dens of the sort. The Revolution itself seems to get a
new interpretation from this early custom of the Chamber. [Laughter.]

But, perhaps, a better way of making vivid to this generation the age of
this body, would be to say that it dates back to a time when New York
actually had a foreign commerce of its own, carried on chiefly under the
American flag. It sounds like a fairy tale to one who counts the ensigns
in our harbor now, to be told that tradition speaks of a day when the
Stars and Stripes floated over a larger fleet of common carriers on the
highways of the world--at least, so far as American business was
concerned--than even that omnipresent banner of St. George. Strange, is
it not, that a nation which surpasses all others in its use of machinery
on the land, should have been content to yield up the sea, almost
without a struggle, to the steamships of the older world? Events over
which we have had no control have had much to do with it, I know; but is
a single misused subsidy to keep us off the sea forever, or so long as
the dominion of the steamship lasts? Are we to wait until England can
build our steamers for us, and hear her say, as we run up the Stars and
Stripes to the mast-head of the ship which she has built: "See, Brother
Jonathan, how cheap these subsidies which I have given all these years
enable me now to build for you!" It may be we must wait for this, but
let us hope for a happier consummation. Nevertheless, Mr. Chairman, this
Chamber does date back to the time when we had a commerce of our own.
[Applause.]

In glancing over our old records, it is interesting to see what a
perennial source of discussion in this body have been the pilots of the
port. They have been mentioned, I think, even the past year. The first
formal reference to the pilots appears in 1791, and the minutes ever
since teem with memorials, protests, bills, measures, conferences and
the like.

A story is told of a Chinese pilot, who boarded the vessel of a captain
who had never been on the China coast before, and who asked the captain
one hundred dollars for his fee. The captain demurred, and the
discussion waxed warm, until the white head of an old China merchant
appeared in the companion-way, and caught the pilot's eye, when he cut
the dispute short by crying out: "Hi-ya! G'long olo Foxee! ten dollar
can do!" [Laughter and applause.]

I apprehend there is much wisdom in this appeal. In the olden days, the
complaint against