It is difficult to believe, but it is true, that out of this faulty ocean mail service the government of the United States is making a large profit. The actual cost to the government last year of the ocean mail service to foreign countries other than Canada and Mexico was $2,965,624.21, while the proceeds realized by the government from postage between the United States and foreign countries other than Canada and Mexico was $6,008,807.53, leaving the profit to the United States of $3,043,183.32; that is to say, under existing law the government of the United States, having assumed the monopoly of carrying the mails for the people of the country, is making a profit of $3,000,000 per annum by rendering cheap and inefficient service. Every dollar of that three millions is made at the expense of the commerce of the United States. What can be plainer than that the government ought to expend at least the profits that it gets from the ocean mail service in making the ocean mail service efficient. One quarter of those profits would establish all these lines which I have described between the United States and South and Central America, and give us, besides a good mail service, enlarged markets for the producers and merchants of the United States who pay the postage from which the profits come.[12] In his last message to Congress, President Roosevelt said: To the spread of our trade in peace and the defense of our flag in war a great and prosperous merchant marine is indispensable. We should have ships of our own and seamen of our own to convey our goods to neutral markets, and in case of need to reënforce our battle line. It cannot but be a source of regret and uneasiness to us that the lines of communication with our sister republics of South America should be chiefly under foreign control. It is not a good thing that American merchants and manufacturers should have to send their goods and letters to South America via Europe if they wish security and dispatch. Even on the Pacific, where our ships have held their own better than on the Atlantic, our merchant flag is now threatened through the liberal aid bestowed by other governments on their own steam lines. I ask your earnest consideration of the report with which the Merchant Marine Commission has followed its long and careful inquiry.