COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 35

He went on to cite instances of imports of foreign goods into the
United States made possible by foreign shipowners giving their
nationals favorable freights.
Commenting on the value of shipowners as builders of trade, Capt.
Robert Dollar, of San Francisco, said:
There is no merchant: that is as good a drummer for trade as the
shipowner. You get a fellow with a ship in the Far East, and he
has no cargo for it; anything short of stealing that fellow will resort
to to get a cargo for his ship. So we often get very low rates of
freight, which 1s a great advantage to the Pacific coast, for instance.
If 1 was living in London do you think I would be pulling for this
Pacific coast? Not at all. I would be pulling for London. If I lived
in Germany, of course I would be working for Germany; and every
shipowner, wherever you find him, is working to try and get his
ships back home to his home port, there re-store them, pay off the
crew, and do repairs and all the necessary work. Therefore, it is of
the greatest importance that we should have our ships owned in our
own country.
It is common knowledge that Great Britain has always relied on
British shipping as a vitalizing agency for the expansion of its
commerce, and no one doubts that its enormous foreign trade has been
greatly developed because its fleets of merchant ships were eager to
sarry English products to every corner of the globe and to bring from
every land the requisites for English industrial enterprises.
The Japanese are keenly alive to the stimulating effect of their
own ships on Japanese foreign business. Thus, early in 1915, it was
announced that the Toyo Kisen Kaisha (Oriental Steamship Co.),
which maintained the only regular steamship line between the
Orient and South America, had taken advantage of the opening of
the Panama Canal to extend its service from Honolulu so as to include
 Panama and various Mexican ports via Los Angeles.
There are many evidences of the efforts of the German shipowners
 to build up German trade abroad. They have patiently
furnished sailings in advance of profitable business and have made
rates for the express purpose of establishing German traders and
German goods in markets overseas. The British are experts in foreign
 trade, and their comment on this policy of the German shipowners
 is thus especially valuable here. In 1914, a British Diplomatic
and Consular Report said:
German shipping is rapidly becoming ubiquitous, much to the
advantage of the German exporter but not always to the financial
advantage of the shipping companies, for nobody believes that, for
example, the direct service from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf at
present pays even its own expenses. But as the development of German
 export trade encourages this policy, so it will eventually reward
it, for an increasing proportion of German foreign trade is being
directed to smaller countries, e. g., Chile, Colombia, Siam, Morocco,
Venezuela. etc.