The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-06-09
Shspbuilding at the Expense of the
People.

lHSFG Is Il Dill I0W DeI0re congress en- I
titled "A bill for the revival of American
wartime interests, which does not only
provide a boundry on home made mate
rials for all ships and steamers of 1000 |
tons and upwards. to be paid from the |
National Treasury, equivalent to the i'm
port duty on the same duty on the same |
kind Of article, but also allows drawbacks
on-ali imported materials used in ship |
building and on all stores used On a for
eign voyage taken from bond.
The Chicago Tribune speaks on his
subject very pertinently as follows:
For illustration, suppose an iroustoau.
er Is to be built. which viii cost. when
npleted, $500, 600, and that it is built
entirely of domestic materials. The duty
on oil those materials. if 'im ported, would
average 90 per cert, which is about the
rate Of the present tariff. on such articles.
and the builders woald be authorized by
the pending bill to demand of the Fed
eral Treasury q. cool 5000, 600 in gold
To this must be added a large sum in
drawbacks on stores IN bond, for the use
of the vessel, which may amount to $780,
600 or $50, 900 per annurn for for a steamer.
If one hundred such ships should be con-
structed in a year, the bounty money to
be paid from the Treasury would be $780,
100000. The bill applies to al vessels,
whether made of wood or iron, or pro-
PEELED by steam or sails, and no limit is
placed on the number that may be built
in any year. So long as the money in
the Treasury holds ont, this gigantic,
wholesale robbery Of the tax payers viii
be permitted to go On.
IF Lynch s bill passes, it is very certain
that thousands of sail and steam, wood
aud iron vessels will be constructed along
our ocean coasts. because a bounty OF 40
per cent. on wood, 10 on iron and engines.
and SO to 60 on copper, cordage, canyas,
and all other materials entering into their
construction, viii render It profitable
business to build them, and afterwards
sell them to foreign nations at half their
cost.
But when these subsidized vessels are
launched, and the bounty paid thereon,
and The Stars and Stripes run up to the
masthead, who viii thereafter be bene
fled? Certainly not the toiling millions
Of Western farmers or Southern planters.
These ships will not carry grain, cotton
or meat one dollar to the ton cheaper
than these commodities can be transport
ed il foreign bottoms. The competition
1cr American freights is now 50 sharp
that American ships are driven out of the
carrying trade, and is absurd to suppose
thateven boanty-built vessels will trans
port produce across the Atlantic or else
where at lower rates Of freight than those
charged by foreign ships built Ia free
trade countries. and manned BY cheap
labor seamen. After we get our bounty
built ships, the next demand, and an
equally loud one, will be for bountics to
run them, for, it viii be immpossible to
navigate them in competition with Brit
ish, French, and German vessels, unless
they are heavily subsidized out of the
Treasury.
The great agricultural interests of the
Union viii not be benefited the fraction
Of cent by the building of those bounty
ships They will add nothing to the val
ne Of the farmers wheat, corn, beef,
pork, or butter, or the planters cotton,
obacco, hemp, or rice Two-thirds of
the whole cost of construction of such
ships will be distracted from the Treasu-
~, IN the form Of taxes taken out of the
price paid to the farmers and planters of
the Union. The bin, when stripped Of
its sophistry and DISCUSSES, proposes to
levy on the people of the United States
twenty to forty millions year of taxes,
to be paid to private ship-bui'ders on the
Atlantic coast for vessels to be owned ex-
clusively by private parties. Every man.
woman and ch-ld ia the West is to be
taxed to construct these ships that can
not be navigated without subsidies.
we deeply regret to observe that some
OF our Western members have been in
weighed into lending their support to this
wretched scheme of national robbery. and
10 indorsing the insulting insolence Of
Lynch. who denounced every argument
rs those furnished by hired agents OF
British ship-builders We are at loss
TO understand what motive Mr.. Farns-
worth had IN supporting Lynch in his
scheneof plumber, against his own col,
league, Gen. Logan, who denounced the
bill in proper and fitting terms. One
hing is certain, that member of either
party, in any Western State, can go be-
fore has constituents and secure re-eIec-
ION as an Endorsement of his vote for
this scheme of Treasury spoilation and
robbery Of his constituents
|
Burke said, ''Whan bad men con-
eriro wood man eho,1J a.Soo;,to