The testimony taken before the Merchant Marine Commission, in 1904 (p. 1263), contains the following paragraph, the truthfulness of which was not disputed:—
"The condition of sea life under the American flag repels the American, boy and man. These conditions are mainly—we might say solely—due to the state of the navigation laws of the country. These laws are antiquated and disgraceful, compared to American standards: they were designed to govern slaves, and are maintained for the purpose of making slaves. No American boy with any spunk in him will submit himself to the conditions created by the maritime law, except (as frequently happens) as the alternative of a term in prison. Take any trade that now attracts the American boy and now holds the American adult, apply to those who follow it a special code of laws obnoxious to all conceptions of Americanism, repugnant to the dictates of humanity and condemned by the instincts of decency, and it may be regarded as certain that that trade would speedily be shunned by American labor. And if consulted about it the American people would be very likely to declare that if such laws are really necessary to the continuance of the trade in question, it would be a mercy to let the trade die in order to be rid of the laws.... To create a healthy popular interest in the whole subject of American shipping it is necessary to alter the laws affecting American seamen, thus, by inducing Americans to accept service at sea, creating an interest in the vital element of the subject, and also by reflex action, in the physical considerations involved."
This matter is of much importance here because, while life at sea was becoming absolutely unendurable, by a self-respecting American youth,—in an American ship, that is,—the opportunities for a career on shore were becoming more alluring. The young men who might have become leaders in our seafaring population—who might, perhaps, have found a way to maintain our supremacy at sea—were forced to suppress a natural liking for salt water; so they took the farms which the government gave away too freely; or they raised cattle on the unfenced plains; or they located mines; or they became managers and owners of factories where "protected" goods were made; or they obtained power and fortune from the railroads. While the British were strengthening their hold upon the sea, the Americans were steadily losing the sea habit.
It is manifest from any candid review of the facts that the decadence of the American merchant marine was wholly due to natural causes—to conditions of national development (the Civil War was a feature of our national development) that were unavoidable. It is unpleasant, but absolutely necessary, to face the facts. When the American merchant marine lost the command of the sea and the British gained it, the result was due to the working of the immutable law of the survival of the fittest.
CHAPTER XVI
DURING A HALF CENTURY OF DEPRESSION
IN 1866, just after the end of the Civil War, the American steam fleet registered for foreign trade, measured 198,289 tons. The steam vessels enrolled for coasting traffic measured 885,223 tons. In 1879 the steam tonnage in the foreign trade had fallen to 156,323, while the coasting tonnage had passed the million mark. In 1896 the coasting fleets measured more than 2,000,000 tons, while the foreign trade ships measured 264,289 tons. In 1908 the coasting steamers reached a tonnage of 4,055,295,—double the figures of 1896, and the registered tonnage was 598,737,—more than double that of 1896, but so far below that of the coasting tonnage as to warrant a serious inquiry into the causes which had created the contrast.
First steel ship built in the United States
Before entering into this inquiry, however, it will be of interest to consider several features of the growth of the coasting traffic. First note that the cheap rates of transportation afforded by the ships running from such Southern ports as Savannah, Charleston, and Norfolk to Boston and New York have had a most remarkable influence upon the agriculture of the Southern coast States. Where once cotton only was raised, or cotton and tobacco, the land-owners are producing cargoes of vegetables at a season when such truck can be produced at the North only by the use of hothouses. The health of millions of people at the North, and the prosperity of other millions at the South, have been greatly promoted by the coasting steamers. At the same time the coast lines of railroads, to secure a share of the traffic which was originated by steamers, have improved their service so far that strawberries and string beans have right of way over passengers.