Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1870-08-17

thing else used in ship-building was
deaTer, as, for example.
Brass or copper. per....................4 45 per cent.
ROping, sails &C. IS per cent
Sa0les ana anchors so per cent.
ll1ls '-.-''-. --'----'-'. .'----- 5g per cent
Furnishing goods and utensils, about. 50 pen cent
and everything else in proportion.
! Indeed, the so much vaunted extra wa
| ges for building in this country is utter
| ly Insignificant compared with the en-
/ hancement Of cost in an iron ships ma
terial. 1t was therefore perfectly clear
that, with the best will and enterprise,
| our merchants could not build iron ships
here and compete successfully in them
with foreign nations.
There was no other means left us for
recovering our commercial navy than
the simple remedy Of buying iron ships
from those nations who could make them
| so per cent cheaper then we can. But
here a medieval law interfered. We
are prohibited to import three articles,
viz:
Counterfeit money
Obscene prints
Foreign-built ships
We admit the justice Of prohibiting
the first two articles, as they tend to in
jure commerce and corrupt sOciety.-
But surely the latter can only enrich our
people and extend our commerce and
Importance. Our merchants and ship
builders made an effort to compromise
this difficulty by asking of Congress a
law to admit all material that enters
into ship-building free of duty. They
agreed that our superior skill would
balance the higher wages here. To this
the Pennsylvania mOnOpOlists objected
E,u~Eg
ships we naturally cannot sell you our
homemade iron. But we will agree
that the treasury shall nav YOU a draw
back on all iron ships built of American
iron. To explain this little scheme
fully it means this: You buy from Mr..
MOrrell, of Pennsylvania, 500, 900
worth of iron, which, if it had been inn
ported, would have had to pay 100000
duty. These $50, 900 the treasury must
refund to you, which, of course, would
have gone into the pockets Of the Penn
sylVania iron masters. As the full
amount of duty would be charged on
the homemade iron, a more impudent
robbery of the national treasury It would
hardly be possible to imagine. This
was the famous Lynch bill, with an adj
ditiOn of 81 per ton subsidy besides. of
course, even the FOrty-first Congress
had to shrink from such a job, and we
were left without any relief measure for |
our shipping. 1t is, of course, no eriter-
ion that the President favored this
scheme. The best excuse we can make
for him is that he did not understand 1t. |
When on the 18th, the unforeseen war in |
Europe broke out, the Presidents mind |
was somehow furnished up to the inn |
pOrtance Of having the German steam |
nn fr
message was the result
The opportunity of buying this mag
nlhcent fleet was defeated by the Penn |
sylVania vote and influence. Fhe loss
to the country is hardly understood. It |
would have given us a complete steam
fleet to do our postal service, 1t would |
have given US an immense foreign car |
rying trade. 1t would have familiariz- |
ed ten thousand cabin passengers to |
san under American-managed steam |
ships. 1t would have not only prevent
ed our sending out of the country some
five million dollars in gold for freight
and passage money, but it would actu- |
ally have brought millions Of gold for /
freight and passage money to our shores.
1t would have transferred the great re-
pair workshops for these steamers from /
Brennan and Hamburg to New York, |
and given employment to hudreds of
now idle WOrkmen. It would have en-
DlOyed a thousand of our sailors, and
made New York the supply store for
.hese vessels. At the door of Pennsyl.
yania and the prOtectiOnist party lies
he sin of the failure of this great stride
awards regenerating our commercial
team navy. For all of which strict
recount should be asked by the Ameri-
an people of the mOnOpOlists who {
ave dared to infiict this injury on u.s.
YeU York World