The Portland daily press., 1874-07-27
The Ninth Section.

On the publication of the full text of the
proposed Reciprocity Treaty we took occa-
sion to point out the danger to our ship
tice which is as follows:
ART. g. For the term of years mentioned in
Article XIII of this treaty GU vessels of all
kinds built in the United States may be pnr-
chased by inhabitants of Canada as CANADIAN
vessels; and recprocally, vessels OF all kinds
built in Canada may be purchased by citizens
of the United States, and registered in the
United States as United States vessels.
So clear is the peril to our ship-builders
and Sc certain would be the absorption of
our coastwise carrying trade by the more
cheapiy built provincial vessels, that it
seemed fair to assume a unanimous protest
from Maine against this article; but the
leading Democratic journal Of the state
probably from an imperfect appreciation of
the nature of the situation-has declared this
article to be practically harmless on the
somewhat remarkable ground that it will not
admit Canadian vessels to the coasting trade.
Well, the article will speak for itself to any
man of sufficient intelligence to read it, and
we leave the argus to the tender merces~ of
its party friends who are interested in ship
ping.
But leading Democratic journals of the state
cannot be unmindful of the fact that Do
minion built vessels bought by citizens of the
United States and registered therein, will be
entitled to all the privileges of the coasting
trade of the United States. They ought not
to be ignorant of the fact that labor and tim
Der suited to the hiding ofsmaller sized YES
sells are much more plentiful and cheaper in
the Dominion than in Maine, in conse
offered for sale at price lower than our
Maine ship builders could afford them, and
the result would of necessity be that the pur.
chasers of navigation would 60 to New Bruins
wick, leaving our shpyards to go back to the
inactivity Of four years since; leaving our own
citizens who have engaged in that industry
withou. employment, or forcing them to ex-
patriate themselves by emigrating to the Do
minion in order to carry on their business
with success.
Nor does the mischief end there. The
coasting business is valuable and often a
most profitable one for certain kinds of ves-
sells, so mu CHI so that in order to avail them
pulous Dominion ship owners would devise a
scheme for bogus sale to citizens of the
United States, so that in time large number
of Dominion oa1ned as well as Dominion built
vessels will be doing our coasting trade, and
Maine ship yards viii be but mournful re-
minders of past activity and energy. To-day
our Democratic exchanges are co asulting the
census tables to find decrease of population
in our farming and shipbuilding towns, and
parade the same with ill-concealed deligh
because they attribute the loss to agencies
entirely foreign to the real cause.
A suitable Reciprocity Treaty is exceeding
ly desirable to nations whose commercial re-
lations are necessarily so intimate as those of
this country and Canada; and for the adop-
tion of such treaty our people may well
make strenuous efforts. II should, however,
be sufficiently guarded to avoid the destruc.
tion of so important an industry as our re-
Gently reviving ship building-an industry
formerly prime source of wealth to the
state, and just now again exhibiting some
thing of its old time VITALITY and prosperity.
The proposed Treaty is, in the main, ap-
proved by the people of this part OF the coun-
try; but any such provision as is contained in
the ninth article will encounter very lively
and vigorous opposition from Quoddy head
to Kittery.