The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-11-17
Other Beauties OF the High Tariff sys
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The Journal of Commerce, it will be per-
ceived, in the same breath declares the pro.
tective tariff essential to the prosperity of
the country, and then demonstrates that
protection has shut up our ship-yards, limit.
ed our foreign trade and given foreign yes.
sci owners the freightiDg of nearly all our
exports (grain chiefly to foreign countries
Every protectionist knows, really, what is
the matter with our shipping; but he will
never admit that protection has had any
thing 10 do with the decay He clamors
for subsidies, and says the more the people
are taxed to pay these specia. bountes to
shipowners, the greater will be the forei On
trade and the greater the activity of Ameri-
can shipping. That process will neither
build up American shipping nor increase
our foreign trade Look at our navigation
laws designed to 'protect American shipping
interests" They provide that no American
ship can sail the seas under the Amer can
flag unless she is owned by citizens of the
U Ited States that sll her officers must be
Americans that no American snip CAP be
registered in this country if foreigner has
any minute interest ia her--the ownership
of asingle spar, or bolt or rope, for instance;
that every American ship, which has any
repairing done to her hull or rigging in
foreign port, shall pay fifty per ce2t. of the
cost of such repairs into the United States
treasury that if an American vessel is s Id
to foreigner, she can mover again be entered
under the American flag; that if natural.
lied citizen who owns vessel Of American
registry, or is interested in one, resides two
years out OF this country, no fOrfeits his in.
teres. or right TO such An interest in the vessel
that no vessel purchased abroad by Ameri.
cans can be registered under the American
flag or receive the protection of the United
States government. Such are thu shipping
laws They say to Americans: "You must
not buy ships where you can buy them
cheapest; GU must buy them of the two or
three American ship builders who are pro.
tecsed from all foreign competition, and are
given, by fiat legislation, the monopoly of
the business in this country" Now "a
Am rican ship builders can not build and
toll vessels Ms eheaply rs they can be bought
IN Europe, they can not compete with Eng
land, and their business is confined to the
coasting trade chiefly. Subsidies will not
make ship-buildlng lively uni IS there is a
demand for American ships, and American
ships will not be in demand until we have
the foreign trade to give them bus IS. The
for ign nations give subsidies to only few
lines, and the greater part of the steamship
service of the world is entirely without sub
sldy, the government paying them reason.
able compensation for uul eorvice, or sea
postage, MS it is called Not one OF the two
hundred steamships owned in Europe and
running between the United States and
Europe, receives anything but sea postage
or m de service, except French inc, from
Hayre to New York, which receive, ~ so
pr mile The Pacific mni cpmpnny WAS
euOHdHed bv c0ogrUss ID gtt Chinese and
Japanese trade, and Il result II blpu that
we paid in eleven years SIS 100000 out Of the
treasury OF the company, bought $4,000,
600 worth Of goods from China and sold the
Chinese during the eleven years about Sc
10000 worth of goods. During the same
period We bought of Japan $4,000 100
worth of goods and sold japan $1,000 600
"NiEh' W. bHN llVlN YUAN We suit Inc
balance Is always against us. The pro.ec.
tive tariff is ~ inst the American merchants
and manufacturers who want to extend their
trade abroad. People of all countries buy
goods whore they can buy cheapest and
where peopl they buy OF are wiling TO
trade with them, so AS to receive mutual adj
vlntage'. The people of the world, too,
when they want ships, always go where they
can get them built cheapest, and for that
reason ev the Chinese are getting their
irVnc ads Juilt in England. Why do people
in Europe and Asia get so many ships built
on the Clyde? Simply because they can get
them built cheaper there. Our ship builders
growl but that "blessed" system of protec-
ton obstructs them in the shipbuildins way
as 1t also obrlructs the manufacturers and
merchants in the acquisition of sufficient for
elgn markets. Owing to the pernicious prin-
ciplo of protection, American farmers, last
year, had to pay one shell of grain out of
every three they exported as their tribute to
those relf-denying men, the protected.
When we find protection organs themselves
complaining about the stagnation of the
American ship building business, it is time
for people generally to open their eyes to the
enormous swindle embodied in the protection
| ystem.