When the American people have before them any proposition for the revival of the American merchant marine, they should keep in mind that ships designed for the purpose and at least in sufficient numbers, are afloat in every trade of the world; that the freight rates are maintained at a point where the profits are as low as any afforded by any branch of the world's work; that the men doing the work have been developed with the steam carrying trade, just as the splendid American sailor of the sail was developed by his environment, and they are therefore at once well-informed, alert, enterprising, resourceful, persistent, and merciless. Observe, too, that in the work of the high seas man faces primeval conditions, brute force prevails as nowhere else, and the fittest survives. Perhaps a definition of terms is needed here. By fitness we mean the ability to do the world's work on the terms which the world offers. We have learned to build bridges and locomotives on those terms, but, in spite of the fact that our ship-builders and ship-owners are fully protected in the "home market," they have not yet learned how to combine the locomotive and the bridge into a ship fit to compete with the unsubsidized ships--the cargo carriers--now in the world's traffic. In connection with the known degree of efficiency of the world's merchant marine, as now afloat, consider a statement that can be found on page 1248 of the _Report of the Merchant Marine Commission_. It is, perhaps, the most discouraging statement that has been made in connection with our merchant marine. "The statistics of loss of ships at sea afford matter for reflection.... They show, as the United States Commissioner of Navigation has summarized them, that out of every 100 American seagoing steamships over 100 tons, for the past seven years, on the average 2.24 have been lost each year; that out of every 100 foreign seagoing steamers over 100 tons, for the same period on the average 1.98 have been lost each year." (See also An. Rep. Com. Nav., 1904, p. 19.) [Illustration: A Modern Clipper Ship and a Modern Brig By courtesy of _Munsey's Magazine_]