The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1884-02-21
Free Whisky and Free Ships.

advocated by senator Beck ana Otfer Demo-
cratic statesmen. Prog. Age.
Senator Beck is native of Scotland and rep
resents in the United States Senate the inland
State Of Kentucky. He might naturally be ex-
pected to favor measures which would benefit
the land of his birth, and he is certainly in
fuenced by the Southern sentiment that is ever
ready to strike Il blow at New England, at her
people and her industries. The mission of
Kentucky statesmen just now is to secure free
whisky, and finding New England IA lion in
their path they are foremost in retaliatory
movement which threatens the ship building
and ship owning interests of this section. Then,
as the South now dominates in the Democratic
party-as it did before the rebellion-the north
ern wing of that party must, as heretofore, fol
low where the South leads. Hence we find
Democratic papers like the Prog. Age, although
published in communities of Ship-builders and
sea-farers. advocating IA policy that if carried
out must prove injurious, if not runous, to both
classes, well as to the State and Nation.
The free ship fallacy has been so often and
SO thoroughly exposed that the plea of ignor-
ance, which is no doubt the strongest plea the
Prog. Age could offer, cannot be entertained
Those who advocate free ships are serving two
masters-Southern hatred and British greed.
If any are doing this through ignorance they
cannot inform themselves on the subject too
quickly. Buy your ship in England and put
her under the American flag and il would then
be found impossible, with existing laws, to run
her in competition with foreign vessels. II will
be asked, what then is the object of the free
ship movement: The question is easily ans
wtred. The free ship movement is merely an
opening wedge. That inserted. the next move
Will be to throw open our coastin9 trade to for
eign bottoms. under nominal American owner
snip, but with foreign crews, and when that i.
accomplished, snip building will become il lost
art IN this country and the race of American
sailors will become extinct. With neither ship
yards nor sailors we shall fall into inSignifi-
canoe as a maritime power, and even the small
est of European nations, which are now taking
steps for building up their merchant marine,
will hold us at their mercy on the sea and along
our coasts.
The free ship advocates say thu; England has
secured her present monopoly of the ocean
carrying trade by adopting free ships The
statement is misleading. and untrue. England
did repeal her navigation laws in 1913. because
after having been mistress of the seas for two
hundred Years. she found a dangerous rival
growing up on this side of the Atlantic whom
she was unable to put down by force of arms
or to circumvent by diplomacy. These Were
the days of wooden ships, and as England had
nc timber of her own with which to build
ships, there was some reason why she should
buy them where she could get them cheapest
She made no progress under this free ship
policy, however. One of her great statesmen
said: "A nation that cannot build her own
1 ships cannot long keep her place upon the
ocean. Cease this reckless policy Develop
your iron and coal industries. give emplovmens
to your own people. Try the experiment.
Every ship you get built in America is a tax
upon your resources. The money You send
there develops the country and will in the near
future develop vast industrial policy, giving
employment to its skilled labor. enhancing it,
wealth and Importance. We cannot afford to
send the money to buy ships Necessary to main
tain our position on the sea-" These word,
apply with equal force to the position of this
country to-day.
| England now began to subsidise steam vessels
and from 1913 TO 1874 bought her steam fleet lp
to 304l59 tons at a cost of Fps. 800 O20-a sub
sidy equal to 1913 per ton. This policy has been
continued without intermission, and England
has expended in subsidies up to the present
| time Sl63, G53.356. The result i the present
/ British steam fleet. valued at one thousand
I 1,,i1ti, Il. III.
| from 304.j1J9 tons in 1874 to l120000 tons in
/ 1883. or more steam tonnage than all Tie rest Of
/ the world. The increase Of steam in the last %
| years was 100 per cent. while England~ sail
/ tonnage III the same years decreased over thirty
| per cent Her earnings in the same Wears in
creased from Sl2O.000,000 as an ocean carrier in
| 1894 to S3S0,0O0.0O0 in 1883. OF this Thousand
million dollars worth of vessel property. nine
hundred and ninety millions is composed Of
labor, and the annual earnings of $3.50, 1000, 600
less the dividends. 90 back to labor If this
/ country buys fleet to compete with England
it must send one thousand millions of dollars to
foreign countries, AL save ten millions Of which
will 90 to foreign labor. If it buys Il single
ship the same proportion hold, true, a, the
value of raw materials used in >hipbuildng
taking the timber in the forest and the ore in
the mine is not over 10 per cent The re-
naming 80 per cent. il labor
One of the pioneer steam fines across the At
lantic was the now wen known Cunard line.
1t was subsidized by the British government at
the start and has been subsidized ever Since
An enterpri>ng American built Ships finer than
| the English steamers and undertook to compete
! with them. He did so successfully unii this
| government Withdrew its subsidy and then the
enterprise was necessarily abandoned. That
was the beginning of the end of our prestige on
the ocean. In later years-eaying out of con
sderation the effects of the war upon naviga-
tion-we have not only had to contend with the
subsidized tonnage of England. but with taxa
ton so much heavier as to leave no margin for
profit. even if we We're otherwise on equal
term, with our competitors. Bills now before
Congress will help us somewhat: but we must
III addition at least pay such rates of ocean pos
tage as are paid by other nations. and not AS
now make "a profit out of the foreign mail SER
wee performed by American vessels. 1t will
be more profitable in the end to grant subsidies
which will build up our merchant marine and
IN 50 doing give employment TO our own peo-
pie, than to send money out of the country and
pay it over to English workmen. and it would
be wiser policy than to allow 81 per cent of
our foreign commerce to be carried under for
eign flags, which is the situation TODAY
X. NJ. Pulsfer. of the Boston Herald, has
purchased an interest in the kearsage house at
North Conway.
Mr.. Pulster is one of the very few neW>pa-
per men who has more money than he can well
spend, and he amuses himself buving steam
boats and hotels and building railroads, q.
Wash Chids, of the Philadelphia Ledger,
another of the fortunate ones, has a good time
buying clocks, and James Gordon Bennett, of
the New York Herald, plays polo. We have
very few wealthy editors in Maine. but it is said
that the height of enjoyment with one is to ride
on free pass and of another to find fault with
his contemporaries and the world in general
Now our idea is--but then we are not wealthy.
The New FORK Herald, which has spasmod-
cally advocated free ships in its editorial col
umns while publishing i'll its news columns
most conclusive testimony against the adoption
of such policy, now doubts if free ships and
free material would be followed by any great