The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-06-07
The Cause and Effect.

There Is Il practical truth and fUrcfble
illustration of the effects OF our commercial
policy in the following article, from the
y. Y. Express:
The London Tunes, in an article we copy
elsewhere, diScourSes upon American steam
navigation in a vein of sarcasm calculated
To humiliate, rather than exalt, our Ameri-
eau pride-for the worst of it is, nearly all
that the Tbunderer says, IL must be con-
feSsed, is true--and the truth il is that
makes us feel uncomfortable. IL is fact
that that magnificent steam marine, which
but the other day, as it were, was the just
boast of every American, is well nigh swept
from the ocean, and while British and Ger
man vessels crowd the Atlantic, it is but
seldom that a steamer with the American
flag at her peak crosses that ocean.
1t is true that the United States mails, the
greater part of the time, are carried in for
eign vessels and it is also true that 6ve-
sixths of the foreign merchandise we i'm
port is brought to us in British and German
steamers. Nay morc-it is true that at this
moment thtre are lyIug, literally routing, at
our wharyes, fleet OF some twenty or
twenty-five noble American built steamers,
not one OF which can find anything to do,
and the ownership of which, therefore, is
ruinous, rather than source of profit, to
their owners.
Within the last five years ocean steam
navigation has undergone thorough revo-
luton. Wooden steamers have.had,their day.
They do not pay. Iron is cheaper in the
long run; it is more durable, and every
way more desirable. The heetest vessels of
the Cunard line are built of iron.
The screw is taking the place of the cum
bersome paddle wheel. 1t has economy to
recommend it, and the speed that may be at
tained with it is almost as great as the
| wheels. Witness the recent passages of the
| New York, Harmonian, and Hungarian,-
all within twelve days. Hence the splendid
| feet of propellors which England and Ger
| many keep on the Atlantic have taken from
! us all the once lucrative emigTant business
and by tar the greater portion of the mer-
chandise which we import at the rate of
six or seven millions a week. The fleet of
wooden, side-wheel steamers at our docks
cannot compete with vessels of that descrip-
ton without losing money. This our steam
snip companies know, and hence the attempt
| is not made.
/ their own weapons? Why not give up
our costly side wheel wooden steamers,
and cheap iron propellersH Why? Be-
cause the thing is utterly out Of the ques-
| tion-so long as the country is afflicted
with government the leading maxims of
which lead it to encourage Foreign Labor
and Foreign Enterprise TO the prejudice Of
Home Industry and Home Enterprise. We
cannot build iron propellers for the simple
reason that we cannot get the raw material
| the iron-unless we send over to Eng
! land or Wales for it. Not that we have not
! an abundance of iron in our American
earth, at home; Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illi-
! nois, Missouri, some parts of Virginia, and
/ New Jersey, are brim full of it-but mas
much as, Democracy says it must lie
there undeveloped under tariff which lets
in the cheap foreign article 10 compete with
and underSell it-therc is no help for it.
! The iron that is needed for our railroads
even, we have TO 20 abroad to buy, notwith-
standing the fact that those railroads often
run over districts of country that are full of
! iron ore,-but which ore is not available
/ because of the competition TO which il is
subjected. five had the raw material-the
iron--to enable our ship builders and ship
! ping merchants TO adapt our steam marine
to the altered circumstances of ocean COM
merce, we could have ocean propellors as
swift, as well appointed, and every other
way, as successful as any which Great Brit
ain has atloat; but under the circumstances
we can see no hope of claiming the champi-
onship OF the seas--no hope of ever having
American mails carried in American vessels
no hope of American ship owners getting
back some portion of the princely trade they
have lost and are losing, until the people put
the stamp of reprobation upon party and
policy, the leading article of which would
seem to be, everything for Foreign Labor
aud Foreiga Trade, but nothing for Home
Industry and Home Enterprise.