The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-03-11
Our Coasting Trade.
The Burden OF Taxes 1t Bears.
fMr, Frse in the Senate. ]

ne maue ana the colioquy Wplcn IouoWeo We
| present below:
Mr.. Frye-I ask leave to introduce bill,
| and ask the indulgence of the Senate for
| few minutes while call its attention. and es-
pecially the attention OF the Committee on
| Commerce. to the subject matter of the bill.
BY unanimous consent leave was granted to
| introduce bill Is. No. 1902 for the relief OF
! shipping; which was read twice by its title.
| Mr.. Frye.-Mr. President, besides present.
! ing this bill to-day presented one three or
four days ago and had it referred TO the Com
| nittee on Commerce, asking that certain laws
touching the regulation of ships engaged in the
| passenger trade should be made to apply to for
eign vessels sailing from our ports as well as TO
! home vessels; and il is within my knowledge
| that similar bill has been referred to the
| Committee on Commerce heretofore quite
a number Of times, and that nothing has ever
1 been done.
There is no reason on earth why an English
| steamer engaged in carrying our passengers
and they do carry 95 per cent. of them-should
1 not be held to the same laws and the same reg
ulatons with our own steamships OF the Same
| capacity. We are held to comply with every
/ English law. Let vessel from our ports sail
| from Liverpool, and she is compelled to comply
| with the English laws touching the carrying OF
passengers. They will send their board OF
| trade on board of her; they will inspect her;
| they will discharge a surgeon If they please, no
| matter what certificates or diplomas he may
| have, no matter what his capacity is, and they
| will inspect the cabins and the saloons, and or
| der any repairs they please remember the
| American steamship Ohio III coming down the
| Delaware year or two ago struck. She was
| not much njured. She arrived at Liverpool
| The news was conveyed to the board of trade
| that she had struck on her passage ont. They
| inspected that steamship. They ordered her
| hauled up at a cost of $780, They then or
derd portion of her keel removed, and il was
| removed at an expense Of $50, 0,000 and yet that
keel after it was removed was found to be Is
sound as dollar-sounder than our American
dollar, at any rate.
England compelling the ships of all the
| world to do that, why should we not compel
the ships of the world doing our carrying and
passenger trade to comply with our laws, which
| are made for the safety, convenience and COM
| fort of our passengers? Let me illustrate. An
English steamship of 5000 tons is required BY
English law to have eight life-boats. and only
| eight life-boats. Now it is apparent to any
| man who has been on an English ocean-going
| steamer that eight life-boats in trouble will
not save any more than the officers and tho
cabin passengers; the crew and the steerage
| passengers may go to the bottom. Our law,
| which have here in the statute-book, compels
an American steamship of the same tonnage TO
have ten liie-boats and ten life-rafts each life
raft with more carrying capacity orsfioating ca
pacity than life-boat. 1t provides. further,
that those boats and RATS shall all be provis-
ioned, shall be supplied with water, shall be
supplied with nautical instruments, and that
they shall be inspected every three days; that
the provisions and water shall be renewed, aud
| the nautical tu6y are lOSs.
The whole expenses under the law for
| 5000 ton American steamer carrying passe
gers is at least $4,000 for the outfit of lif
boats, life-rafts, housings, and gear, and the
cost annually by wear and loss is at least 30
per cent sof that amount; and the English
steamer sailing from New York with % per
cent. of our passengers, is only compelled to
= take eight life-boats.
L do not complain that our law requires too
much. 1t very likely requires no more than is
sufficient for the safety, comfort and eonyen-
fence of the passengers. What I complain Of
is that our American Congress allows that dis
elimination in favor of foreign ships, whom il
is clearly within our power TO compel them,
carrying our passengers, to comply with our
law.
wish now TO call the attention OF the Senate
to the bill which present to-day relieving our
vessels engaged in the coastwise trade from
certain burdens. The increase of fee required
4 es q coaster Withjazthe sst ..t5seytysyea iPsa
coasters beyond that have increased and the
profits have decreased. Let me illustrate.
Here is coaster of III tons, the Louise A
Boardman; she wants to sail from one Of our
ports to Calais and then across the river
quarter of mile to st. Stephens IN the
Provinces. We have quite q large trade
with the Dominion OF Canada, IN which
our vessels are engaged, as their vessels are en-
sared in sailing from their ports to ours Now.
what is that Louise A. Boardman compelled
under our law TO pay? First, new vessel IL
tons, enrolment andibond, S11O; license, $l2O;
|
clearance-register and bond, S225; certified
list of crew and bond, 65 cents; certified ship
ping papers 20 cents entry. $3.50; blanks, ~
cents-naking Sc more. Thenfor entfy-en-
try, 81 so; hospital money, five men, one
month, 50. A little schooner of 112 tons pay
ing SN year hospital tax, while the English
tax is only cents month and they have A.
good hospitals as we do.
MI Frye-Certainly
MT. Bayard. The fees he is reading, un-
derstand are exaeted under the laws OF the
United States2
Mr.. Frye-Under tie laws Of the United
States Tonnage, 112 tons at so cents ton,
making this little schooner pay S33.6O every
time if she happens 10 60 from Calais across to
St Stephens. That was nothing but war
tax. never imposed before the war, and still
Congress permits it to be kept on these coasting
vessels Further, for permit to land, 20 cents;
nrotections 20 cents; bill of health with report,
AGAIN, charge to enrolment and license: En-
rollment and bond, $1.10; license, Sl.2O; max
ing $780, That American schooner OF liz
tons burden is obliged to pay under our laws
all those immense and burdensome taxes; ana
the attention of Congress has been called to II
again and again, and yet no relief has been Of
, fered
United States for ten years about relieving
American commerce and restoring it to its old
ground / admit it has been nothing but talk.
Nothing has been done, but there is hope that
this Congress will, By paying half as much 70
American steamers for carrying United States
mails across the ocean as we pay to the stagcl
) that carry the mails across the prairies, or tc
: little steamers to carry them down the MissiB
: sippi River; say there is some hope that Con.
gress NAV do something for their relief in that
direction. But that does not touch our coast
saU trade at all, nor does It help our sailing yes
sells. r. r,...sr,., hava =.
now II she oets out papers over in st. stephen
Instead of Calais? She woHld DO compelled te
,,av tyo cants a mosth for hospital tax pei
han p's and two dollars for admeasurement, snd
no other namable tax whatever. Where
schooner made ten or twelve voyages rom oul
ports to Canadian ports in SSeaI Si,9 9ave y.
+ known her under our law to be comfel y
nav one-tenth of her whole value for CnlIse
States taxes.
Mr. Presidenh ask the Senate why a coast
ing vessel shall pay hospital tax OF forty
/ cents q month a man? 1t was formerly only
| twentv cents a month. There is hardly a sail
or Ia be found on an American coasting vesse
who i not an American sailor with home
II he is taken sick or is wounded he goes e
his home; and out OF thousand OF these salt
ors vou will not find ten going TO the hospitals
| when thew are sick. Our vessels engaged IN
, | the foreign service, on the contrary, are
manned almost entirely by foreigners without
. | any homes to go to- and there Is reason fn
| tbsir having the hospital tax; but there is ne
| reaso,, that can be given why little coaster OF
one hundred and twelve tons shall pay S2S .
wear for hospital tax, and there is no reason
Swhy any American sailor should pay fortj
cents a month for hospital tax 1t only goe'
to build up magnificent erectons near youi
| great cities and support hlgh-toned superinten'
S5ants and learned surgeons looking continual
" for higher salaries. That is what becomes
Of the money. I say again they should be re
: lieyed from that tonnage tax There is nc
= nropriety or sense in imposing either upor
them. The owners OF course pay them, anC
the burden falls upon the vessel
WHY do you not tax the railroads? There 1
I: the European and North American Railroad
: the inter-oolonial railroad, making its two voy-
aces every day between Bangor and st. Johns
no Won impose any tax upon that? Not ont
4 q any kind. Do you require any papers
J cen. sper that can be named; and yet tha
n Moe I, les with these very coasters OF our
do;n ue cTmpT with St. Johns and the Domin
G ion IF CsnaJa a., 4 you by law compel them q
l lon VI 0ansua an. t their value annually Il
pay ABOUT ohe-tshtn wages in that time
have letter 1o here from one Of eur aiseo
, States customs collectors, VIII. oivss me ths