Excerpt from Our Merchant Marine: Its Condition as Shown At present there is a great desire in this coun try to share with others in the foreign trade, and it is strongly urged that the Government should give its aid in resurrecting our ocean commercial marine, since it is very evident that our shipping cannot be revived without the same assistance that was given the ocean steam lines of Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and latterly, Spain. Heretofore, when it has been proposed in Congress to grant Government aid to assist in putting afloat lines of ocean steamers, questions of free trade and tariff have been in troduced to kill the measure, and foreigners who do not wish any competition with their lucrative business, and have plenty of money with which to operate, are always ready to show how much more advantageous it is to Americans that they should have the carrying trade. For eigners generally argue that they receive no subsidies, but who knows but themselves what assistance they receive from their Govern merits? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.