of Cape Charles. The total expenditure for foreign mail-service in any
one year was limited--not to exceed the estimated revenue therefrom for
that year.[IL]

The bill came back from the committee on commerce in March without
amendment, and with a report.[IM] In June it was put over for
consideration in December of the third session of this Congress. When at
length it was reached, Senator Gallinger submitted a substitute. This,
instead of naming the points to be covered, provided for subsidized
routes to South America south of the equator outward voyage; provided
for one port of call instead of two on the Southern Atlantic coast;
guarded against "discrimination detrimental to the public interest," in
other words "combines," by a provision that no contract be awarded to
any bidder engaged in any competitive transportation business by rail,
or in the business of exporting or importing on his own account, or
bidding for or in the interest of any person or corporation engaged in
such business, or having control thereof through stock ownership or
otherwise; and fixed the limit of the total expenditure for foreign mail
service in any one year at four million dollars. This substitute was
finally passed on February 12, 1911, by a vote of 39 to 39, the chairman
casting his vote in the affirmative. In the House the measure went to
the committee on post office and post roads; and there rested.

Various other subsidy bills and measures for the revival of the ocean
merchant marine without subsidies, were put into this Congress, as in
previous ones, but few escaped from the committees; and these few fell
short of passage.

FOOTNOTES: