In short, one may well doubt whether the proposed subsidy would enable our ships to overcome the opposition of the powerful foreign interests that are already in the trade. But if we suppose it to suffice that far, we have yet to inquire what the governments behind those powerful corporations would do. Recall the story of the Cunarders _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_. The British government gave those two ships to the company outright on the understanding that it should operate and maintain them in a condition fit to cross the Atlantic at a speed of 25 knots an hour. This was done at the time that American capitalists acquired control of a number of British lines, under the name of the International Mercantile Marine Company, and formed a working agreement with the two leading German companies. This combination threatened British supremacy on the North Atlantic, or was believed to threaten it, and the whole British nation rose up to defend, figuratively speaking. If that were possible under those circumstances, it is certain that the "subventions" now given to the British lines would be increased the moment any American subsidized ships began to cut into the British carrying trade. Increased subsidies would then be needed by the American ships. If the American people were to enter into a subsidy war it is likely that they could endure the strain longer than any other nation; but is such a war worth while to secure a part in a traffic that pays the well-subsidized Cunard line no higher profit than 2.8 per cent a year? [Illustration: Cunard S. S. _LUSITANIA_ By courtesy of the Cunard Steamship Company] One more argument in favor of subsidy is yet to be considered. With the Panama Canal and the Monroe Doctrine to defend, it is necessary to provide sufficient transports and colliers for the exigencies of war. The spectacle of our splendid war fleet steaming around the world with its fuel carried in ships under foreign flags, was humiliating to the nation. Congress should build auxiliaries more rapidly by direct appropriation, or it should give ample subsidies, however great the sums needed, to maintain auxiliary ships in the merchant service. Many Americans would gladly pay their share of the tax for the pleasure of seeing the American flag above a ship's taffrail, now and then on salt water, in spite of the humiliation of the fact that it was the tax and not efficiency that kept the flag in place. A merchant fleet so provided would be a kind of insurance against the exigencies of war, and even against war itself. With a thousand American merchant ships afloat on deep water there would be less danger of an aggressive nation of Europe invading Rio Grande do Sul or menacing the Panama Canal.