The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-06-20
American Commerce.

Mr.. Blaine's letter to the New York Cham
Der of Commerce on the decay of American
commerce and the means of promoting its
revival will command attentive interest.
The subject is one which deeply concerns
the State of Maine, large portion Of whose
inhabitants have in times past earned their
living by the shipbuilding industry.
The causes of the great falling off in the
tonnage of American shipping and the trans
fer Of the great bulk of the carrying trade to
English bottoms are not obscure. In 1857
we stood nearly, if not quite, equal to Great
Britain in ocean tonnage. We were the
second commercial nation on the earth and
were rapidly gaining on our only rival. In
this year our entire foreign trade, export and
import, amounted to s723,0O0,0OO, and of
this total $780, 900 was carried in Ameri-
can bottoms. This proportion with little
change was kept up till 1861 when the war
came. The effect was utterly disastrous.
Nearly seventy thousand men were with
drawn from the mercantile marine and en-
listed in the navy; our ports were blockaded
from Delaware bay to the Rio Grande and
the few vessels left ON the seas were driven
to seek protection from Confederate cruisers
by flying foreign flag Our misfortune was
our rivals opportunity and well she i'm
proved it. The gap left by the destruction
of our commercial marine was filled by Eng
land. The prestige she then gained we have
never been able to overcome. On the other
hand our commerce has steadily declined un-
til more than five sevenths of our foreign
trade is carried on in foreign bottoms.
But the war was not the only thing that
contributed to the decay of American ship
ping. The substitution of the screw for the
paddle in steamships and the compound en-
gine for the simple one wrought revolution
Previous to this steamers had not entered
largely into the carrying of heavy and bulky
articles of commerce. The marine engine
was too heavy, absorbed too much space,
consumed too much coal. The screw and
the compound engine changed all this. The
iron steamship supplanted the wooden sail
ing vessel and England, being in condition
to do so, took advantage of the change and
to-day the great bulk of the carrying trade
on the North Atlantic-the greatest highway
of commerce on the Ocean-is done in her
iron steamships.
These were the causes of the decay, now
what is the remedy? 1t is urged by one
class of political economists that it lies in
permitting free trade in ships, in other
words, in allowing American merchants to
buy iron ships whenever they can find them,
and to sail them under the American flag on
an equality with ships built in American
yards. The evils of such a policy, Mr..
Blaine clearly points out. 1t would put an
end to all ambition on the part of the United
States to become a maritime power, and
would be a formal proclamation of our sub
serviency to England. A continuation OF
such policy would soon render this coun-
try destitute of skilled mechanics, and in
case of war we should be dependent upon
foreign power for our navy. The evils OF
such policy are too great to admit of its
adoption.
What then is the remedy? Mr.. Blaine's
plan is to continue the navigation laws as a
part of the organic law of land. Wooden
ships, he thinks, need no further aid than
the present law affords, and with the main
tenance of the specie basis this industry, he
believes, will flourish. But the builders of
iron steamships must be encouraged by
government aid. England's success is
largely due to this policy. A general law
should be enacted providing that if any man
or company of men build in an American
yard, with American material and American
mechanics, steamship of 5000 tons, and
sail her from any port in the United States
to any foreign port, he or they shall receive
for monthly line mail allowance of S2o
per mile per annum for the sailing distance
between the two ports; for semi-monthly-
line S45 per mile; for weekly line S75 per
mile. Briefly stated Mr.. Bl;aine's remedy is
subsidy-something that the public has
come to regard as about synonymous with a
windle. But it is the abuse of the thing
which has excited the prejudice. In its true
| meaning it is nothing more than aid
given to an enterprise. 1t should not be
| given unless the thing to be accomplished is
likely to be of great national benefit, and it
should be carefully guarded so that its mis-
application shall be Impossible. AS gen.
| eral rule it is much better to trust to private
| enterprise for the advancement OF indus
| tries of all kinds. Ours is not a paterna