The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-03

there was scarcely anything left in this par
ticular case but the abuses.
We tried the system of subsidies in the
famous Collins line of transatlantic steamers,
and what came of il? We took millions from
the Treasury and threw them into the sea-
and the steamship line followed the millions.
Everything went to the bottom together.
Nobody was benefited dollar from the be-
ginning to the end of the wasteful, prodigal
scheme. The reason exists in the inherent
vice of the system. Men are encouraged to
embark in an enterprise under the pleasing
illusion that its profits shall go into their own
pockets, and its losses shall be paid from the
Treasury. This expectation naturally en-
tails waste, extravaganza, peculation, and
prodigality. It is an artificial and oor-
rupt system, and we want none of it. 1t is
corrupting to the public morals, and it an
swers no good purpose either in It's public or
private aspects. The true friends of the
maritime interests of the country repudiate
the policy. It is not what is wanted to revive
our great navigation industry. On the con-
trsry, it tends TO depress it still further by
creating a fostered and privileged class
There can be no fair competition against q
subsidized line of ships. The men who
have no bounties can be no match for those
who have them. When the subsidized lines
end, there will end the development of the
rage an industry that to be anything must be
national?
What the country wants is to be allowed to
build ships free from the oppression of an
outrageous taxation. To resume our former
prominence as q maritime power, we need
nothing but to have our ship-building indus
try put upon the same footing with that of
the same industry in Great Britain. Is this
an extravagant demand? On the contrary, is
10 49, ,nok,.a Il
sonable? And is not a refusal by Congress
to grant it one of the most absurd and
short-sighted acts of Government pretend
ing to wisdom and craftsmanship that can be
conceived of
We cannot be a naval power unless we de-
velop our mercantile marine. We must
create the classes on which all real naval
power rests, namely, mariners and ship
builders. These classes we have, but they are
kept down and are daily growing weaker, not
because they have not Government aid, but
because Government unnaturally Expresses
them and prevents their growth and expan-
sion. They only ask to be let alone. They
do not demand to be placed among the fa-
vored classes. They ask only to be put on
the same footing with the same classes in
Britain, Jour great and now overshadowing
rival on the ocean. Congress seems unwill-
ing to yield even this much of simple Justice;
but, instead, it wastes it's time and attention
over absurd projects of endowing monopo-
lies of steamship lines, which, if once we'll
under way, will strip the Treasury annually
of untold millions, only to end in grand
fiasoo at last. Meantime, the real maritime
interests of the nation will go on in an accele-
rated decline.
Gentlemen of Congress abandon your
preposterous schemes for depicting the Trea-
sury, and give to the navigation interests of
the country fair field and free play for their
energy and resources. They want none of
your money and none of your patronage.
The American mariner and ship-builder only
ask to have their raw materials free of duty,
and they will soon find way to restore our
lost maritime ascendancy. Can there be
more reasonable request than that?