1. A law providing for free ships--that is, permitting Americans to buy ships in other countries and bring them under the American flag. Plainly, this would not at all meet the difficulties which I have described. The only thing it would accomplish would be to overcome the excess in cost of building a ship in an American shipyard over the cost of building it in a foreign shipyard; but since all the materials which enter into an American ship are entirely relieved of duty, the difference in cost of construction is so slight as to be practically a negligible quantity, and to afford no substantial obstacle to the revival of American shipping. The expedient of free ships, therefore, would be merely to sacrifice our American shipbuilding industry, which ought to be revived and enlarged with American shipping, and to sacrifice it without receiving any substantial benefit. It is to be observed that Germany, France, and Italy all have attempted to build up their own shipping by adopting the policy of free ships, have failed in the experiment, have abandoned it, and have adopted in its place the policy of subsidy. 2. It has been proposed to establish a discriminating tariff duty in favor of goods imported in American ships--that is to say, to impose higher duties upon goods imported in foreign ships than are imposed on goods imported in American ships. We tried that once many years ago and abandoned it. In its place we have entered into treaties of commerce and navigation with the principal countries of the world, expressly agreeing that no such discrimination shall be made between their vessels and ours. To sweep away all those treaties and enter upon a war of commercial retaliation and reprisal for the sake of accomplishing indirectly what can be done directly should not be seriously considered.