In any consideration of a revival of the American merchant marine, it is necessary to view candidly the conditions which our ships must face. Emphasis is laid upon the need of candor, because in such discussions of the matter as have been had in periodicals, and before committees of Congress, the plainest facts of history have been frequently misstated, and, at times, deliberately misrepresented. If one-half the ingenuity and energy that have been used in arguing for the subsidy policy had been expended in evolving a revolution-making type of ship, we should have had, long since, a merchant marine worthy of the flag. Further than that, while an appeal to sentiment is justified, the matter ought to be viewed first as a cold matter of business. Is the deep-water carrying trade worth the attention of American capitalists? It is a curious fact that in the hearings before the committees of Congress that have investigated the state of our shipping since the Civil War, not one word has been said about the dividends paid by the ocean carriers of the world. The reports of the committees assume that there is great profit in such shipping. One adroit advocate of the subsidy system says "the European steamship combinations ... now derive an income of about $200,000,000 a year from their control of our carrying trade" (_Atlantic Monthly_, October, 1909), leaving the reader to suppose that that great sum is divided as net profits. As a matter of fact, the International Mercantile Marine Company, one of the larger corporations thus engaged (it is largely in the hands of American capitalists, too), has paid no dividends as yet (1909), and even its bonds sell below par. When the Cunard Company wished to build two ships to excel the swiftest of the German liners, it was unable to do so until the British government loaned it the necessary capital under conditions that amounted to a gift of the total cost of the ships. According to the _Financial Times_ (London), dated Wednesday, April 14, 1909, the highest dividend paid by this most highly favored of all the British subsidized lines during the last fourteen years (1895-1908) was 8 per cent, which was distributed in 1900. The average distribution for the fourteen years has been 3.17 per cent a year. In 1895, instead of making a profit, the company lost £40,000. In 1904 there was a loss of £66,700. In 1908, while operating the two splendid and thoroughly well-advertised record breakers which it had received as a free gift from the British government (the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_), it made the enormous loss of £249,800. A letter from the company to the writer admits that these figures are correct. Said James A. Patton, then one of the foremost grain exporters of the United States, in a hearing before the Merchant Marine Commission of Congress in 1904 (Sen. Rep. 2755, 58 Cong. 3 sess. p. 714):--