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.
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