76 REPORT OF AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE COMMISSION.

under S. 727, $14,505; H. R. 64, $19,115, and under S. 5590, $14,505.
In 1899 the frrawaddy, of less than 12 knots speed, with a gross tonnage
 of 2,553, made 10 round trips between New York and Grenada.
This ship does not appear in the list of those registered for foreign
trade in the year 1904, but for all this can well be used for comparison.
Under this section she would receive $12,785; under S. 727, $13,020;
under H. R. 64, $13,020 also. The Umatilla, a 13-knot vessel of 3,069
tons, under this section would receive $15,345; under S. 727, $13,749;
and under H. R. 64, $15,261. (These estimates of subsidies under S.
727 and H. R. 64 are copied from the report of the Commissioner of
Navigation for 1900.)
It appears, then, that under a different guise the subsidy to cargo
vessels under the bills of the Fifty-sixth Congress and the subvention
under this section are almost identically the same thing. There are,
however, one or two differences between the subsidy bills and this
subvention section. 8. 727 and H. R. 64, section 1 (a), both provide:
That no vessel shall be entited to the full compensation under this clause unless
she shall have cleared from a port of the United States with cargo to the amount of
fifty per centum of her gross tonnage.
This section of the bill as proposed contains no such provision nor
any provision of any sort other than the agreement to turn the ships
over to the United States Government at any time for a fixed rate of
hire, to carry mails free of charge if asked to do so when on a subvention
 voyage, and to have a certain small proportion of its crew
American citizens.
Section 9 of S. 727 and H. R. 64 prohibit the paying of a subsidy to
a vessel on a voyage extending to a foreign port less than 150 nautical
miles from her last point of departure in the United States. 8. 5590,
section 6 {#), also contain the same exclusion. The reason for this
exclusion is given on page 62 of the report of the Commissioner of
Navigation for 1899.
A fair summary of the Commissioner’s reason is: Americans already
control the trade. The vessels thus excluded have a varying tonnage
from 400 up to 3,000 and more—all told, about 25,000 or 30,000
tons. It may be said that this is a mere bagatelle of only $125,000
or $150,000, and perhaps it does make materially little difference
to the actnal drain upon the treasury of the people. But the items
show clearly that this section proposed to give without restriction
$100,000 and more to steamship companies which are already in control
of the trade almost as exclusively as if it was the coasting trade. We
have already made a comparison between this second section of the
proposed bill and S. 5590, showing that for all vessels under 10 knots
the subsidy or the subvention or the compensation or the bounty is
practically the same. The only apparent exception to this is in the
case of a vessel of a low rate of speed of a tonnage of approximately
8,000 making foreign vovages of a less distance than 1,000 miles each
way.
In short, so far as the subvention under this section goes, this bill is
one of a double set of twins, the others being S. 5590. S. 727, and
H. R. 64.
Section 8: The different obligations incurred under this section by
the owners of the ships, so far as the percentage of Americans employed
 is concerned, are not at all likely to make any change in the crew.
The percentage, with possibly here and there an exception on the