I am the more surprised by this peculiar silence. Not only has about 90 per cent of our immense oversea carrying trade fallen into the hands of foreignersa trade of which at one time we held more than 90 per centbut a heavy proportion of the 9 per cent yet left us as matter of flag and shipowner. is handled by alien seamen. Of the 100.000 seamen "shipped. reshipped. and discharged" during 1903. before United States Commissioners. for our entire trade. coastwise and foreign. only 49 per cent were Americans by birth or naturalization. When it is considered that these figures do not include the men shipped in foreign ports (almost all of them aliens). and that the percentage of aliens is lower in the coastwise than the foreign trade. and that the estimate does not exclude officers other than masters. it is conservative to say. as the best authority I know of says. that the alien seamen in our foreign service comprise fully 70 per cent of the entire body of seamen in that service. There is something for thoughtful Americans to ponder on.
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naturalization