more dangerous. The only protection to your commerce is to put the American flag upon these ships. [Applause.] You have either to adopt this shipping bill or you can do nothing except sit still and submit to robbery and the jeopardy of war. Which will you choose? The Democratic Party can not under its platform adopt any plan involving a subsidy. It is useless to talk about it. You could not get within a thousand miles of a bill that contained a subsidy, so far as the Democratic Party is concerned, and as it has power in both branches of Congress, the only alternative is to continue your commerce under foreign flags, subject to all of the incidents and hazards of war, or to adopt this bill. ALTERNATIVE PROPOSALS IMPRACTICAL. Your committee makes a suggestion to the dangers of which I wish to call your attention. They propose that a Federal shipping board be organized; we do it under this bill. They propose that our navigation laws and regulations be altered; the bill provides for that. However, the point of difference is that they propose that the Government shall organize a marine development company in which the Government shall be the sole stockholder, and that this marine development company shall engage in the business of guaranteeing mortgages issued by private corporations; and this same suggestion emanates from the city of New York. My friends, where are we going; whither are we tending? A proposition of that character from the city of New York! The mortgage companies in the city of New York-the private business of guaranteeing the mortgages of corporations or of individuals upon real estate or anything elseyou propose to put the Government into competition with, in the most private kind of private business. You also ask us under this plan to have the Government make direct loans to shipping corporations or shipping firms. Do you know what that means? It means that the Government must lend money direct to anybody. There never was a more dangerous experiment or expedient on the face of the earth that could be adopted, and I do not believe any American business man or any intelligent American, if he will study the question for 15 minutes, will stand for it a single second. [Applause.] Last fall, when the conditions in the South were so grave and so serious, the price of cotton was down to 5 cents a pound, and a great disaster confronted the southern people. We were asked to sanction the issue of $250,000,000 of greenbacks or the sale of $250,000,000 of Government bonds to put that money into the Treasury of this Government and to lend it to farmers upon their cotton. I had to stand against it, although I am from the South-and I hated to do it, gentlemen, so far as the effect was concerned; but I could not, as the representative of this Government, standing on guard at the doors of the Treasury of the United States, advocate any such action. Once you adopt this plan and put the seal and the sanction of the sound business men of America-you sound business men who represent every section of this country-upon a proposition to lend Government money direct to any corporation or any individual, you might as well take the doors down from the National Treasury and involve the entire credit of this Government, because, I tell you, it will be extended everywhere. [Applause.] QUESTION OF EXTENDING CREDIT. Let me give you an instance of what has happened. In 1837 we had $38,000,000 surplus in the Federal Treasury. It was during Mr. Van Buren's administration. We were so concerned about that surplus, it was so much money, that there was a great "row" in Congress to know what to do with it. They did not know what to do with so much money. It became a political question. They finally voted to lend it to the States. You would think that the credit of the States and their obligations to pay were the most reliable assets you could possibly have. I mean, you would think that such obligations were the safest investments you could possibly have. Congress passed a resolution to distribute that money among the States and take back their demand obligations. To-day the Treasury of the United States holds $28,000,000 of the demand obligations of the richest States in this Union-New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee-every State that was in the Union at that time. We have those demand obligations in the Treasury of the United States to-day, money loaned by this Government to these States. What happened? After we had given them $28,000,000 a panic struck the land. The act directed that the money be distributed to them in four installments. After the first three had been paid a panic swept the land, and the Secretary of the Treasury, the National Treasury being in need of these funds, called upon the different States to pay back, and the representatives of all of these States in Congress passed a resolution, which is on the statute books to-day, preventing the Secretary of the Treasury from collecting these debts until further directed by Congress. The Secretary can not move a peg to collect that money, because they put this inhibition upon the statute books: Until further directed by the Congress the Secretary of the Treasury shall not call these loans. [Laughter.] Yet, gentlemen, when we can not get a State of the American Union to pay its just debts to the Government for money loaned to it, you ask us to stand for a proposition to lend money to private corporations or individuals upon the security of mortgages. [Cries of "No."] Never on the face of the earth, and I tell you, gentlemen, if you ever enter upon it you will have to lend it upon railroads and every other enterprise. Bills are referred to me asking that every conceivable sort of scheme be approved, submitting them for the judgment of the department, for raids upon the United States Treasury in the form of actual loans to be made by the Treasury of the United States on this thing and that thing-farm loans, loans upon houses built by workingmen, and so on. They are all entitled to consideration if we are going into the money-lending business. We will have to lend it to everybody. You can not discriminate under our system of government. Everybody must tap the Treasury till if you adopt any such resolution as this. There are many things that I wish I could say to you, but I am trenching upon the time of the distinguished Senator from Ohio. I want to thank you heartily for the courtesy you have extended to me, and to thank you all for the opportunity you have given me to speak to you, and for the very patient hearing you have accorded me. [Great applause.] ANILINE COLOR INDUSTRY. LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE, TRANSMITTING, IN RESPONSE TO A SENATE RESOLUTION OF JANUARY 26, 1915, INFORMATION RELATING TO THE SUPPLY OF DYESTUFFS_FOR AMERICAN TEXTILE AND OTHER INDUSTRIES. FEBRUARY 22, 1915.-Referred to the Committee on Finance and ordered to be printed. The VICE PRESIDENT: DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, In response to the resolution of the Senate, dated January 26, 1915, reading as follows: Resolved, That the Secretary of Commerce be, and he is hereby, directed to inform the Senate as fully as possible as to the facts relating to the supply of dyestuffs for American textile and other industries, the sources of such supply, the extent and nature of the supply, the movement of prices, the available materials for the manufacture of such supplies in this country, the possibilities, if any, as to the stoppage of such supply by reason of the existing European war, and any and all such other facts as will bring the existing conditions in the aniline color industry fully to the knowledge of the Senate. the following is respectfully submitted: Numerous American industries are closely dependent upon the use of dyestuffs. To the great textile branches they are almost as essential as their supplies of vegetable or animal fibers. The same importance exists in the case of the paint, varnish, and ink trades, the paper industry, the feather and leather trades, and a group of minor industries. Dependent upon the products of these industries are a host of other branches. All users of textiles, such as manufactures of apparel, carpets, upholstery, etc., the printing trades, automobile and carriage manufacture; in fact, nearly every phase of industrial activity into which color enters as a component factor, and this includes the great majority of our industries. The old-time natural dyestuffs, such as indigo, madder, cochineal, orchil, fustic, and a score more, have all disappeared from any extended use by the dyer, with the exception of logwood, which still plays a valued auxiliary role. The same is the case with mineral colors, with some inconsiderable exceptions, such as Prussian blue in silks and iron buff in khaki. Artificial dyestuffs, derived from coal-tar products, have displaced nearly all rivals, combining qualities of fastness, ease of application, brilliancy, variety of shades, etc., utterly unknown to the former generation of dyers. The American consumption of artificial dyestuffs has attained an annual value of $15,000,000 and grows steadily. It is supplied partly by a domestic production valued at about $3,000,000. This apparent domestic production is based chiefly upon the use of foreign materials, half-made or nearly completed color compounds. But a small portion is made from American crude coaltar compounds. The great bulk of the artificial-dyestuff supply comes from Europe. The average imports are: Germany... Switzerland.. Great Britain and others... Total.... $7,850,000 910, 000 370,000 9, 130, 000 Since August 1, 1914, in consequence of the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, this foreign supply has been interrupted and constantly threatened with nearly complete cessation. Until the present date German makers have been able to supply a considerable proportion of the normal demands of their customers, but not entirely. Some important dyes are totally unobtainable. Prices have mounted from 25 to 50 per cent on such dyestuffs as can be delivered. The imports may cease any day through inability to make shipments on account of maritime dangers, or, what is more probable, through the military necessity of commandeering the available supply of the chief coal-tar crude material, benzol, for use as a motor fuel, or diverting the limited supply of nitric acid, the chief chemical used in color manufacture, to the manufacture of explosives. The multitude of users of dyestuffs in the United States have been crippled in various ways, forced to change designs or abandon certain products, or to revert to a temporary use of natural dyestuffs, with all the accessory readjustment and revolution in dyeing processes. On every hand there is difficulty in meeting contract specifications and in making definite plans and agreements for the future. The importation of dyewood has quickly increased. It is now four times as great as in normal times. Prices of these dyewoods have mounted. Fustic, for example, has doubled in price. The four American establishments making artificial dyestuffs have done their best to meet the emergency by enlarging the ordinary output. They have been crippled by the difficulties or impossibility of securing half-manufactured materials from abroad or crude materials at home. Some large consumers of dyestuffs have erected emergency |