American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-09-07
Kelley on Commerce.

| Hon. w. d. Kelley of Pennsylvania, in
a speech in defense of the Administration
policy. made at San Francisco, on the
| 18th of August, made strong, and, we
| NAV add successful effort to prove some
| thing that no one denies. viz: the steady
growth of American commerce. The gen.
| tleman asked: sis American commerce
declining ?'' and answered with power
| full array of arguments, reports and sta
! tistics. which give an emphatic no, to the
interTOgatOry. 1t is unnecessary TO repeat
| these arguments and statistics; they seem
to be authoritative. and we cheerfully all
NIT that they prove what Mr.. Kelly as
| serts-the continued growth of our home
and foreign commerce..
But this is not the question that has at
| tracted public attention. It il the decline
of American shipping that is made re-
proach to Mr.. Kelley's party, since this de-
| cline has taken place only under that par
| tvs policy. Our people continue to raise
| a surplus of cotton. rice, tobacco, wheat
| and other such products, the shipment OF
which. abroad, forms so large feature in
| what we call foreign commerce and they
continue to raise hay, hemp, sugar, cat
! tie, fruit and those other products the in
| terchan9e of which makes domestic COM
| merce. But the important fact that the
opposition make reproach to the Repub-
! lican partF-is that American commerce is
carried abroad in foreign ships. This was
not so in 1850 when the Republican party
came into power it is a contamination
that has taken place during the ascen-
dency of that party. Secretary Boutwell,,
turns for the fiscal year 1S1Oa'!l show that
the ocean commerce of the United States
| is passing rapidly into the hands of for
| eign merchants and ship-brllders. In the
year 1850 nearly seventy-One per cent. OF
| the foreign commerce of this country was
in American ships: in 1864 it had fallen
| to forty-siX per cent; i'm 1858 to forty-fOur
per cent; and in 1871 it is reported at less
| than thirty-cight per cent" The striking
| feature of this official statement of most
notifying and shameful fact Is that the
Republican policy has destroyed Ameri-
can commerce; that commerce thriving
and growing under 4 long reign of DEM
ocratlc poilcy, began TO Gecline the mo
ment the Republican party came into
power. 1t has steadily declined every
year since. and there is a prospect that if
the Republican policy continues few
| wears longer. ''the entire foreign trade OF
| the country to borrow the language of
Secretary BOutwell's report, Twill soon
pass into the hands of our rivals" 1t will
not do to say that it matters little whose
| ships carry our commerce. rs long as that
| commerce continues to grow. The car
| rying of this commerce Is Il very proflta-
BILE business. = Mr.. Boutwell, tells us that
.sthe trans-Ocean commerce of the United
States would employ about six million
tons of shipping. if each vessel made but
one round voyage in a year. The value
reached the sum of neSfiiy eleven hundred
millions of dollars. The annual returns
| for freight and passengers are about one
hundred millions of dollars" This one
hundred millions is the profit of carrying
| our commerce, and it goes to the foreign
Il. frn
| goods to rs, but carry abroad the Amerl-
can cotton. rice, tobacco, hemp, pork,
| and manufactures that were once carried
in our own ships.
THIS is the subject that Mr.. Kelley ought
to have explained to the people of San
| Francisco. ME secretary q. the treasu-
ry tells usohat,. unless something Is done
to revive American shipping. not only the
| Atlantic trade, .'but the trade of the Pa
citic lH5f. the seas adjacent thereto, will
be carried OF in English built steamers
The explanation of this diSagrecable fact
is, that Mr. Kelicy's party lave levied such
exhorbitam tariffs on the materials OF
which ships are built. that one can no
longer afford to build them in tins co'in-
try IL compete with foreign vessels, built
of untaxed materials. Mr.. Kcllcy's party
have destroyed shir-builiiNGS by protect
| inc home nlanufactures.-1I1Sso Rcpub-
| tic0a-
| Even in the matter of washing clothes,
| the Investigations of scientific men have
proved to be OF considerable practical i'm
| portancc. il we may trust a paper Just pup
| iiShcu in Il French Journal wherein a
writer recommends the following mixture
rs one which will save clothes from the
| injurious results produced by the use OF
soda: Two pounds of soap dissolved in
five and "A half gallons of water, to which
al three large tablespOonfuls of ammo
mia and one of turpentine. Experiment
ers would do well to try it on small
| scale.
| .'IIow do you like the looks of the var
| mnt!'' asked an ArkanSan of down
Easter. who was gain" with distended
eyes at an alligator with open Jaws on the
| ,ank ot the Mississippi. ''Wa'al, res
| pnnsled the Yankee, recovering his men
| E.l .,i,lipoist. 'shc amt what we'd call /:
/ ..riIiI.L i.liI la. In. l..Il al