The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 30, 1870.

THE PRESIDENT'S SPECIAL. MESSAGE.

(From the Anglo- American Times.)

One of the accusations brought by Free Trade
against Protection is that it has been mainly instru-
mental in destroying the American shipbuilding
and ocean-carrying trade. Whatever may be the
cause the decay is undeniable, and to renovate this
industry has become a national policy. So long as
Protection lasts, the only way to revive languish-
ing industries is to protect and subsidise them, and
the Message sent by the PRESIDENT recommends
the only course now open to achieve the object he
has in view. A nation with the great resources of
the United States " must one clay l ossess a full
share of the ocean commerce, no matter what its
cost. Delay will only increase the cost and en-
hance the difficulty of attaining the result. I there-
fore make an earnest plea for early action in a
way to secure increased American commerce. The
advanced period of the year, and the fact that no
contract for shipbuilding will be entered into until
Congress acts, and the further fact that if Con-
gress delays all large vessels contracted for thisyear
will fail of completion before winter, being there-
fore carried over for another year, induces me to
request an early consideration of the subject." The
PRESIDE= considers the proposals of the House
Committee should be adopted, but he believes a di-
rect money subsidy to be less liable to abuse than
an indirect one ; but though subsidies might
be given to specified lines of steamers or other ves-
sels, general assistance should also be extended in
an effective way. The PRESIDENT'S notions on
political affairs, though laughed at in England, are
widely held in America. "It is a national humi-
liation that we are now compelled to pay 20 to 30
millions dollars annually, exclusive of passage
money, which we should share with vessels of other
nations, to foreigners for doing work which should
be dune by American-owned and American-manned
vessels. This is a drain upon the revenues of the
country equal to casting money into the sea, so far
as America is concerned." The error lies in over-
looking the fact that ordinary contracts between
men involve the exchange of considerations bene-
ficial to both ; that if a thousand persons could more
profitably be employed by machinery set in motion
by a million of capital, to produce anything in the
United States, then they could be employed in
the ocean-carrying trade at a like expenditure,
political economy dictates that they should pur-
sue the more profitable course, and leave, though
it may be to foreigners, the other. That a British
ship, on carrying a cargo, say of iron rails, to
America to be exchanged for a cargo of grain,
has performed a work valueless to America, because
the ship was not American, is a curious doctrine
for the PRESIDENT to hold. It might be advisable to
build up the mercantile marine at any cost to the
nation, but this ought to be openly avowed, and not
supported by such palpably erroneous arguments.
For instance, the PRESIDENT in the following gives
a strong reason :—" At the beginning of the late
war the American Navy was less than 100 vesseli of
150,000 tons, with 8,000 men. We drew from the
merchant marine, which cost the Government
nothing, but had been a great source of wealth,
600 vessels, exceeding 1,000,000 tons, and 70,000
men to aid in suppressing the rebellion." General
GRANT reproduces the ideas to which the Secretary
of the Treasury gave utterance in his last report :
".The bu lding of slips and navigating them
utilizes a vast capital at home, employs thousands
of. people, creates a home market for the produc-
tions of the farm and the shop, and diminishes the
balance of trade against U 3 precisely by the
amount of freight and passage money paid to
American vessels. It gives us a supremacy on
the seas of inestimable value in the case of foreign
war." If we do not mistake, Mr. BOUTWELL then
used that very word "supremacy." Its dictionary
meaning is " state of being supreme, highest in
authority or power." It does not follow that the
buiding of ships and navigating them is to give
the United States supremacy on the seas, though it
may revive the mercantile marine. Nor can we
understand how this building and navigating creates
a home market for the productions of the farm and
the shop. The truth is, that the United States,
which ought to be the most cosmopolitan of all
nations is, at least in many expressions of its states-
men—narrow and exclusive. But this the PRESI-
DENT may rely on, that all artificial aids will but
end in creating an ephemeral industry, the exist-
ence of which it will, in the course of creating,
endanger by directing against it the hostility of
those portions of the country which will have to
pay, but do not directly benefit.