The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-06-19
AMERICAN SHIPPING.
The Cause of It's Decline and the
Way to Revive 1t.
AN IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING
LETTER FROM SENATOR BLAINE

-~-N~AA~'A3'
New YORK, June 18.-The New York papers
will tomorrow morning publish the following
letter:
WASHINGTON, d. c., June H.
MesSrs. William Z. Dodge, 4. A. Ldec, James
u. Broaen, u. B. C!Gain,, Henry Hilton, B.
G. arnold, +. b. Thurber, Noses Taylor,
John 4. ,Steecart, Nep York City:
am honored by your letter inviting me to
address ''the business men of the city of New
York on tho Decay of American Commerce
and the Means for Promoting its Revival"
The great importance of the subject and the
high character Of those who desire its discus
sion, combine to render your invitation most
impressive and welcome 1t is with no small
regret, therefore, that l feel compelled to de-
cline it. Public engagements have detained
me here until summer heats have made it in
convenient for me to deliver an address-in-
tolerable for you to hear one. | am sure you
will not wish further elaboration of an
excuse at once so pertinent and so conclusive.
But you will bear with me while advert, as
briefly as may be, to the important and engrosS-
ing subject which suggested your letter. No
man denies that the carrying trade OF the
United States has suffered a great decline;
that it gives no sign of improvement or revival
and that serious and permanent loss is thereby
inflicted upon our country. On these points
thus stated there is substantial unanlmity of
belief among our people; but when we go one
the decline we find wide divergence of views;
and when, by a second step we proceed to dis
cuss the remedy we encounter differences so
pronounced and so violent as to involve anger
and acrimony. With no disposition to wrangle
over the sub iect or to arraign any mans theory
in a hostile spirit, l shall submit my own views
ON the depression: what produced 1t; and what
will relieve it.
In 1857, after commercial struggle that be-
gan when we separated from the mother coun-
try, we stood nearly if not quite equal to Great
Britain in ocean tonnage. In that year our entire
foreign trade, export and import, amounted to
1923 900 900, and of this total S510,000,0 600 was
carried in American bottoms, and only $213,
600 900 in the ships of all other countries This
proportion was not materially changed until
1861, when the country was suddenly precipi-
tated into war whose magnitude no man
could measure Then followed series OF
events beyond the control of any power, the
effect of which was utterly disastrous to the
American carrying trade. Nearly seventy
thousand seamen were Withdrawn from the
merchant service and enlisted in the Navy, to
maintain the extended blockade that stretched
from Delaware Bay to the mouth of the Rio
Grande More than a million tons of Ameri-
can shipping were withdrawn from the peace
full pursuits of commerce to take part i'll the
blockade and to supply the transportation
needed for the maintenance of the vast armies
that were called to the defense of the Union.
The gap thus made by the withdrawal of
| American ships and American seamen from
| the commerce of the world was rapidly filled
| by the alertness and enterprise of England
| and Just in proportion to our decline in the
| CARRYING trade the activity in British ship
| yards was redoubled. Added to the direct loss
| Just noted, came an indirect one even more
| hurtfnl to us. Eight hundred thousand tons
| of American shipping, to escape destruction at
| the hands of hostile cruisers flying the confed-
| crate ensign but built in British yards and
| manned by British sailors, cancelled their
American registry and sailed under the flags
| of other nations, and when worn out their
place was supplied by foreign-built ships.
| AS the civil war progressed and the causes
| Just named were producing their increasingly
| baneful effects on our commercial interests,
another fact was developed which proved most
| adverse to us. Prior to that period ocean
steamships had not been formidable as freight
carriers. The marine engine was too heavy;
| absorbed too much space; consumed too much
! coal. The steamers were unrivaled for trans
| porting passengers, and for freight having
| large value in small space; but they had not
| vet entered the general carrying trade for the
| heavy and bulky articles of commerce. But
just at this time the screw was generally substi-
| tuted for the paddle, and the compound engine
was invented to take the place of the simple
one. Iron, heretofore successfully tried, now
became general substitute for wood and huls
| were thus built that would last as long as the
| engines These several changes with some mi
| nor inventions increased the carrying capacity
| of the steamship beyond all anticipation. A
| very IntelllgenU anu enleTpflSlDSt owner OF
British steamships illustrated to me the actual
| difference by this simple statement A steamer
| of the old kind, capable of carrying three
thousand tons, might sail on a voyage so long
| that she would be compelled to carry twenty
| two hundred tons of coal, leaving room for only
eight hundred tons of freight; whereas one of
| the new kind, of same capacity, would make
the same voyage and reverse the figures, re-
| quiring only eight hundred tons of coal and
| carrying TWENTY-FIVE hundred tons of freight.
| This, was, in short, total revolution on the
| sea-almost as great as the steamboat had
| wrought i'll the carrying trade ON our rivers, or
the railway on land. The palpable result has
| been that the trade of the North Atlantic the
| greatest highway of commerce on the globe,
has been transferred to the steamship, to say
nothing of what has been done by the same
agency on all seas and between all continents.
The close of the war left us in most dis
| couraging situation commercially. Our finances
| were disordered, prices OF material were abnor-
| mally high, and it was an idle effort to attempt
| competition with England in any field where
our expanded paper currency had to contend
| with the solidity of her gold. Our sailing YES
! sells received less and less employment in the
carrying of cotton provisions and breadstuffs
to Europe, and we did not offer any encourage
ment for the building of steamships Perhaps,
| with the prices of that period, success in any
event would have been impossible. England
meanwhile, feeling her advantage, and eager
| to push it, did not leave her commerce to its
| own development, even with all the elements
| in her favor, but she stimulated its growth by
enormous bounties paid to those who would
| build and sail steamships. From the close of our
| civil war down to the year 1S77-a period of
| twelve years-Great Britain paid to her steam
ship lines for mail service sum total of 800 ,539,
| 1876, or an average of nearly five and half
| millions per annum. With all the advantages
| accrung to British shipping by orr disasters
in the war, and with these advantages supple
mented by the great pecuniary aid EXTENDED by
| the British government, it was, of course, i'm
| possible fT the commercial men of America to
enter into competition in the building and sail
ing of steamships. Nor could the policy IA
| vored by many of buying our ships from Eng
land have availed anything in the contest, I'M
less our Government was ready to extend as
| generous and continuous aid pecuniarily as was
extended by the government of Great Britain.
| Under the continued operation of causes
thus hastily summarized, the An erican carry
ing trade has steadily and rapidly declined,
until by the official figures in 1875 with an
aggregate foreign commerce, outgoing and in
coming, of well nigh 81 200, DOC, 900, American
ships carried but little over three hundred mil
lions and foreign ships carried nearly nine
| hundred millions Or to be accurate and spe-
cific, American ships carried 1913, ,906 and
foreign ships carried SS76,991, 1919. Contrast
| these figures with those of 1857 given above,
| and the result seems lamentable indeed. In
1857 American ships carried five-sevenths of all
we exported and all we imported, and ships of
all other countries carried but two-sevenths
| LII 1910 AluCllodu oIlpo CdiilCu iCoo tllttu IWO-
sevenths and ships of all other countries more
| than five-sevenths.
1t must be specially observed that while our
| total foreign trade increased in the twenty
| years named from seven hundred millions to
twelve hundred millions per annum, the
amount carried in American ships steadily de-
| creased, not only relatively but absolutely, SO
that we carried only three-ffths as much in
1878 as we carried in 1857. Had we been able
to maintain in 1873 the same proportion that
| ir,1 ,cl,;,,
transported over eight hundred millions of our
total commerce, being 165 per cent. $780,
| 100000 more than we actually did transport.
1t would have been justly regarded as most dis
couraging if in an increase of 70 per cent in
our foreign commerce we had merely retained
the same absolute amount carried in 1857
| leaving the whole of the increase to other ma
tions But our case is far worse than that for
| we have not only yielded all the increase to the
foreigner, but we have quietly surrendered, in
| 1873, two hundred millions of the amount we
transported in 1857.
AS the profits to the navigation interest are
| rockOned to be ten Der cent. on the amount of