The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-05-22
Our Navigation Laws Absurd and
Behind the Age.

and Russia brings into the foreground
question of the first magnitude, which
would almost equally deserve discussion
without this extraneous Indictment. The
advocates of reform avail themselves OF the
new situation us means of gaining atten-
ton, but the subject is of scarcely less i'm
portance and is of almost equal urgency If
the war cloud blows over as if it gathers to
storm. Our navigation laws as they
stand at present are an Anticipated abb
surdity in every possible condition OF rival
nations. They are no more to be
justified when all the world is at peace
than when great Powers which make fig
ure on the ocean are likely to be at war.
We avail ourselves of the disturbed rela-
tions between England and Russia to make
strong appeal to Congress, which would
be equally pertinent at any other time,
although it would have less chance of gain
ing attention.
The advantages of relaxing the rigor OF
our absurd navigation laws with great
European war in near prospect are too OBJ
vious to allow of much controversy. In
chant ships will be subject to lawful cap
ture in pursuance Of belligerent rights. The
commercial marine of Russia is SO small
that she can be no great sufferer. But
British merchant ships are afoat upon all
the oceans and seas Of the globe, and the
history of our civil war illustrates the
damage and destruction to which they are
hoI
commercial marine and no ports which were
not under blockade, and yet by few armed
and swift sailing cruisers they practically
annihilated American commerce. Our mer-
chant ships were sold to foreigners because
the rates of marine insurance were SO high
that they could not be navigated without
loss. In the event Of war British ship
owners will be reduced to the same hard
necessity. Neutral ships, which are not ex-
posed to capture and have to pay only the
ordinary rates OF insurance, can underbid
the merchant ships of belligerent nation
and take away their business. The natural
consequence is large sales of ships to the
citizens or subjects of neutral govern
ments, and the market for ships being thus
overstocked they have to be sold at a sac
rifce, which is great advantage to the neu-
trail purchasers Our absurd navigation laws
preclude our citizens from making these
great prosp octive bargains 1t is prepos
ferrous that when ships are likely to be sell
ing at half their real value American citi-
zens are precluded by set Of antiquated
laws from acquiring the property which its
owners are compelled to sacrifice. The
ships would be Of little value to American
purchasers SO long as they are unable to
procure American registers for their cheaply
acquired property.
1t is the clear duty Of Congress, before
this session is adjourned, to pass law adj
uniting foreign built ships to registration
on proofs of exclusive and boni tidle Ameri-
can ownership. No other possible legisla-
ton could do SO much to expedite the
covery Of our lost navigation, which we
have been mourning and deploring since
the close of the civil war. A wise and lib
eral measure of this kind would be far more
honorable and statesmanlike than conniving
at schemes to make underhand war and
avenge upon Great Britain the wrong
which she perpetrated in permitting the
escape Of the Alabama and other rebel
cruisers to prey upon our commerce. It
would be national disgrace to attempt to
pay off England in kind by conniving at
the fitting out of Russian cruisers from our
ports; but relaxation Of our absurd navi.
cation laws, with view to permit the pur-
chase Of ships when her subjects desire to
sell them, would violate no amity and
would yet give us great start toward the
recovery Of what we lost on the ocean during
the civil war.
Manifest as the advantage would be Of
permitting our citizens to avail themselves
of the great bargains in ships likely to be
offered during war between England and
Russia, we would not advocate the chang
ing of q wise and settled system merely to
secure transient benefit. Our navigation
laws are preposterous, not so much because
they obstruct the making of capital bargains
in ships when other nations are at war, as
because they are at all times detrimental to
our commerce. They we're enacted nearly
ninety years ago, and even then they
were servile copy Of British statutes
on the same subject, passed far
back as the protectorate of Cromwell.
Since our navigation laws were passed, in
1872, the nation from which they were SER
vilely borrowed has repudiated them IN toto.
At the time our navigation laws were
passed. and for century and half before,
England had permitted the registration Of
only English built ships but she has since
recognized tho absurdity of those laws and
has expunged them from her statute books.
In 1850 Parliament repealed the law which
forbade tho registration of foreign built
ships, and four years later she opened her
coasting trade to the freest foreign COMPETE
ton. What was the effect of this courageous