The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-12-25
OUR SKIPPING DECLINE.

1t is mentioned by Washington CORES
pondent as among the incidents in the usua
Saturday matinee" IN the house week ago
that "Conger reared for half an hour agains
fee ships and the democratic party" Their
is nothing makes stalwart politician 81
quickly froth at the mouth as to taunt his par
ty with the disgraceful decline Of American
shipping. 1t is aggravating and maddenina
because the fact Is palpable and undeniabl'
and no rational excuse can be given for it-ir
other words, because in its best aspect 1t IL
nothing but clear case OF partisan idiocy.
The case grows worse and worse on every
new presentation of figures on the subject
\ From 1850 to 1860 we butt on an average
233 ships per annum; from 1860 to 1870, aside
| from war vessels, we built about 1873 per an
nun; but from 1870 to 1880 the average run
down to 80 per annum and for the last year
the number was but %! 1t is not out Of place
to mention that the first decade referred to
was during democratic administration, while
the two latter were under republican admins
tratOn.
Again in 1851, when our foreign exports
amounted to but 1898 100000, $4,000 900
worth of it was carried in American, and
$11S,000000 in foreign vessels; IN 1872 when
our exports reached II, 149, 100 tons, American
ships carried but 100000 of tons and foreign
vessels 100000,
Again, IN 1870 the English and American
tonnage in China waters aggregated about B.
000,00 tons each, while in 1850 the English
tonnage aggregates 100000 tons and the
American tonnage has fallen to 100000 tons
The report of the register of the treasury shows
that there has been a decrease in our tonnage
of 10l 500 tons in the last year. and that we
have built 80, $50 tons less In the last year than
we built the year before. At this rate, in a
few years, American shipping will be swept
from the ocean
Now what is the excuse for all this? If our
shipping had been fostered as the rest of our
industries have been during the past twenty
years, our merchant marine would now be the
largest in the world. Ship building in this
country would be one of our most pros
porous industries, employing tens of thous-
ands of well paid mechanics; tens Of thous-
ands more Of our population would be profita-
bly, employed as sailors on the ocean and our
vessel owners would be earning a hundred
millions annually that are now paid to for.
egners.
The excuse why this must not be so is, that
iron enters largely into ship building, and toI
compete with foreign builders we must have
cheap iron, and to have cheap iron we must
remove the tariff from that article which
would greatly injure the Pennsylvania iron
masters So that hundreds of millions must
be lost by our ship builders, ship owners and
sailors and traders on the ocean, that few
tens of millions may be made by the Pennsyl
vania iron lords.
But that is not the worst aspect of it. Sup
pose 1t IS true that 1t Is of more Importance to
make dear iron than to build cheap SHIPS in
this country, why not let our merchants and
shippers go abroad and buy ships' First, the
republican policy is to make the material so
expensive that we can't afford to build ships
at home; and secondly, 1t forbids our mer
chants and traders to buy ships abroad. As
we can't use the iron here and ship building
therefore makes no market for iron at home
what hurt can It do our iron industry to let
our merchants buy ships abroad? We have
never seen in stalwart newspaper, or stall
wart congressional speech, or in the speech of
anv nd alta of tha p,raticol ,rnfact;va r,H
system, rational answer to that question.
The only stalwart remedy we ever heard of
for the decline of our shipping is SUBSIDIES
subsidies! In other words, tax 900 that one
In thousand may make money! But the
only class of vessels proposed to be subsidized
are steam ships, and to subsldize these without
making like provision for our merchant sail
ing vessels would only be to destroy the LAT
ter! Would there be any sense in that
There is but one sensible remedy, and that is
to adopt the policy of England, remove every
obstacle to the success OF our shipping. In
stead OF that in this country the wit Of our
law makers has been employed in devising
methods for loading down and embarrassing
the one great interest to which the United
States owed all It's early commercial progress
and prosperity. Were this country as keenly
Interested in her merchant marine as England
is, che would IN less than ten years rank first
among the maritime powers of the world.
An important, long protracted and expen.
sive litigation, involving the patent right for
manufacturing harbed wire FIR fnnc,nv was