New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-12-15


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The carrying trade not only is not growing now
II is continually declining. Wherever American
steamers it is growing. But they are running
in so few directions that they do not, and cannot,
stay the hurricane of foreign competition which is
sweeping the American flag from the open ocean.
The situation of the shipping interest is the
gravest industrial question of the present time
Home industry is thriving under the wholesome
protection of the laws while the keen ana healthy
competition among home manufacturers is giving
the people the best quality and lowest prices in
manufactured goods they have ever known. Agri-
culture is prosperous Mining is active. Public
finance Is IN good shape The land transpOrta-
ton companies are all busy and iourishing. Every
important home interest is doing well. except
shipping and will continue TO do well n the people
eau defeat the proposed campaign for forcing on
them the system of trade invented by England,
and rejected by every other nation IN Europe, and
by South America aud the colonies Of England also.
But shipping iangushes and the National weak
ness which 1t entails must be source OF regret and
alarm IL every reading and thinking man.
LEADING OPINIONS on THIS SUBJECT
few OF the leading opinions IN regard to ship
ping will now he of interest.
retired shipping merchant, now seventy-ive
years of axe, a man who has always been success
full, whose great experience aud kindly feeling to-
ward his own countrymen give his opinions
weight. says that in his the real causes of the
fearful decline of American navigation the
cheap labor and the cheap capital of Europe. and
the fact that Americans refuse to employ steam.
The Confederate cruisers only accelerated work
already begun. The United States produces every
thing for making the cheapest outfits IN the world.
yet the foreign ship sails cheaper than the Ameri-
can. The seamen of Sweden. Norway, Italy. Portu-
gal. Germany and England will live on stock fish,
Inaccaroni and cheap bread made from American
grain and the captains like the men are content
with poorer fare and lower wages. The wives and
families of foreign masters, mates and men do not
require the uxures which Americans consider their
due-the pianos fashionable dresses. good living,
etc. Their ships are therefore sailed cheaper than
those of the United States The great COM
pettor after all is capital Abroad il
can be hired for 3 per cent, while in the
United States il cannot be had for less than
per cent. The merchant referred to believes
that If Americans are to regain the carrying trade,
they must be content TO roll up their sleeves
mp many of their luxuries, and 20 10 work cheap.
There must be rigid economy all along the lire in
the shipping interest up from the miner and woods
man who supply the builder, to the merchant and
agent who employ the finished ship Were this
economy exercised it is declared, the known
ecutve superiority, inventiveness and enterprise of
the American people would quickly snatch the car
rying trade from the hands Of foreign rivals and
store the old time supremacy. This merchant also
favors the privilege of buying ships abroad by pay
ing something therefor.
Another view is presented by large builder of
chips man Of sincere purposes and Of thorough
perception OF the commercial tendencies of the age.
who has himself constructed larger tonnage of
oceangoing steam vessels than existed in the United
States before the In his view. it Is hopeless
to ask Americans to live in the degraded fashion
of European seamen aud workingmen. 1t would
not be a wise policy to reduce them to the same
standard of living, and produce the same conse
quences which always follow-unrest and dis
satisfaction In the period of the greatest
prosperity of American shipping. wages
higher on all American vessels. and mas
tiers and men lived comfortably and we'll
Cheap labor is not so essential as something else
The carrying trade was lost because IL was first
driven from the by Confederate cruisers and its
place was then taken by large fleets OF European
steam shipping sustained by subsidies. The diff
Guilty experienced regaining il Is due to the fact
that Americans have TO contend now not DO much
with cheap capital as with the more powerful COM