law of 1891 to the single American contract line to Europe, and to the
Oceanic Line from San Francisco to Auckland and Sydney. These provisions
added two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the former's subsidy of
seven hundred and fifty thousand, and two hundred and seventeen thousand
to the latter's of two hundred and eighty-three thousand. The reasons
given for these increases were: in the case of the American Line,
because this line "meets the fiercest competition of the State-aided
corporations of Europe, soon to be intensified by the new subvention of
one million one hundred thousand dollars granted to the Cunard Company
by the British Government, on terms so liberal as to make it equivalent
to one and a half million dollars a year"; and in the case of the
Australasia Line, because it "operates in Pacific waters where cost of
fuel, labor, etc., is considerably greater than at Atlantic ports; ...
is required to maintain a very high speed; ... employs exclusively white
crews instead of the Asiatics utilized by many other Pacific companies."
Another provision, as a special encouragement for American shipowners to
enter the Philippine trade, added a subvention of thirty per cent above
the regular rate, or six and a half dollars a ton. The naval volunteer
retainers were extended to seamen of the Great Lakes and coastwise
trade.[HZ]

In the Senate the bill fared well as a whole. Like the original bill it
came back from the committee on commerce amended, though slightly, and
with a minority report against it: the minority again emphasizing their
"unqualified opposition to this renewed effort to donate to certain
favored interests moneys collected by the Government for public purposes
under its power of taxation."[IA] It was closely fought by the
opposition in debate, opened with Senator Gallinger's argument in its
behalf on January 8, 1906. But it successfully ran the gauntlet. Further
amended in several particulars, but unscathed in its essential parts, it