from American registry, admitting only American ships, or those taken in
war as prizes or forfeited for a breach of United States laws, belonging
to American citizens.[IN] Ownership of American ships is restricted to
"citizens of the United States, or a corporation organized under the
laws of any of the States thereof."[IO] The master of an American ship,
and all officers in charge of a watch, including the pilots, must be
American citizens. Since 1871 foreign materials for ship-building have
been admitted free of duty. Since 1909 such materials, and all articles
necessary for the outfit and equipment of ships, have been duty-free,
with this proviso: that vessels receiving these rebates of duties "shall
not be allowed to engage in the coastwise trade of the United States
more than six months in any one year," except upon repayment of the
duties remitted; and that vessels built for foreign account and
ownership shall not engage in this trade.[IP]

In 1910 the subsidized American service covered only the one
transatlantic line from New York to Southampton, calling at Plymouth and
Cherbourg; lines to the north coast of South America--to Venezuela; to
Mexico; to Havana; to Jamaica; and on the Pacific, from San Francisco to
Tahiti.

The total cost of the service for the year on these seven subsidized
routes was $1,114,603.47, a net excess over the amount allowable at
present rates to steamers not under contract of $346,677.39, or,
deducting the amount would have been paid non-contract steamers for the
despatch of the foreign closed mails which these steamers carry without
additional cost to the department, a total excess of $293,013.40.[IQ]
"All other mail service between the United States and foreign
countries," the postmaster-general regretfully reported, is "wholly
dependent on steamships over whose sailings the department has no