The Republican journal., 1877-11-15

year. On ship of 1000 tons, the present
tax, amounting to $500 per annum, rep
resents the profits or interest (reckoned
at per cent? on an invested capital of
$1,000, and on a ship Of 1000 tons of $1O,-
600. Hon. F. A. Pike of Maine, in a
speech in the United States House of
representatives, May, 1868, stated that
this tax was equivalent in many instances
to per cent. on the market valuation of
an inferior class of American vessels, en-
ployed only in the summer months and
largely owned by his constituents. In
1890, when the first tonnage tax was i'm
posed, and the treasury of the new nation
was sorely in need of revenue, the maxi
mum rate for American vessels was six
cents per ton. Again, if any person not
a citizen OF the United States becomes an
owner, to the extent of the merest frac-
ton, in an American ship, the tonnage
taxes on such ship are Immediately in
creased to go cents, or doubled; and the
vessel at once ceases to be entitled to
registry or enrolment as vessel of the
United States. Here, then, is a
DIRECT, oDfOUS AND STUPID DIsCRIMI-
NATION
against the employment of foreign capi-
tai, provided it should so incline, for the
developing Of the American hipping n-
terests, and the employment of labor
even in our own dock-yards and harbors
Supposlng a similar law to be proposed,
discriminating in like manner against
the investment of foreign capital in Ameri-
can railroads, mines, factories, and mer-
camille enterprises generally, does any
one doubt that the proponent would be at
once hooted into contempt And yet the
hypothetical law is no more absurd than
the law that actually exists upon the
statute book. 1t was, however, in respect
to these same laws, that the Republican
State Convention of Maine, August, 1877,
unanimously resolved that, ''enacted in
the infancy of the republic, they have
proved their wisdom by long and varied
experience They embody the matured
Judgment of three generations of CONNER
cial men. Any radical change in these
laws would be detrimental to the highest
interests OF American commerce, and a
damaging blow to the national indepenG-
ence Of the country" The question natu-
rally suggests itself, Was there one single
man in this same convention that had any
clear and definite knowledge of how these
laws originated, what they embody, and
what is the sphere CT their influence?
At the period Of the enactment of our
navigation laws, 1889, 1917, all other
maritime nations had similar codes. But
since then all maritime nations, except
the United States, have either greatly
modified the old-time restrictions which
they once imposed on the building and
1f IL.
gether.
THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING SHIPS
in the United States for ocean navigation
began to increase about the year 1915,
and eliminated in 1855. After this latter
year it declined with extraordinary rapid
ity. Nevertheless, at the period Of the
breaking out of the war in 1861 the ton
mage of the United States engaged in the
international carrying trade of the world
was larger than that of all other nations
combined, with the exception of Great
Britain. The decline in American ship
building subsequent to IS55Was undOubt-
edly, in great degree owing to the sub
stitutlon OF steam for sails, and of iron for
wood as a material for the construction
OF vessels: coupled with the advantages
which Great Britain at that time possessed
in the manufacture and working of iron.
But 1t was just at this time, and under |
such circumstances, that our navigation |
laws proved most injurious to our COM |
mercial marine: for had it not been for |
the prohibitions which they imposed on
American citizens from buying and ac- |
Quiring titles to foreign built ships, Amer |
lean merchants, following the example OF |
the merchants Of other countries, would |
have undoubtedly bought and used the |
best tools Tor their trade. no matter where
made, and have thus maintained them
selves on terms of equality with their
British competitors. As it was, however.
our laws reinforced in our people that
sentiment of moral inertia which ALWAYS
tends to antagonize what is new, and |
the disposition to stick bv
what is old, and no substitutons for
ships Of the old pattern being made by
the building at homo, or the purchase
from abroad, of ships of the improved
type, the decay in the ocean tonnage of
the United States, already commenced,
continued without interruption Then
came the war, and the Confederate
cruisers, which we'll nigh drove the
American mercantile marine from the
ocean, aud after the war the increased
cost of all naval construction and all do
mestic commodities, consequent upon the
imposition of high taxes, national and
state, and the use of bad money, alike
prevented ships from being built, and
ships cargoes of American merchandise
from being protitably transported for
sale to any foreign market, and, under
these several and in part continued inhu-
ences, the United States finds itself to-
day without ships ready to do the work
that through change in circumstances has
to certain extent become ready for the
ships to do.