British Shipping Would Be Hard Hit.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 13, 1912:
London Times Says Effect on It of Panama Canal Bill Would Be Disastrous.
CANNOT HOPE TO COMPETE
American Ships Will Be Able to Offer Lower Freight Rates and Capture an Immense Amount of Trade.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Tuesday, Aug. 13.— The Times in an article discussing the probable effect of the provisions of the Panama Canal bill on British shipping says:
    "If the bill becomes law it will prove little short of disastrous to British shipowners. The preponderance of British tonnage in the American trade renders the passing of the bill of vital moment.
    "'Millions of quarters of wheat are carried annually by British vessels from the west coast of North America. Nine-tenths of the nitrate from South America is carried in British bottoms. A vast trade is done by British steamers carrying oil from New York to the Far East. The enormous quantity of American coal shipped from the Northern United States to ports on the West coast almost exclusively employs British tonnage.
    "The Panama Canal will open a shorter route for these vessels, enabling them to effect an appreciable saving of time. A further market for the British shipowner will be the development of the coal fields on the west coast of South America. The length of the voyage and the lack of facilities have hitherto prevented capitalists from turning their attention to these coal fields.
    "The bill will offer facilities for foreign-built tonnage to be registered under the American flag. There is, however, a proviso that such tonnage must be placed at the disposal of the United States Government in the event of war. It would seem, therefore, that however willing British shipowners would be to place their ships under American register, this provision is sufficient to deter them from doing so.
    "The paucity of the American mercantile marine is accounted for by the fact that to obtain American registry it is necessary for vessels to be built in American yards. In spite of the undoubted ability and energy of the American Nation, they have not yet been able to produce steamships of sufficiently sound and sterling character to disturb the pre-eminence of British shipbuilders. In fact, their ships are like all their other manufactures when compared with British products.
    "The passage of this bill, however, would undoubtedly give a tremendous impetus to the American shipbuilding industry. With their best brains and energy devoted to the work, the United Slates will now proceed to turn out vessels on a wholesale scale, and, aided by their freedom from Panama Canal dues, there is little to prevent them from entering with success all those trades in which British shipowners are now the principal carriers.
    "At the same time, faced by the handicap imposed upon him by those same dues, the British shipowner cannot hope to compete with any satisfactory result against a state of things which will always enable his opponents to carry a cargo at a lower rate of freight."