Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-06-19
NO. 1lS.

1 gave lustre To cur flag in the second war with
Great Britain was the outgrowth OF the nayi-
/ CATION laws, enacted in Washington's admin
lstration; when. poor as we were IN every
thing in money, in mechanical skill, in tools
/ in machinery. we yet laid il down as the pol
| icy of the Young Republic that no vessel ex-
cept those built by American mechanics in
American ship yards and commanded by
| American officers should ever float the Amer
! lean flag. Out of this policy grew the Navy
of lsl2-lj, commanded by Decatur and Per-
ry. by Porter and Banbridge, by Lawrence
and Burrows and their great compatriots the
Navy that met the word-famed navy of Eng
! land and in every fight with equal metal came
off victor. 1t was these same navigation laws
that trained the men for the emergency of our
great civil war, when we were enabled at II
moments warning 10 furnish seven thousand
good officers and ten times that number of
seamen to seal the ports of the South and tn
do some OF the best and bravcst fighting OF
the century.
The great iron ships for the British navy
are built in private ship-yards at cost
far below the cost Of the same work If
executed in government yards Those
private ship-yards, on the Clyde, at Birk
enhead at Belfast, owe their origin and
their growth TO the pecuniary aid extended by
the British government to her steamship lines
that traverse every sea and control the COM
merce of both hemispheres. Five and half
millions year may seem like Il large sum tn
pay for mail service as a subsidy, but can any
one doubt that aside from the immeasurable
and nnumcrable advantages that have thus
accrued to the commerce of Great Britain,
the government more than gets back its out
lay in the cheaper, more expeditions, and bet
ter work it secures for its navy as compared
with the cumbersome and costly yards con-
trolled directly by the Admiralty. And
should we not realize the same advantage in
the United States il we should build up pr-
vate yards along the AIantitc and Pacific
coasts? hold it to hc matter susceptible of
demonstration that less sum from the Ma
tional Treasury in aid of individual enter
prise weuld build these wards at various
points from Eastport 10 Vancouver; a less
sum, | say, would build the wards than would
be saved to the government in the better and
cheaper construction and repair of the vessels
of the navy. Or to put the proposition in
the reverse way, am still more confident
that il we shonld give up the attempt to build
iron ships at home and change our laws so rs
to import them from English yards, the cx-
pense of building our naval vessels would in
brief period be enormously enhanced by
having no surrounding growth of mechanical
skill, which is always developed under en-
couragement and vanishes when employment
ceases. The increased cost of needed work
in our navy yards would in a series of years
take more money from the National Treasury
than the most extravagant advocate of ocean
mail service ever dreamed of asking from
Congress.
\ current misrepresentation is to the effect
that European countries, having realized the
impolicy of aiding steamship lines by money
subsidies, have abandoned it. just the re-
sI,,.t 4 Al.
a liberal allowance for sea-postages, Great
Britain is paying her various steamship lines
a subsidy exceeding S3,100, 900, or, to
quote accurately from the appropriations
of Parliament, f761. .S77: while France is
paving over four and half millions OF
dollars; Italy is paying million and a
half, Austria half million, and even the lit
tie kingdom of Belgium two hundred thous-
and These sums as have said, are in addi-
ton to pOstages which, in many eases, are
paid at most liberal rate, Great Britain al
lowing her American lines two shilings six
pence per ounce for one class of mail matter.
and one shilling per ounce for another class.
During the past twelve years the United
has paid over three and a half millions to for
eign steamers for mail service. so that we
have not only waited for foreign lines to he
built up by aid from their own governments.
but with generosity to be noted for lavish
ness rather than wisdom, we have thrown i'm
a few extra millions from our own Treasury.
If possessed the power to prescribe pol
| icy for the revival of the American carry
trade. would make it very simple and very
specific. would continue the navigation
laws as part of the very organic law of the
land. For wooden sailing ships no further
aid is needed than these laws afford, if we
will only seek in every way to Tighten the
burden of taxation on vessels. We can
| build wooden ships better than any other
| country, and we can build them as cheapy:
but after they are launched and in trade they
should not he worried and harried and bur
dened with every form of taxation, port
charge, and quarantine exaetion at home:
and maltrcated and oppressed, As they too
often are, by our consuls in foreign ports.
They should have every facility for supply in
our ports that England gives to her ships.
Wooden ships will always be used so long as
trees grow and winds blow, and they will
form large resource to our country. In
deed it is almost the only resource we now
have in foreign trade, and We should cherish
/ the interest us one inwoven with our history
and prosperity rs people.-My own State
is more largely interested than any other in
the Union, in the building of wooden ships
and if the specie basis can be firmly MAIN
tained, the United States and Canada will
| furnish the sailing vessels for the world.
Nothing but the initiation of the currency and
the loss of the specie standard will prevent
the steady growth OF that valuable interest.
Beyond all doubt that would prevent its re-
vival and increase. and would ultimately re-
suit in its total destruction in our country
But, il We content ourselves with wooden
sailing vessels we surrender the larger half of
the worlds commerce without a struggle
We must have iron steamships besides, and
with the start that other nations enjoy to-day.
we shall never compete with them unless we
use the same aids and the same instrumen.
talitics that have built their steam fleets
And that aid would give. And to give il
effectively and wisely | would abandon all
idea of granting subsidy to special lines a.
they apply to Congress for aid. That policy.
however, just and meritorious, will always
be rendered abortive by prejudice, by jeal-
ousv, and by scandal, either actual or imput-
ed | would prefer general law that should
ignore individuals and enforce policy. For
instance, enact that every man or company
of men who will build in an American yard.
with American material, by American me-
chanics, a steamship of three thousand tons.