The daily gazette., 1881-02-09
Our Decline i'm Commerce.

Our Decline i'm Commerce.
The Philadelphia Telegraph does
not agree with its great party
leader, Mr.. Blaine, on the subject
OF subsidies for ships. 1t takes
open ground IN favor of Mr.. Beck's
argument, ,favoring neither Senator's
position entirely. 1t says:
Mr.. blaine was wrong in ascri-
bing the loss Of our commerce to the
war Of the Rebellion, for the loss
began as early as lS46, and has con
tinued ever since. Since that year.
a ccording to the official report OF
Mr.. Nimmo, Chief of the Bureau of
Statistics, there has oeen an incr ease
OF the tonnage entered at American
seaports of vessels of every nation
allly. except our own. The increase
ot British tonnage entered amounted
TO 1867 ,l73 tOns;of German 90, ,903
tons; of Swedish and Norwegian,
l ,2l4 ,O96 tons; of Italian, 500 ,O07
tons; OF French, 20S ,4l2 tons; of
Spanish, l64, ,683 tons; of Austrian,
2O4,S72 tons; of Belgian, 226, ,277
tons; OF Russian, l04 ,0O9 tons. In
1856 the American tonnage was 2l
per cent. The decrease has been
gradual and steady; it began before
the war Of the Rebellion, and it has
continued steadily since then. Cons
sequently, while that great event
helped 10 decrease it, was not the
cause oil it.
The cause of it must be looked
for elsewhere. Those who build or
who can buy the cheapest ships will
do the carrying trade Of the world,
aud they are not the citizens of the
United States. just SO long as
wooden ships were the fashion the
carrying trade was done by the citi-
zens OF this country for this country,
because wooden ships could be
built cheaper here than elsewhere.
When iron ships, however, became
the fashion, Europe commenced to
do our carrying trade for us; and be-
cause she could build iron ships
cheaper than we could, and because
our citizens were not and are not
/, permitted 10 buy and sail them as
American ships. The navigation
laws, in prohibi ing foreign built
ships Hying the American flag, rem
der the purchase of them prohioi-
tory, because they deprive all such
ships of any and ali protection of
the American flag. They are not
American ships at all, but foreign
ships, though owned, commanded ID
and sailed by Americans exclusively.
Mr.. Beck suggests that the wav to
revive our commerce is to permit
our citizens TO buy ships wherever
they can buy them the cheapest,
and to give to such ships the pro-
lection of American built ships. Mr..
Blaine says it is not the way at all;
that the only way us to give to any
ship built, owned, and two-thirds
manned by Americans, a subsidy
That is to say, Mr.. Blaine demands
that the whole people shall be iii.
: rectly taxed TO the extent of the an.
nual subsidies for the purpose q
inducing certain Of our citizens tc
embark in the business of shin.
building and certain others Of them
to embark as shippers OF goods, ant
OuCcE5 anu SISWb vi SDlpb.
We thiuk that the great body Of tn
American people will rather agree will
NJ, Beck aud Mr.. Garfield on this sub
u ject than with Mr.. Blame. In hi
% speech Of May, 1879, Represents
l. GA 1eld said: "AH the maritime couu
d tries Of Europe are to-day going 70 tn
"a Clyde TO buy their vessels for their ow
n traffic. Tho price Of labor and ma
terials there Is 30 much less that it wi
70 require Dearly 100 per cent. of Govern
10 ment aid TO enable US compete wit
20 them. affirm, therefore, that, for th
D purposes Of our foreign trade, this bi
10 (granting subsidies) is wholly inad,
- Quate, and, for the purposes Of IL
IA coastlng trade, is wholly Unnecessary
He also said that the bill would tai
W not less than $l0,O00,O00 annually o.
Of the treasury to put into the poke
!. Of the domestic sbip-building monop
" ly. We have no doubt that Mr.. Ga
g neld was right then, and that N
ID Blaine Ii wrong now. The question
or not very dificuit one, as Mr.. Be,
Id showed last week, and Mr.. Carrie