AMERICAN AND ENGLISH SHIP-BUILDING.
Van Wert, Ohio.
How does American ship-building compare with the ship-building of Great Britain?
J. W. Nicodemus.
Answer.—During the year 1880 there were constructed in the United States for ocean traffic 412 sailing vessels, having a tonnage of 53,610, and 166 steam vessels, having a tonnage of 40,617. In addition to this, for the service of the lakes and rivers, were constructed forty-eight sailing vessels, with a tonnage of 5,447 and 182 steamers, with a tonnage of 38,237. In the same period Great Britain constructed 353 sailing vessels, with a tonnage of 57,534, and 474 steamers, with a tonnage of 346,361. The total number of American vessels plying the ocean was, at that time, 17,932, with a tonnage of 2,803,923, while Great Britain boasted of 25,185 vessels and a tonnage of 6,574,513. Including the shipping upon the inland lakes and rivers, the total shipping of the United States was 21,547 vessels, having a tonnage of 3,577,816. The reason for this enormous difference between the two countries is due partly to the greater cost of labor and material in the United States; partly to many more ways of employing capital profitably in the United States than there are in other countries; partly to the subsidies paid by the British Government to encourage the establishment and maintenance of British ocean lines of transportation; partly to the vastness of the British Empire and the exemption of British vessels and British goods carried in their vessels from heavy port dues and duties in trading to British ports; and partly from the American law forbidding the granting of the American flag to vessels built in other countries, even when owned by American citizens, and forbidding the restoration of our flag to American-built vessels after they have once gone under other colors, whatever the cause. American-built vessels compare in all other respects, except cost, favorably with the same classes of British vessels, and in many particulars American builders have done much to improve all classes of sea-going craft.
CELEBRATED PAINTINGS.
Ravanna, Mo.
What and where are some of the most celebrated paintings?
A Reader.