The New York herald., 1872-12-04

The President's Views On Steamship
Subsidies and Trans-Alieghany and
sesboard Canals-A Ruimeus New
Departure.
The distinguishing feature of the Presi-
dents policy for the future is that which is SO
broadly indicated in his comprehensive recon-
mendations and suggestions to Congress On
steamship subsidies and internal improve
ments. No halfway measures are here fore
shadowed, but broad and comprehensive
system of bounties and subsidies which Will
place the whole commerce of the United
States external and internal, ON the sea and
the land, in the position of beggarly pauper,
to be fed from the national Treasury. brief
recapitulation Of the gratuities in this direc-
ton recommended in the Message, and Of the
grand canal schemes suggested as within the
province of Congress- will serve to disclose
programme for government contributions to
private enterprises as broad as the absolute
power Of the Czar of Russia, and fruitful in
corruptions, denominations and wasteful ex-
penditures, with all their inevitably disastrous
consequences.
The President informs the two houses Of
Congress that in addition to the railroads of
the country 90 project to facilitate commerce
by the building of o ship canal around Niagara
Falls, on the United States side "a grand
idea), which has been agitated for many
years, will, no doubt, be called to your atten-
tention this session. Then, having broken
ground upon the general subject, he submits
the expediency of an examination Of ''the
various practicable routes for connecting the
Mississippi with the tide waters Of the Allan
tic," and likewise the feasibility of an almost
continuous land-locked navigation from Maine
TO the Gulf Of Mexico" General Grant, re-
garding this project with the eye Of . soldier.
truly says that 'sNature has provided the
greater part Of this route - that ''the obsta-
cles to be overcome are easily within the skill
Of the engineer" and that s'such route
along our coast would be Of great value at all
times and Of inestimable value in case of o
foreign war" This project, then, is sea-
board ship canal, as continuous as practicable
from Maine to Mexico, unqucstionably mag
nifcent and most desirable improvement. But,
if undertaken by Congress, what will it cost2
How many millions no man can tell.
Now, let us look at the inland canal enter
prises to which the favorable attention Of
Congress is invited. They embrace the prof.
ect of a canal to connect the Mississippi VAL
ley with the Atlantic, at Charleston, s. O.,
and Savannah, Ca. by way of the Ohio and
Tennessee rivers, with canals and slack water
navigation to the Savannah and Ocmulgee
rivers the extension of the Kanawha and
James River Canal through the defles of the
Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River, and
the extension Of the Chesapeake, and Ohio
Canal across the Alleghanies to the Ohio
River. We entirely agree with General Grant
in the opinion that all these improvements
tain and cheaper transportation of the heavy
and constantly increasing surplus products of
the Western and Southwestern States to the
Atlantic seaboard. From the incalculable
commercial wealth which our great Erie Canal
has contributed to this metropolis and which
given to Philadelphia, it is not difficult to con-
ceive that the increased Western trade which
similar canals would bring to Baltimore, to
Norfolk and to Charleston and Savannah
would vastly increase the wealth and popula-
ton of those cities and of all the cities and
States along these lines. But here the ques-
tions intrude themselves-f Congress is to un-
dertake these improvements, where and how
will the money be obtainedp and when and
where will this Congressional business of in
ternal improvements come to an end2
Next, in regard to the proposed increase of
our steamship subsidies. To the Pacific Mail
Steamship line plying between San Francisco
China and Japan, to the line plying between
the United States and Brazil, and to the Cali
fornia, New Zealand and Australian line, the
Message recommends s'such liberal contracts
for carrying the mails as will insure their con-
tinuance." These are ominous words-'in-
sure their continuance" There il no limit
here to the subsidies that may be required.
But the President says that ''an expenditure of
five millions of dollars per annum for the
next five years, if it would restore to us our
proportion Of the carrying trade of the world,
would be proftably expended" The idea.
then, is the recovery Of our share of the
carrying trade on the high seas, and to do
this we are to create monopoly which will be
in the hands Of the favored lines Of steamers
supported from the national Treasury, and
for whose support all their unsubsidized COM
petitors, with the people at large, are to be
taxed. In our subsidized railroads, and in our
steamships and telegraphs, and in our banks
and bonds, and from the operations of pro-
tective tariffs, and in our monster corporations
in various things. have we not monopolies
enough already2 They shave increased, are
increasing and ought to be diminished"
In the Message, however, we find hint
which suggests way Of escape from gov