The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-02-08
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1859.


control of the Ocean Steamers for Europe that hel
Journalists appear disposed to resent, as an I'M
warrantable interference with vested rights, the
proposition now before Congress to distribute the
Ocean Mail service between the principal Atlantic
ports. The bill, as reported by the Committee O
the House of Representatives on the Post Office and
Post Roads, provides for the incorporation of
National Steamship Company" and the organi
cation, under the auspices of the Government, O
a general line of Ocean steamers, to carry thu
mails, sem-weekly, between the UNITED STATE.
and Europe. Under the arrangement, as proposed
by the Committee, the service is to be divided into
two parts-'the first, Northern DIVISION ma
liking alternate trips from Portland, Boston, New
"York and Philadelphia, to Liverpool; and thu
second, or Southern division, alternate trips from
Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, ant
New Orleans, to Southampton" Upon thu
Northern division of the line, to be placed no
less than six steamers of two thousand tons mea
surenent. Upon the Southern, eight steamers, MOI
exceeding three thousand TONS 1t is further stipu.
lated, that there shall be two departures every
week-one from Northern, and one from a Sou
thern port, taking each of the ports in regula,
succession-the time of sailing being fixed by the
Postmaster General. In aid of this enterprise the
bill directs "the Secretary of the Treasury to ad-
'vance the bonds Of the UNITED STATES, bearing
FIVE per cent coupons, towards the construction
and equipment of said eight steamships for the
Southern Department, to an amount not ex-
"ceeding two-thirds of their entire COST
as an equivalent for the mail service thus per-
formed. The New York Times stigmatizes the
project as designed to establish "a gigantic mo-
"nopoly, backed up by the credit of the Federal
Government" What, then, was the COLLINS
line of steamers, with the enormous subsidies
granted by Congress to keep that line in opera
toni The gross Encouragement that caused the
failure Of those steamers and threw by far the
larger portion of the Ocean Mail service into the
hands of foreign competitors inflicted serious in
juryupon our whole commercial marine, by lettering
capitalists from entering into competition with
foreign lines of Ocean steamers from a conscious
ness of the disastrous termination of the initial
Enterprise, backed up, though it was, 'fby the
'credit of the Federal Government" Yet, every
movement of this kind must have q beginning;
and it does not necessarily follow, that, because
the COLLINS line did not succeed, another line,
under more judcious arrangements, should not
eventually be made profitable. The prosperous
condition of the CUNARD line is proof of the
fact, that it needs but the adoption of similar
regulations to place our Ocean steamers upon an
equal footing. Another objection, which has been
raised, is, that PERSONS North and South, 'will be
compelled to keep constant watch of the ports of
sailing, and to mail their letters on different
days and by different routes, each successive time
"of departure" To this, it may be answered.
that the difficulty is more apparent than real that
glance at schedule will give the day and the
port; and that the same difficulty, if it is one,
exists now, whenever letter is required to be
sent either from New York or from the South, by
way of Boston or Halifax The Washington
Union very pertinently argues that, by Ocean
steamers starting, at stated intervals, from the
points already named-each point of departure
being the Atlantic terminus of main line of
railroad, the steamers sailing from these termini
continue out practically, to Europe, each individ-
ual road, and thus all the region of country
within easy distance of the respective lines is
placed in direct communication with European
ports 1.-THE places of demand for our products,
"the sources of supply for our extraneous wants,
'are thus at arrived at in the shortest period
''of time. The planter of the South, or his factor
lin the Southern city, is not forced to send his
Letters week in advance of the sailing day Of
1.-THE New York steamer-thus creating that much
"of uncertainty in his communication, and giving
gust SO much Of time, the advantage to more
northern city. Neither are the Northern or New
England States subjected to similar, though
h,r6 tod
Times more than intimates that the proposed dis
tribution of the Ocean Mail service is a wrong
done to New York, (which pays into the Federal
Treasury nearly two-thirds of all the customs
'dues of this country" Now, the regulation of
the customs dues is the very object which the bill
in question is designed to remedy. New York has
had, heretofore, almost monopoly of the imports,
because of the very want of facilities at the other
Atlantic ports, which this bill, if it becomes
law, is destined to provide. Everybody knows
that large portion of the duties which are now
paid into the New York Custom House, is derived
from imports destined for Southern cities;
and it is reasonable to suppose that those cities
will, in future, have their foreign goods
shipped directly to their own ports instead, if
the opportunity is presented them for so doing
One of the principal advantages of the plan which
is now before the House, consists in the fact that
1t gives to the Southern ports equal share of the
Postal service, and of the subsidy by which it is
accompanied and thus promotes the establishment
of a system of direct trade with Europe, while it
releases them from their present subordinate posi-
ton as tributaries of New York. The Courier and
Enquirer opposes the bill upon the ground that
''it is impossible to legislate commerce into GER
tain channels, when nature has created channel
'of its own" There two answers that may
be given to this species of argument either one of
which is conclusive. In the first place. the bill
before Congress proposes nothing more than to re-
store commerce to its natural channels by making
each port the outlet for all the products destined
for foreign market which are brought over its
particular system of railways and the inlet for all
commodities destined for consumption in that Sec
ton OF country. In the second place, it is not
strictly true that commerce cannot be '1egislated'
into certain channels. The first grand impetus
given to the commercial posperity of New York, is
an illustration of the manner in which trade NAV
be diverted from its natural channels by the adop-
ton OF judicious measures to that end Before the
construction of the Erie Canal nearly the whole of
the trade OF the Great Lakes found its way to the
ocean by the st. Lawrence river Its natural
outlet was, in point of fact, through Canada. The
Erie Canal tapped this trade, and diverted it to
New York, and it has only been since the con-
struction of the Welland Canal that the Canadians
have been able to recover back fair proportion
OF the trade they had lost At the present time,
there is more business done on the Welland Canal
than on the Erie. Here, then, we have at least
one instance in which it was possible to legisate
commerce into certain channels-and in which, it
required counterlegslation to bring it back to its
original outlet. One other reason has been as
signed why the bill should not be suffered to
become q law, and that is, because it calls for
subsidy. The New York Journal of Commerce,
meets this objection by stating that the question of
maintaining Postal intercourse by American
steamers is one in which our national honor
is concerned and that the cost of doing so, is
attended with incidental advantages of great i'm
portance, "not the least of which is the additional
security afforded by the existence of lines of fast
"steamers capable of conversion should occasion
arise, into means of naval defence" This con-
sideration alone would justify the grant of sub
sidy from the Government; but the necessity of
some such assistance becomes still more clearly APP
parent when we reflect that foreign competition has
hitherto proved so decided overmatch for private
American enterprise that there are at this time no