The time has come, in my judgment, to set to work seriously to make our ocean mail service correspond more closely with our recent commercial and political development.  A beginning was made by the ocean mail act of March 3, 1891, but even at that time the act was known to be inadequate in various particulars.  Since that time events have moved rapidly in our history.  We have acquired Hawaii, the Philippines, and lesser islands in the Pacific.  We are steadily prosecuting the great work of uniting at the Isthmus the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific.  To a greater extent than seemed probable even a dozen years ago, we may look to an American future on the sea worthy of the traditions of our past.  As the first step in that direction, and the step most feasible at the present time, I recommend the extension of the ocean mail act of 1891.  This act has stood for some years free from successful criticism of its principle and purpose.  It was based on theories of the obligations of a great maritime nation, undisputed in our own land and followed by other nations since the beginning of steam navigation.  Briefly those theories are, that it is the duty of a first-class Power so far as practicable to carry its ocean mails under its own flag; that the fast ocean steamships and their crews, required for such mail service, are valuable auxiliaries to the sea power of a nation.  Furthermore, the construction of such steamships insures the maintenance in an efficient condition of the shipyards in which our battleships must be built.

The expenditure of public money for the Performance of such necessary functions of government is certainly warranted, nor is it necessary to dwell upon the incidental benefits to our foreign commerce, to the shipbuilding industry, and to ship owning and navigation which will accompany the discharge of these urgent public duties, though they, too, should have weight.

The only serious question is whether at this time we can afford to improve our ocean mail service as it should be improved.  All doubt on this subject is removed by the reports of the Post-Office Department.  For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, that Department estimates that the postage collected on the articles exchanged with foreign countries other than Canada and Mexico amounted to $6,579,043.48, or $3,637,226.81 more than the net cost of the service exclusive of the cost of transporting the articles between the United States exchange post-offices and the United States post-offices at which they were mailed or delivered.  In other words, the Government of the United States, having assumed a monopoly of carrying the mails for the people, making a profit of over $3,600,000 by rendering a cheap and inefficient service.  That profit I believe should be devoted to strengthening maritime power in those directions where it will best promote our prestige.  The country is familiar with the facts of our maritime impotence in the harbors