given
regarding the principal merchant fleets. In making this statement,
the Commission expresses no opinion as to the desirability of this
country’s adopting methods which the countries here described have
followed in encouraging their shipping.
THE MERCHANT MARINE OF THE CHIEF TRADING NATIONS.
GREAT BRITAIN.

Great Britain has long had the greatest merchant marine in the
world and has been keenly interested in its development. The relations
 of the Government with the shipping interests have been centralized
 in one single competent authority, the Marine Department
of the Board of Trade, and amendments to the Merchant Shipping
Act are only made as government measures which have received the
assent of this body. Subsidies have been limited to the maintenance
of stipulated mail service and the construction of vessels to serve as
naval auxiliaries, but at no time has such aid reached more than
3 per cent.of the total tonnage under the British flag.
According to Lloyd’s Register for 1915-16, the merchant fleet of
Great Britain comprised nearly 9,000 steamers of more than 19,000,000
gross tons and over 600 sailing vessels of over 800,000 gross tons.
Moreover, the colonies possessed 1,500 steamers of 1,600,000 gross tons
and 500 sailing ships of nearly 150,000 gross tons. British passenger
and cargo liners follow all the principal routes of trade and reach
all the great markets of the world. Thus, in addition to many other
lines, the Cunard and the International Mercantile Marine (the
last a line in which American capital is heavily interested, but whose
ships are under British registry? and whose policy is controlled

1G, M. Jones, Government Ald to Merchant Shipping, Special Agents Series 119, Bureau
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 1916, p. 51.
2 The six vessels of the American line, which is controlled by the International Mercantile
 Marine, fly the United States flag, and the two ships at present operated by the
Red Star Line, which is also controlled by the International, fiy the Belgian flag.