The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-11-22
OCEAN MAIL SERVICE.

IaclllLleS ana Jnat Afforded TO ocean service
to the great prejudice of the latter.
The ocean postage-which simply means
that steamships allowed this are paid by the
government the amount of postage on al
mails carried by them-is considered a fair
compensation for ocean service, while thirty.
one OF the States and nine of the Territories
: require yearly appropriations for postal ser.
vice. while but seven States and two Terri.
tories are self-supporting In this respect
These appropriations for Interstate service
are all right, and are made without comment,
as matter Of course yet when q similar aid
Is rendered to steamship routes it is called
subsidy, and Subsidy Is fraud and plumber
ing" we are told Mr.. Hills pamphlet, sour
Merchant Marine" to which we alluded yes
terday, makes some wonderful disclosures
upon this point also.
The report for the Postofice Department
for the year ending June 80, 1876, shows a
deficit of $4,619,23O OS. The deficits for these
thirty-one States and nine Territories last
year was $6,774,765 Al, and for the last ten
years 1t has been over seventy millions
Compared with these figures the total
amount Of subsidies paid in the same period
to steamships for the extension of foreign
commerce is insignificant indeed. They have
been to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company,
to Japan and China, 81, SOC, 900, and to the
United States and Brazil Steamship Com
pany 81, 1897 800, and these are all. During the
nine years and a half from January 1867,
when the Pacific Mail subsidy was granted
till June 80, the date of the above report of
the Postoffice Department, the government
had paid that line $4,5OO0OO, while the GUS
tom returns from San Francisco alone show
that the government has received back from
the line In increased duties on CUSTOMS, duty
on coal, tonnage tax, postage, ETC., $685.
626 49, or nearly one and half millions in
revenue over and above the subsidy.
But there still remains the very interest
ing question does the great deficit
shown by the report of the Postof1ice Depart
ment rest2 For the year ending on June both,
the China mail line not only paid back its an
nual subsidy of 100000, but, as has already
been shown, it has also paid surplus, say of
100000. 1t is small estimate to credit the
Brazil line with the principal of it's subsidy,
$37, $780, and like surplus return of $4,000
more, in view OF the fact that we purchase
1920 per cent Of the exports of that country,
which pay custom duty at New York mainly
Here we have an aggregate Of S647, 500 realized
by the government as a result of these sub
sides, actually reducing thereby the deficit
to $3,971, 100. By this it is proven that ocean
subsidy is gain, and not loss to the gov
eminent. On the other hand, 1t has been
shown that the postal service of thirty-one
States and nine Territories is a dead loss to |
the government. Place the loss, then, where |
1t belongs, not to the ocean subsidies, but to |
the internal postal service, the appropriations |
to support which may with equal propriety |
be called subsidies,
The following list will show in what pro-
portion Louisiana is benefited by these ap- |
preparations.
We give sixteen States and two Territories
drawing annually from the United States
larger sums than Louisiana, viz: Ohio, $685. |
$40; Missouri, $379,6O9; Nebraska, 1868 1887; |
Texas, $3.50, 146; Illinois, $342, 1928; Virginia,
$26S, 213; Iowa, $247 49S: Mississippi $685., 41O;
Arkansas, $233,OS4; Kansas, $500, 1O1 Indiana, |
$2O2, 42s; Georgia. S199, 942; Tennessee, $780,
076; North Carolina, $1S9,452 Minnesota, |
$17o,211; Utah, $28O,O64; New Mexico, $751;
$40, and Louisiana, Sal, $685.
This subsidy, then of $4,000, asked for |
line of steamships from New Orleans to Bra |
zil, even If considered as dead loss under |
the annual appropriations to cover the deficit |
of the Postoffice Department paid for inter-
nal postal service in excess of receipts, would |
be but an act Of meagre justice. Yet, in view |
of the returns realized from the China mail |
service, and from the line from New York to
Brazil, it would not be loss at all, but
source of revenue and profit In view of the
fIIrfh for fhof nj t,
yearly paying subsidies amounting to nearly
$35O,OOO to foreign ships for conveying the
United States mails, we do not see how this
subsidy can be refused, or even how 1t should
be matter Of discussion.
The time has come when the government
must concern itself about the langushing in
dustries and commerce of the country, when
1t must take active measures to relieve the
depression which has resulted from it's blind
folly and equally blind Indifference There is
an abundance of everything in the country
that is necessary to sustain life; but are all
the Industries Of the country to be aban-
doned, its trade, manufactures and COM
MERGE, and the whole nation to revert back to
pastoral or agricultural life to avoid starva-
ton; or, Is there not some more assured and
better relief within the power of State craft |
to suggest and achieve? There is such a re-
lief, and it consists merely in finding market
for the surplus products of the country. Men
die from surfeit as well as of starvation, and |
history records that the misery and destitu-
ton of Ireland are due more to the abund-
ance and cheapness Of the national food than
to any other one cause Meat and bread,
then, is not all that is needed for the pros
perity of people, certainly not of great
commercial nation like this.
Our government will see to it, we trust,
that the valuable trade of the countries south
of us, which has become actually necessary
to the recuperation of our languishing indus
tries, shall no longer be absorbed and mo-
by England and other trans-Atlan-
tic countries. 1t seems by some special pro-
s.idaIaaa that tLsas.a a1ad isas.s Fl lilo