The Republican journal., 1871-11-09
The Interests of New EnuIand.

party 10 question tnG 1uStlCe ana pOHcY OF
some measures that have hitherto been
classed among the most important and in
dispensable of their distinctive principles
The enormously high tariff, which the
New York Evening Post and its republic
can contemporaries of the west have never
ceased to combat, is being more than
doubted by other papers Of weight and
some of them in New England The
commercial interest of the east, which is
done to death by the strAngulation of the
tariff, is likely to be more kindly consider
cd, by the awakened sense of Justice
which has been born Of discussion. The
Springfield Republican, one of the ablest
party organs in New England, reviews
both these subjects in recent article, and
in tone which the organs Of the admin
istration here in Maine might adopt with
advantage. The Republican says
No one can have watched with any care
the organs of public opinion in New
England for the past four years without
observing decided change Of tone in re
lation o the tariff The latest and most
notable indication in this direction is the
resolution passed at Worcester by the
Republican convention dcnouncing the
navigation law, which makes it impossi-
! BILE to build them The resolutions of DO
litlcal conventions are not ordinarily OF
any great consequence, but this is not.
excep. as indicating the strong desire Of
] Boston to regain her ocean traffic, and the
| fact that she has found the navigation law
| end tariff obstacles il her way. The ship
| builders of Maine, also, have repeatedly
petitioned Congress fordrawback OF duties
| on ships materials, though they, 90 ship
builders, have naturally a less desire for
the repeal of the navigation law Several
causes have powerfully contributed to
modify opinion in New England, and to
make her begin to swing round again
toward her old and cherished hostility to
commercial restrictions OF all kinds.
OF these causes, the first is, undoubted-
", this shipping business. England, in
Cromwelrs time, and again in 1860, pass
ed navigation laws designed to secure to
herself the building of all her ships and
their navigation by English seamen; and
a system of registry was devised by which
ships not wholly built and owned bv
British subjects, and of which the captain
and three fourths of the crew We're not
English, We're practically excluded from
British and colonial ports These laws
were all repealed by the Parliament of
1867 but our first and second Congress
under the constitution, and again Con-
gress III 1916, borrowed from these Eng
fish acts their most stringent provisions
which are still in force. Only American
built ships can legally engage in our
coastwise and inland trade and the PRIV
ileges OF registry as American ships for
oceal. traffic are denied to all bottoms not
native built As this has been 4 ship
building country, and us our people, till
lately, could build ships as cheaply Us
anybody, this law was no great griev-
ance until since the war. While the rebel
cruisers We're roaming the seas, and burn
ing and bonding our ships, many ship
owners took occasion to sell their ships to
foreigners, whose law, unlike ours, allows
them to buy ships wherever they can get
them the cheapest. Our people sold more
ships in four years time than I'M the pre-
vious forty years. More than 500, 900
tons of American bottoms went thus into
the hands of foreigners. But when the
war was over, and business began to re-
vive again, our wouldbe-sh ip-owners dis
covered the existence of this navigation
law! They could sell ships, but they could
not buy them back What to do Let
us build them, then. But the high prices
of all materials, the loss of five years time
in experience and inventions, and the
change Of style from wooden to iron ships,
made building with profit impossible.
The last ship built on the Mystic at Med
ford lost her builder $50, 900 clean. And
} so the ocean battle has gone against us.
, | IN 1880 two thirds Of all fnrnipn COM
merce was borne on our own ships; ln
1870, less than one-third; and Of -.
steamers regularly plying between the
ports of the United States and Europe,
not q single one bears the American flag,
This state of things has stirred up the
boards Of trade, and has had some iniu-
ence in modifying opinion.
In the second place, the coal duty has
always been an abomination in New Eng
land Senator Sumner made strong
speech against it on its passage through
the Senate, and indeed, he is no friend OF
high duties of any kind. What the New
England people want, and what New
, England manufacturers want, is cheap
power The bitumiou4 coal of Nova
Scotia IS gust the thng tor thef furnaces
For many purposes it j. better than an
: thracite But the duty Of So cold per
ton almost doubles what would be the
price Of the Pictou coal 4 treasurer p
one of the Pictou coal companies testified
that not long, ago that he considered two
dollars in gold a very good price for coal
already loaded on schooners for the hoS-
ton market-he had sold some as low A.
one dollar and three quarters GOLD CaIL-
ing it two dollars, there is a duty Of e -
per cent on coal. 1t is pure tribute To
Pennsylvania anthracite. ltinareases the
cost, and thus lessons The market Of New
England manufactures This fact has
stuck in the Threats of some people, and
makes them doubtful Of the whole sys-
tenn that embraces such particulars.
In the third place. the shoemakars are
up in arms A good deal of what is call
ed the dissatisfaction of labor springs
from causes that have their Seat ia tho
tariff The boot and shoe interest is the
LARGEST single industry in the United States