New-York tribune., 1882-03-13

The export part of the trade supplies the
principal part of this great volume OF goods,
the tonnage being about as two OF exports to
one of imports annually. The exports are
bulky, being in general the products OF the
farm, forest and plantation, aud this fact aldS
i'm making the requirements OF the United
States for ocean tonnage enormous. Ihey are
nearly equal to those of England, now the
queen of the seas. They will probably soon
surpass those of England for the export trade
of the United States is not stationary like that
of the mother country; it is growing with I'M
heard-of rapidity The exports OF England IN
1850 were the same rs they were i'll 1871,
whereas those of this rapidly expanding Re
nubic were five times what they were III 1871,
and the general growth of her commerce Is un-
paralccd in the history Of any age or country.
II il amazing, in view of these facts, that
American shipping should lose ground every
wear in the foreign carrying trade. and should
now be reduced to the bcggary fraction of Is
per cent of that profitable business. The facts
of the matter cannot be too seriously consid-
cred by people who have at heart the welfare
and prosperity of this Republic.
The continual decline is certainly not due
TO any decay of the ship-building art IN
America The art has made decided and dis
tinguished progress in this country since 1894.
II is better understood than ever, and we have
the men who can carry its principles into prac-
ticc. The race of men who built the clippers
of 1851 are not all dead, and if they were,
| there would still remain a body of designers,
| builders and worllmen worthy i'll every respect
| to fake their places One of the valuable lega-
cies of the late civil war was large force of
| shipyaid employees of the finest ability whc
| had received in the Government Navy Yards d
| training better even than that which was given
| them under the famous steamboat and clipper
| ship-buildcrs of New York and Boston. They
| are still 10 be found in all localities where
| building is actively carried on and their in
| hnence is seen in general Improvement OF all
the methods of construction in vogue in the
earlier DAYS Some of the new American sail
ing vessels which come to this port to receive
| their first cargoeS have never been eXcelled Ill
| their general combination of beauty, speed ana
carving power. Those which have come from
| Maine within the last few months, notably the
| Arabia, the WhitmOrc and the Lincoln, are the
! finest spccimens of their class now being built
| in any part of the world; and the iron vessels,
| both of the northern lakes and the sea. coast,
rate as well with Lloyds as those built in any
part of the world. There is no decay of the art
of ip-building. America ranks in this re-
spect, as she has for fifty years, among the
| foremost, if not the first. of ship-bulding
nations Why then, the decline OF the carry
| ing trade
The trouble is probably in tho failure OF
| Americans to supply themselves with proper
| amount of steam tonnage. Revival OF ac-
| tivity in the merchant marine can probably
come in no other manner than by enlarging the
production of steam vessels. This is already
the opinion of the New-York Chamber OF
| Commerce. and statistics are not lacking to
maintain the notion. On January % last,
there were employed in the foreign trade OF
the United States 1851 vessels of all KINDS
leaving ont the two or three hundred schooners
running to the West Indies and South America
and few others sailing to and from ports Oh
the st. Lawrence River. These vessels were
divided as follows