Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1882-05-09
building their own ships at least for ocean

tinue to build the vessels necessary for
the coasting, lake and river trade. But
after We grant to one class Of merchants
the right TO purchase and give an Amer
lean register to foreign-built ships, it will
not be long before the merchants engaged
in the coasting, lake and river trade will
demand the same privilege. 1t is doubt
full, indeed, whether, as question Of
law, a foreign-built ship purchased by an
American and given an American regis
ter, can be excluded from participation
in the coastwise, as well as the deep sea
commerce of the nation. In my judg-
ment whenever our free trade friends car
ry their point in the direction suggested,
the death-knell of the American ship
building industries is sounded.
We'll" say some Of our free trade
doctrinaires, " What of it: :" flour cap
ital can be proftsbly employed in other
directions, is it not better that other ma
tons should build our ships -
Mr.. Chairman, WHEN | am asked,
"what of it: :" in the event that our ship
building interests are ruined, reply that
the injurious results will be so far reach
ing that shrink from contemplating
them.
There will not be simply the destruc-
ton of one of the most bCnefcent Of our
great industries an industry employing,
or that properly encouraged would en-
ploy hundreds of thousands Of skilled
workmen, who will be crowded into other
industries where they are not needed.
Our free ship friends will also find that
BY the destruction Of our sbip-yards they
will have made i, impossible to retain the
control of the commerce which they seek,
and at the same time will have struck
serious blow at our commercial, il no, po-
li,ical independence.
l only repeat the teachings Of history
when say that no people ever became
great commercial nation that did not
build their own ships. The Egyptians,
the Ponicians, the Greeks, the Italians,
the Spaniards and the Dutch held in turn
the empire Of the sea; but each only as
long as they could build their own YES
sells. When our carrying trade was
thrown open to the world by the civil
war. England, France and Germany all
wanted it. But the former secured it,
simply because she could build ker own
ships. Experience has shown that the
nation which does not build her own
ships, will not have the ability to buy
them after the door is opened. The ma
ton which confesses its inability to de-
wise any policy by which it may build its
own ships, and deliberately sends its peo-
pie into the market to buy OF its neigh
bors, surrenders her independence, and
in war, places herself a, the mercy of
those nations which control the ocean
The free ship theory has been so per
sisten,y pushed in and out Of Congress
for the last fifteen years, that it not only
stood in the way Of the adoption OF som
truly American policy that recognizes the
vital importance Of preserving and devel-
oping our ship building interests as the
essential basis Of commercial property
but has also aniagonized notifications Of
navigation laws, framed years ago for an
altogether ditferen; condition Of things,
in directions that are necessary TO mai e
i, possible TO successfully run American
ships in competition with foreign vessels,
after they are built.
The free ship remedy entirely overlooks
the fact that the American carrying trade
suffers less from the alleged excessive frs,
cost Of American vessels, than i, does
from the larger expense Of running them
after they are laurched. have already
stated that a frst-class oak sailing vessel
can be built as cheaply on the coast OF
Maine as anywhere in the world. Dur
iug the last year / | l of the finest wooden
sailing vessels ever launched, with a ton
mage of 5000 tons, were built on the
Maine Coast-55 of them in the Collec.
ton District of Bath, in the district which
| represent. II these ships could be run
as cheAply after they are built, as the
ships of other nations, our ship builders
would have their orders doubled and
quadrupled within few years. For in
spite of the furore for iron ships, / am
confident that frst-class oak sailing ves-
sells are to retain, thei. PIE. eminence
where freight is bulky, and special dis
patch is not essential. The large num-
Der of iron sailing vessels that have foun-
dered and become total loss the past
year, has already caused reaction, and
there is again an inquiry for the frst-class
oak ships which are built on the Maine
Coast. Even last year two-ffths of the