Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1897 — Companions in Misery. [ARTICLE]

Companions in Misery.

Good Americans who deplore the disappearance of their flag from the high seas are in position to derive such comfort as companionship affords from the predicament of France. There are two French government commissions now wrestling with the problem which have given out preliminary figures, though neither is yet ready with its report. It appears that in 1880 the French sailing vessels occupied a rank immediately after England, with a total of nearly 2,000,000 tons; ten years ago they had fallen to the sixth rank, and ar? now ninth, coming after Russia, Sweden and Greece. As regards the steamships carrying the French flag, notwithstanding the heavy subsidies granted to the great linos, France has fallen from the second rank, which it occupied In 1880, to the fljth.rank, after the English, Germans, Italians' and' Dutch. While the tonnage of the steamships has Increased since 1886 by 57 per cent, in England and 107 pep cent, in Germany, In France it has undergone a contraction of 1 per cent.—New York Evening Sun.