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Show WHEN FIGURES DO LIE. The New York Evening Post puts at rest the constantly reiterated reiter-ated statement that this country is being drained of its wealth by reason of the transportation charges of foreign ship lines and the flow of tourist money to Europe. "The question at issue, is what does the United States pay to the' foreign steamship companies, if it does not pay the hundreds of millions which have formed the totals of previous estimates? In the first place, it pays and can be expected to pay, the freight charges only on its exports or its imports, not on both. "Now, as a general proposition, the receiver, of goods pays the freight charges. Most of the imports of this country are shipped ship-ped f. o. b. in New York. Of the exports, perhaps twenty-five or thirty per cent are shipped prepaid, but even in this case the ultimate ulti-mate cost of shipping is borne by the receiver of the goods, through price adjustments. A consideration of the statistics of imports reveals re-veals the following facts: "Imports for last year amounted to $1,200,000,000. If, then, the estimate of the shipment cost on these imports paid to foreign lines be placed at $500,000,000, it is found to equal forty per cent of the total imports, and if it be placed at $200,000,000, it equals I sixteen per cent. Either proposition is manifestly absurd. ' "The true proportion is from one-third to one per centjm expensive ex-pensive and valuable goods, and not more than two and one-half per cent on the cheapest commodities. Thus the freight on a shipment ship-ment of fine silk containing one cubic meter or two cases a shipment, ship-ment, the value of which is, say, $2,000, is $7.50, or one-third of one per cent. On a shipment the quality of which is less fine and which is therefore worth, say, $1,505 tho freight charge is the same, $7.50, or one-half of one per cent." The Post discusses tho passenger traffic. The number of cabin passengers carried annually to Europe is placed at 100,000, and 200,000 would cover the number carried in both directions, including children, for whom half fare is paid, and infants, for whom nothing is paid. The average price for passage being placed at $100, the total item could be put down as $20,000,000. In the second cabin are about 200,000 persons, of whom about 100,000 go eastward and whose total fare of $50 each would amount to $5,000,000. This gives a grand total for passengers and freight combined of $55,000,000. A large part of this money, however, never goes to Europe, much of the expenditure of the great foreign ship-lines being on this side of the water. "One great German line, for instance, keeps from 500 to 1,500 men steadily employed in Hoboken, 200 men in the New York office, 1 and a large force in its eight other offices in the United States. The salaries of all these men must be paid here, and they live in this country and spend their money here. Rent must also be paid for all the offices, and taxes for the docks and other property. In addition, the vessels are supplied and outfitted on this side; no small item of expense, when it is remembered that it costs from $40,000 to $50,000 to supply a single large passenger vessel in season. The same may be said of other lines. It is, therefore, plain that the statements of sums paid annually by the United States to her foreign carriers are I grossly exaggerated." j These misstatements as to the ocean carrying trade, so successfully success-fully refuted in the foregoing, have been kept before the American people by those directly interested in obtaining a bounty for the American merchant marine. The exaggerations of the merchant marine boosters should provoke a rebuke from the American people, j |