Though we credit ourselves--not without some protest from England--with the invention of the steamboat, the adaptation of the screw to the propulsion of vessels, and the invention of triple-expansion engines, yet it was England that seized upon these inventions and with them won, and long held, the commercial mastery of the seas.

To-day (1902) it seems that economic conditions have so changed that the shipyards of the United States will again compete for the business of the world.

We are building ships as good--perhaps better--than can be constructed anywhere else, but thus far we have not been able to build them as cheap.
Accordingly our builders have been restricted to the construction of warships, coasters, and yachts.

National pride has naturally demanded that all vessels for the navy be built in American shipyards, and a federal law has long restricted the trade between ports of the United States to ships built here.

The lake shipping, too--prodigious in numbers and activity--is purely American.