llowed
to the twenty-knot American mail transatlantic line, instead of two
dollars a mile.[IH] A bill to this effect was introduced in the Senate
December 4[II]; on February 3, 1908, was reported back from the
committee on commerce so amended as to provide the four-dollar-a-mile
subsidy to American sixteen-knot steamers on routes of four thousand
miles or more to South America, the Philippines, Japan, China, and
Australasia; was debated at length; further amended; and finally,
passed, March 20. In the House it was referred to the committee on post
office and post roads;[IJ] issued therefrom in a dew draft;[IK] debated;
and finally failed to pass. Thereupon the subsidized service to
Australia by way of Honolulu and the Samoan group was abandoned.

Again the measure was pressed in the Sixty-first Congress. It now had
the backing of President Taft. In his annual message December 9, 1909,
"following," as he graciously said, "the course of my distinguished
predecessor," he earnestly recommended the passage of a "ship-subsidy
bill looking to the establishment of lines between our Atlantic seaboard
and the eastern coast of South America, China, Japan, and the
Philippines." The bill, as introduced by Senator Gallinger (February 23,
1910), provided for subsidized lines of the second and third classes on
routes to the points named by Mr. Taft, four thousand miles or more in
length outward voyage, or on routes to the Isthmus of Panama: the second
class to receive the subsidy rate per mile provided in the law of 1891
for steamers of the first class, and the third class the rate applicable
to the second class. If no contract should be made for a line between a
Southern port and South American ports, and two or more should be
established from Northern Atlantic ports, it was required that one of
the latter should touch outward and homeward at two ports of call south
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