Then consider the effect of the tides in the business world upon the carrying-trade. After the war with the Boers the freight rates went to pieces. Owners ceased building new tonnage. The ship-builders, to keep their forces together, offered to construct the best of modern vessels at cost of construction. Thereupon new capital came into the trade, and some men of experience also placed orders. In this way an excess of tonnage was kept afloat. Meantime much old tonnage in the progressive countries like England and Germany was placed on the market at forced sale, and these ships were bought by continental owners who patched them up ("cheap repairs for the cheap ones"), and sent them, with cheap crews, looking for cargoes. It must be kept in mind that Chinese owners, who can hire stokers at $6 a month, are competing in the world's traffic, as well as owners who have to pay $40 a month for the same kind of work. Where the Chinese owner can make money, and the owner of the best of modern freighters can live, and even make a lucky stroke, now and then, the owner of the average tramp keeps her running because the losses while she is in commission are less than when she is laid up in ordinary. The tramp traffic is precisely like mining in that the luck of the few keeps the many trying. Moreover the trend of business has been, for some time, away from tramps and into regular line ships, and that is a fact worth serious consideration. The average profit of the lines of steamers is well set forth in the statement of the Cunard Company, unless, indeed, that statement is more favorable than the average facts warrant. The Hamburg-American Line dividends during the past fourteen years have averaged 5¾ per cent per annum, and it is likely that but one other ship-owning corporation has done as well on deep water. It is a world's traffic even for a line that plies between New York and Liverpool only. The price that a Swedish tramp will accept for wheat in the River Plate, and the rate which the Japanese will accept on the coast of China, both affect the North German Lloyd at Bremen. A few lines, especially those having special trades, make good dividends. The United Fruit Company's ships are among the exceptions because of the peculiarities of the business. But every ship-owner knows that on the average there is no great part of the world's work that pays smaller dividends than carrying cargoes across deep water. The people of the United States, before taxing themselves to add to the congestion upon the high seas, should ask themselves whether success, when attained, will be worth the cost. Would a sensible American farmer, able to earn $3 a day grafting orchards, work overtime in order to compete with a foreign ditch digger receiving $1.50?