The Republican journal., 1871-07-13
For Governor
CHARLES P. KIMBALL.
OF PORTLAND.
1t Troubles Them.

The facts and figures which are being
brought to bear npon the decline Of
American shipping give great uneasiness
to our radical friends. They do not know
how TO meet them. We notice that the
Roelland Free Press, in view of the
great need Of saying something, goes as
far rs Philadelphia to find Il philosopher
sufficiently skilled TO lay bare the subject,
and reproduces from the North American
the following:
''The decline of American shipping has grown
so stale As a topic for mere general defamation
and vague rhetoric that the New York World
deems III necessary to go into statistics to midi
cate the extent OF the deficit. Let us look at
these figures for a moment. There is a decline
of 90,G4o tons in whale fishing. Does the
World really pretend 10 think that under any
circumstances we could have avoided this de
cline: Certainly man need not be an editor
to know that petroleum has TO great extent
Superseded whale oil. Men do not go to the
Arctic seas, or into the renlotest recesses of the
Pacific in pursuit of the tlnny monsters of the
deep to the SAME extent as formerly, because
petroleum has taken away the greater part of
their market And it must he observed here
too, that petroleum bears Il Tar IN ore important
oil did. If We Were to try ever so hard we
could not restore the whaling business to its
former prosperity. 1t has had its day. We
now obtain our oil on land, with less risk and
at less cost. The decline in whale fishing ryfi-
resents II positive gain in the internal and eX-
ternal commerce of the Republic, because
petroleum ha, become an American monopoly,
and is supplied 10 the whole world i'll enormous
amounts.
Then there is 4 decline of 1898 tons in the
coastlng trade. Here again we cannot believe
that the World does not know that this arises
from a cause that is irreversibIe. With given
amount of transportation required to be done,
how is it possible that we could build railways
adequate to the business and yet still give en-
ploymcnt to the whole of the great coaSting
llect5 The development Of our railway system
Ia, been prottl@iotls at all points, and there is
not Il cotsting voyage of any Importance that is
not now subject 10 railway competition. No
Two leading points on our coast can be named
between which there is not railway commune
cation. In time no doubt the water lines will
reruperate. rs population and trade increase
but 1t must necessarily be slow process be
cause the capacity of the railways can he aug
mehted TO accommodate any required business.
The great fleet that used t." carry the trade
with California Is no longer of any use; the
railroad ha~ superseded it, and the same for
midablc rival is now srasphg at the whole
commerce Of the Pacific.
This brings lis to the decline in the foreign
tonnage of the Republic, which is sG3. lGl tons.
We need not 90 far to find the causes of all
this. We have Just referred to one that is fast
reducing our Pacific tonnage. Another is the
tremendous competition Of the railroads on
both sides Of the Canadian frontier, whereby
the lake commerce has suffered The trade of
the lake cities with the Canadian ports mas de-
cned by water and increased by rail to such
an extent that it seems TO he difficult task to
rebuild the lake commerce. The vast fleet of
emigrant packet ships that used to be owned
at New York. and ply between that port and
Liverpool, Glasgow, etc, has passed away.
The monopozng of the business by supe-
rior class of British vessels, iron propeller
steamers, built in watcr-tight compartments,
pean trade has been absorbed by this class OF
foreign steamers, and New York has offered
nothing capable of competing with them.
These causes would have explained the de-
cline in our foreign tonnage without the inter-
yenion of the British pirates during the war.
The decline of S1.4SS in the tonnage of our cod
fishery fleet is clearly attributable, first, to the
depredations of the rebel cruisers, and second,
to the untriendy policy of the Provincial gov
eminent
The World computes our loss of trade at
SSG3l $40 per annum, which is true enough
50 for rs the mercantile marine goes. But how
much have the railroads gained rs an offset?
How much has the general traffic Of the conn-
try been benefited by the diminished risk and
the increased speed of transit? How much
by the construction Of the railroads that this
transferred trade has rendered profitable and
prosperous? How much has the mining of
coal and iron and the manufacture of iron and
rails been stimulated by the construction and
maintenance of these roads? How much have
the Lands along their routes been improved in
value for agricultural purposes by their con-
struction? OF all these things the World takes
no account whatever; yet their aggregate
would exceed the amount stated thrice told.
IA SsJl,j to Niln
and vast loss of property by storm and wreck.
But the railroads are not. Hence as our gain
in railroads has immensely exceeded any pos
sible loss by the decline Of water transit,
there is really no reason to deplorc the change,
but the contrary. From the insulsr position OF
England the water is her natural highway
But il is not ours"
There is no doubt that the friends OF
the administration consider the subject
stale one, and would rather hear no more
about it, But we fear that their unwill-
ing ears will be compelled to listen to a
good deal more of the topic, unless the
remedy is at once applied. The falling
off in the whale fishery is attributed to
the use of petroleum. But it will be
borne in mind that when he production
of rock oil became so large and its refined
product known as kerosene came so ex-
tensively into use, it did not supersede
whale oil as IN illuminator. Burning
fluid and camphcne had before that time
displaced sperm oil-bnt still the whale
fishery ilourished The oil of whales was
largely used for lublicating and tanning,
the whalebone and sperm had their uses
all of which exist undiminished to-day.
This is evidenced by the fact that t he
prices of those articles has advanced at
least one hundred per cent. since the in
PRODUCTION of petroleum. We cannot,
therefore, look for the decline of the whal-
ing business, except in the same cause
that has depressed all shipping interests.
The reasoning in the article quoted is
as fallacious in respect to the coastng
tonnage rs to the whaling business. Be
fore the competition Of railroads, coastng
vessels had the competition of steamers.
quite as sharply, and still held their own.
But in ten years the tonnage in that bust
ness has shrunk to the enormous total
amount of nearly 100000 tons.
1t is undoubtedly true that railroads are
taking some of the transportation that
formerly fell to coasters. And WHY
Because the folly of the radical tariff and
taxes permits it. The railroad, in the
larger part of its cost, is dead capital that
tariff or taxation cannot reach. Its road
bed is built and fixed for all time. The