Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-06-19

these advantages supplemented hy the great
pccuniary aid extended by the British gov
crnment, il was, Of course, impossible for
the commercial men of America to enter in
to competition in the building and sailing of
steamships. Nor could the policy favored by
many of buying our ships from England.
have availcd anything in the contest, unless
our government was read, to extend as gen
erous and continuous aid pccuniarily as was
extended bv the government of Great Brit
ain.
nder the continued operation of causes
thus hastily summarized, the American carry
ing trade has steadily and rapidly declined.
until by the official figures in 1873. with an
aggregate foreign commerce, outgoing and
incoming, of wcll-nigh 81 200 900 900, Amer
lean ships carried hut little over three hun
dreh millions and foreign ships carried near
ly nine hundred millions. Or to be accurate
and specific. American ships carried S3l3.-
oj09oG and foreign ships carried ss7G,-
Wl l2? Contrast these figures with those of
lS51 given above. and the result seems la
mentable indeed. In ls57 American ships
carried fve-scycnths of all we exported and
all we imported. and ships of all other coun-
tries carried hut tw0->cycnths. In 1873
American ships carried less than two-sevenths
and ships of all other countries more than
fivc-s s,vcnths.
1t must he specially observed that while
our total forign trade increased in the twenty
years named from seven hundred millions to
twelve hundred millions per annum the
amount carried in American ships steadily
decreased not only relatively but absolutely.
so that we carried only threc-ttths as mach in
1873 as we carried in 1851. Had we been
able to maintain in 1873 the same proportion
that we carried in 1857. American ships would
hax FRA rt.l. L,,,,
of our total commerce, being I65 per cent.
or 5000, 5000 more than we actually did
transport 1t would have been justly re-
garded as most discouragng if in an increase
of 40 per cent. in our foreign commerce we
had merely retained the same absolute amount
we carried in 1887. leaving the whole of the
increase to other nations. But our case is
far worse than that, for have not only
Yielded all the increase to the foreigner, but
we have quietly surrendered. in 1873, wohun-
dred millions of the amount we trans
ported in 1857.
As the profits to the navigation interest are
reckoned To be ten per cent. on the amount of
freight transported and the passengers con
nected Herewith, il isqute i,lent that we are
annually meeting with a most serious loss as
compared with our condition before the war.
Then we carried more than 20 per cent of both
As freight moneys are practically paid in gold,
the country in whose Golfers they accumulate
must have an overwhelming advantage in all
matters pertaining to the specie standard. AZ
ter the October panic of 1857, which was Sc
we're and widespread. the banks of the -nitcd
States very promptly resumed specie pay
ment, and it was said by close observers in
finance that such result would have been
impossible but for the large earnings of our
ships, amounting at that time to fifty millions
per annum in gold. This brings to light the
important and pressing question as to the eff
feet on the specie standard to be
produced by nearly - per cent. of
the freight money on our foreign
commerce being paid to European countries.
! The profits of the carrying trade in the for
eign commerce of the United States have
largely exceeded thousand millions in
gold since 1860 amounting indeed to nearly
| twelve hundred millions, and well nigh three
quarters OF this vast sum have gone to enrich
Great Britain, France and Germany. As we
have now entered u! on an era of specie pay
ment in the United States, our ability to
maintain that condition with all its advan-
tages becomes question of the gravest i'm
portance. What will be the ultimate and
permanent effect of this constant and ncreas-
ing drain of gold coin becomes, therefore, Il
question of deep interest to every man of
business in the country-for it touches the
welfare of farmer and manufacturer. of la
borer and banker alike.
| When all these deprcs. ions and discourage
ment' are realized. certain political ccono-
msts come forward with the suggestion that
onr remedy lies in the repeal of our old and
honored navigation laws and the admission
| OF foreign-built ships to American registry
We can then get English steamers they say,
as cheap as English merchants do, and can
at once enter into successful competition on
the ocean. of course the adoption of this
policy would he an abandonment of all effort
and all ambition on the part of the United
States to he a great maritime power. and
would he a formal proclamation of our sub
serviency to England and our dependence up
on her for our ships. Ii We 90 to England to
! England to get our iron slips this year be-
cause we can Vet lhea cheaper. would we not
he compelled to do the same next wear and
the year after, and woud wr not indeed be
still less able 10 compete with her each sue
ceeding year: Increase of patronage to the
English builder would tend continually to
lessen his prices. and decrease OF patronage
to the American builder must necessarily
have the opposite effect, and in very short
period under this policy the building and re-
pairing of iron steamships would be wholly
given up in America and transferred To Eng
land. When it is remembered that ninety
nine per cent. of the cost of steamship is
mechanical labor and only one per cent raw
material when it is further remembered that
IA steamship gives employment to as many
men on land as she does on the water. we
may begin to appreciate the enormous differ
encc there would be between building our
own ships in our own yards, by our own me-
chanics on the one hand, and ON the other
hand sending our money abroad to build them
in foreign yards by foreign mechanics. and to
have them repaired and sustained there
And what, may | ask the advocates of th,
policy, what would you do with our Navy and
where would you build our war vessels? Hav-
ing driven the building of iron ships out of
the country, how do you propose to maintain
the skill at home to construct naval vessels !
Or would you carry your theory to its proper
and legitimate conclusion and have our naval
vessels built in England also? They can
certainly be built in English ship-yarts more
cheaply to-day than they can he built in Gov
ernmcnt yards at home. And then. if we
should happen, by any of the complications
of the future, to have difficulty with Great
Britain, it would largely conduce to our sue
cess to have that great and magnanmous