The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-05-02
PUGET SOUND FOR SHIP
BUILDERS.

IL 10 generally conceded that In the
coming contest between England and
Russis, the United states will occupy Q
similar position to the umpire in the
story who quietly MIXED the COW
while the two men who held her as the
bone Of contention tugged away at the
tail and horns. Great benefits are
expected and will accrue TO the United
States from war The tempest which
10 destined to devsstate Europe will
bear its rich treasure to our shores, and
SOW them broadcast throughout the
land. The notion appears prevalent,
however, that it is only the grain pro-
ducing and manufacturing sections OF
the country that are prepared to gather
in the wealth that is to drift in upon us
from the overturned Golfers of Europe.
There is no greater mistake than to
suppose that the harvest will be exclu-
sively theirs.
II one interest is to be affected more
than another by the war, that interest
is our shipping. Already the key note
of alarm has been sounded in English
commerce. Shippers have already re-
fused to consign goods on ships flying
the English flags. American vessels
must now take the carrying trade for
merly monopolized almost exclusively
by English ships. As result Of this
our ship building interests which have
languished for years will spring into
new life. Millions of money will be
brought forward for investment in this
direction. And where in the broad
domain of our Union can such induce
ments be held out to ship builders as
on Puget Sound. Where can such
material be found as absunds in our
forests, and where such advantages as
we can offer for the construction and
equipment of ships of war or COM
mercs? A greater prosperity never
blessed people than that which came
to the ship building towns of Maine in
the palmy days of that industry.
Go now and look at the great monu.
ments erected to those prosperous times
in the form of such wealthy towns as
Bath and scores of others along that
coast. built up like Aladdins palace in
q night, while the busy din of the hun
dreds of shipyards resounded along that
coast. The forests from which the ma
terial was gathered for the construction
OF the thousands of tons of shipping set
afloat there are now exhausted by the
heavy drafts upon their resources and
the great forest fires that have devssta-
ted them. When history repeats itself
in great reformation of this industry
in America; when the demand for
American built vessels again becomes
great, rs it will if the war goes on, as
go on it must. the theatre of activity
must be changed from the Atlantic to
the Pacific coast-from Maine to Poget
Sound. Then we expect to see the
harvests Of wealth gathered from our
shipyards far transcend that reaped
from the great wheat valleys of Cali
fornia.
Shipysrds are among the greatest
producers of wealth. All the real value
put into q ship here. outside of her
iron. etc, would be simply the actual
value of the stumpage of the timber
used in her construction. All the rest
would be created right among US by
labor alone. When we recount the old
time flush prosperity of the ship-building
towns of the Atlantic seaboard we may
well wish to zee that industry reinsta.
ted here. Our city would then be alive
with the din of busy shipyards. At
morning aud night our streets would
be crowded with hundreds of mechan.
les. while the products of their highly
productive toll would build up numer-
Gus industries and small merchants and
dealers doing business on the sure prin-
ciple of quick sales and small profits.
The hundreds OF neat white cottages Of
the busy artisans would dot our hills
all bathed in the sunshine of health
ful and real prosperity.