The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-20
CODDLING COMMERCE,
From, the n. y. World.

from Lpe ". 4. HOTW
In the current number of Putn0m'S
MogasiHe appears an ingenious and skill
full plea in favor of the application which is
to be made at the approaching session of
Congress for the payment of subsidies to
ocean mail steamers. The paper is written
by Mr.. A. A. Low, and he has succeeded in
saying everything that can be said on his
side of the question, and in saying it as well
as it can be said. His argument halts, for
reasons which we shall presently state; but
this is not the fault of the advocate of the
claim, but of the claim itself. More than
this, it must be urged against Mr.. Lows
argument that it proves at once too much
and too little: too much because it first
shows that the decay of American commerce
is due to four or five causes which would not
have been, nor would not now be, at all
affected by the payment OF subsidies; too
little, because it assumes that with these
causes still in operation, and with no attempt
made to remove them, commerce may be
restored to its former healthy condition by
the payment of subsidies. If MIR. Low
were bleeding to death from four wounds
which had severed the arteries in his
legs and arms, he would probably be apt
to reject the advice of surgeon
who should propose to allow the blood to con-
tinue to gush from the wounds, while the
patient should be kept from sinking by the
administration of liberal doses of brandy.
Nor would he feel any more confidence in the
treatment proposed even should the surgeon
assure him that he had found the liberal use
of brandy to be highly beneficial in the case
of another patient of his, Mr.. Bull, who, it
was true, was not suffering from loss of blood
but who was a little sluggish and needed
stimulation. The surgeon, however, would
be scarcely less logical than is Mr.. Low, who,
after very faiASs. pointing out five of the
wounds from whiaA his patient is bleeding to
death, suddenly claps his hands over these
sad gashes, tells us what good effects were
produced upon a subject, who had not been
wounded at all, by the stimulus of subsidies,
and demands that, while nothing shall be
done to stop the bleeding, the same stimulus
shall be administered to his wounded patient.
Let us, however, take Mr.. Lows own state
ment of his case.
His paper is entitled the Sovereignty of
the Seas" and, after laying it down that
Great Britains supremacy on the ocean was
not so effectually gained by her navy as 'by
the more peaceful and inexpensive method
steadily pursued by that country during the
last thirty years, he draws a picture of the
results of ''the friendly competition for the
carrying trade of the nations, from 1916 to
1885, in which struggle ''the United States
acquired prestige that was unexcelled. But
a change, Commencing in 1887 and 1888, but
not patent to the common eye till ten or fif-
teen years later on, occurred, and ENG
lands maritime supremacy is SO manifest
now as to reflect our national humiliation
And then Mr.. Low points out the following
causes of this revolution-the wounds from
which American commerce has languishe0
and suffered almost unto death
l. substitution of steamships for sailing vessels
this commenced about 1878.
2. The of iron instead of wood in the construc
ton of ships and steamers.
3. The reaction from high rates or fregnt, pecaus
OF the vast increase of tonnage which the trade 0
California brought into being, the expulsion OF sail
ing vessels from short ocean routes and the conse
| quent overcrowding OF distant ports.
a. The OF the Rebellion, which raised up al
insidous foe, and for five years rendered the build
ing and sailing of American ships worse than pro
| ntess pursuits, and which finally imposed burde
OF taxes on all the material that enters into the cor
| struction of vessels, and so enhanced the price 0
! labor and OF seamens s wages to make COmpetitlo
| with our great rival most unequal.
Mr. Low adds to these 'causes of the de
cline of our national commerce, 1.-The dis
turbed condition of our currency;' and
having thus shown that the evil which h
proposes to remedy has been due to thes
five causes, he comes forward with his remed
which is ''the renewal, on a more generou
scale, of subsidies to ocean mail steamers :
and, like the surgeon, he enforces his pre-
scription by telling us how British commerc
has been benefited by ''subsidizing lines c
mail steamers to all important parts of th
world. Let us look at the argument, throw
into the form of a syllogism-
Aajor-American commerce has bee
ruined and kept depressed by the operatio
of five causes, which would have ruined
although subsidies had been paid to ocea
mail steamers.
Minor-British commerce has been benz
fitted by the payment of subsidies to ocea
mail steamers
onclusion-Therefore although nothin
shall be done to remove the causes that hav
ruined American commerce, and which wi
continue to depress it until they are removed
it will be brought into its former state of III
paralleled prosperity if Congress will pay sui
sides to ocean mail steamers.
} This is the reductiO Gd 0bSlTdulR; but it
what Mr. Lows argument comes to. The tru
remedy for the evils which he so powerful
points out, and which we all deplore is to |
found in what is the true cause of the increaf
of Great Britain's commencement the pa
+ ment of subsidies to all steamers, but I'll
! Liberation of commerce from all restriction
, and the establishment of free trade. BIRTHS
commerce has increased in exact proportio
as the Government of that kingdom threw o
, the fetters of trade, and it should be remen
5 bered that, although subsidies were paid Ion
, before free trade was established, I'll
l commerce did not increase until FRI
trade had been established. We hay
) SO frequently and lately spoken of the stati