Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-29
TIE DEBATE ON FREE SHIPS VERSUS
SUBSIDIES.


Senator Blaine on the condition OF our
mercantile marine has brought once more
into strong light subject which ought
to make every sensible man in the country
ashamed for the folly of our lawmakers.
There has never been, and probably there
never will be, more exaggerated lilustra-
ton of all the worst consequences OF the
protective policy than the existing laws
furnish. We cannot build ships any more
because of the tariff And we cannot buy
ships ready built because of the navigation
laws. To protect ship-building interest
which has no existence, the American
merchant navy has been ruthlessly extln-
guished. To enable the builders OF wooden
SHIPS to retain business which the
nrogress of science has destroyed, and
which is as dead as Julius Caesar, it Is
decreed that no other kind OF ships shall
be built in the United States, And when
the American marine has beer so totally
annihilated that the country has to pay
one hundred and twenty millions year to
foreigners for carrying our trade. Mr.
Blaine and his school gravely recommend
as sovereign remedy for this disastrous
state of things, the substituting of John
Roach or some other owner of steamship
line. There is no statement made by Sen
ator Beck in regard to the decadence of our
mercantile marine which is not unhappily
true. The stars and stripes have almost
literally disappeared from the ocean. The
splendid carrying trade which twenty years
ago promised to wrest the commercial su-
premacy from England, has vanished. The
once famous Yankee clipper has become
mere tradition. The American seaman Is
rapidly becoming extinct. But for the
coasting trade all maritime skill would
soon be lost. And this whole train Of con
sequences has been brought about by laws
which were passed under the pretext OF
protecting American industry Viii MIR.
Blaine or any other Protectionist at least
condescend to point out how the tariff and
navigation laws have helped anybody? Is
it, for example, fact that the ship.build-
ers of Maine are fourishing? Can the
country, which has made such heavy sacri-
fees for their sake, console itself with the
reflection that at least their fortune has
been secured? Surely it ought to be posi-
bic to make such a showing as this, for
what possible excuse can Mr.. Blaine and
his school offer fer the perpetuation OF the
present laws, unless it can be demonstrated
that they have produced good to somebody 2
But, amazing as the fact may seem, no
such exhibit can be made by the Protec-
tionists. The grim truth is that while the
tariff and navigation laws have thrown the
whole carrying trade OF the country into
foreign hands, and have thus diverted
$l20, 600, 900 annually from home employ
ment, no compensation has been gained In
the stimulation OF wooden ship building.
The reason of this is perfectly clear to
anybody but Protectionist. 1t is that
the era of wooden ships has passed, and
that the world has no further demand for
them. The products of the Maine ship
yards cannot compete with the products of
the Clyde, and no protection will make
wood equal to iron for ship,building pur-
poses. So it is that we have been throwing
away our carrying trade and destroying
our mercantile marine in the endeavor to
restore an industry which is as dead as the
Coventry ribbon trade or the weaving Of
Spitalfelds, and from the same causes.
So II is that Mr.. Blaine's proposition to
build up our decayed mercantile marine by
subsidizing John Roach's steamers is as
irrelevant and preposterous as a suggestion
to revive the fashion of wearing chain
armor by paying man to dress that way
and walk the streets.
The assertion that no benefit to any in
dustry has been derived from the existing
tariff and navigation laws is fully
borne out by the latest statistics issued
from the Government bureau. Thus Mr..
Nimmo tells US that a." the tonnage of
. the United States, employed in foreign
IS trade on June 80, 1879, was ,45l, sos
g tons it being steadily on the wane, and
L" having decreased in the last year 49,,
& SAB tons" AS to the ship building, in
the same year, 1913, OBJ tons were built,
showing decrease from the previous year
of 49. SCI tons. Of this tonnage IS per
cent. was of wood, and nearly all Of it was
for the coasting trade, without which the
ship-building interest would long since
have died. During the last five years only
81, S72 tons have been built of iron in the
United States, while in Great Britain in
the same period l,937. 40 tons of iron,
and none of wood, have been built The
United States has one solitary iron sailino
ship. EngIands iron sailing fleet numb -
several hundreds Of large vessels. Evil
IDENTIFY it has been made impossible for
America to build ships for free COMPETE
ton in the worlds markets, and evidently
this state of things has been brought about
by our worse than imbecile laws.
It's, however, doubly aggravating to those
who realize the true reasons of our decline
in the carrying trade to listen to such alb
surdities as Mr. Blaine puts forward in the
guise of remedial propositions. Nothing can
be more clear than that the losses the coun-
try has suffered have been forced upon it
by its own lawmakers. The navigation laws
and the tariff have killed our carrying
trade and built up not that of England
alone, but that of Germany and Holland
as well. Our folly has been the making of
our neighbors, and if the friends of Free
Trade were as narrow minded as their op-
ponents they would certainly have very
misunderstanding case if they limited that
British gold had been and was being
employed to prevent recourse TO more
liheral poliov For 1t Ia unnuestjon ahlv