Daily Republican., 1885-06-13

WHAT ROACH THINKS ABOUT
FREE SHIPS-THE QUESTION
OF LA AB0R.
WHAT HE HAS TO SAY.

w uA1 he III HC ~ OA1.
| NEW YORK, June 22.-The revival
of the talk about building up q mer.
chant marine for this country, under
Democratic auspices, has led the free
trade organs of New York into renew :
al Of their shouts for free ships. Mr..
John Roach is one of the few men who
has had experience both as q builder Of
| ships and ocean carrier, and the Press
correspondent asked his opinion of the
liter on Thu reday. He said
This talk about free ships il non.
| sense. An evening paper in Philadel-
phia shouts about $160,000 0CO being
paid foreign vessels for carrying Ameri-
can products abroad. would like to
put some pertinent questions to these
theorists. In the first place, do they
know how much 1t costs to carry that
amount Of traffic Well, about $780,
000, 900. If the vessels had been built
by American labor they would have
cost at least 40 per cent. more. Ninety
per cent.of the cost of ship is for labor
We have no need to 60 aboard for the
material used in construction, but IL we
do and also for the labor, who pays the
$3.50, ,O00, 900?
What party would advocate such q
policy Who would dream ofattempt-
ing to carry it out If they knew what
they were talking about when they set
out? Take $4b0, 600, 600 to the other side
and what will the different classes of
mechanics do for living? But II
these free ship men would still insist on
| the right to buy their carrying tools
abroad will give 1t to them. The next
question Is how are they going to run
them in competition with foreign bot
toms?
"There is only one way-to grind the
American sailors wages down to a
| foreign level. Three-quarters of the men
who sail these ocean steamers have
their homes in Liverpool they are paid
Liverpool wages, and I've accordingly.
Would it be policy to drive our laboTers
80 close that they would be unable to
live on this side of the Atlantic, and
| compel them to make their homes In
Liverpool? There their wages would
be spent, and their families be reared
What kind of merchant marine
would one have then If q war should
break out?
| will give you and illustration, )"
continued Mr. Roach, " of the necessity
of reckoning in the cost OF your tools
whom you compete with foreigners. L
had bright American fellow working
for me some years ago. He saw how
another man WAS making money ont of
the express business, and he got full of
the idea of running an express himself.
l saw that he was no good to his family
| while the hobby lasted, and offered to
keep him on condition that he would
live as cheap as he could during the
twelve months trial and employ two
Americans to drive the two teams he
was to start with. He first found that
he could not purchase his horses as
Il a IN I,,-4 T
evened things by making up the
difference myself. Then in order to let
him start on an equal footing with his
rival as far as material was concerned.
l sold him oats at the same p rice as the
other u an got his.
He went to work, but he soon
] found hat there were 312 work ing days
In the ear and that he was paying his
| American drivers about 40 per cent.
more than his competitor was paying
| the foreign drivers and workmen that
he employed. In less than three months
time he came back to his old work here.
He couldn't stand living on o foreign
age.earnipg basis. 1 told the story to
the Chamber OF Commerce not long ago,
just to show them that it was not al
together the difference in the cost of
making ships, but the difference in the
wages to be paid for running them.
aAdt haAoS tuo thik ABOUT Tree bn1D6 aD-
surd.
Now, there has been a great deal
of talk concerning the development of
trade between this country and South
America. There are people who say
that the South American markets
should be opened up for our surplus
products. They should RENE mber,
however, that the warehouses of Eng
land are loaded down, the mar kets
glutted with English products, and
that Liverpool is not any further
away from South America than New
York is.
"Now as to the oost of getting the stuff
there. / run q line of steam ers to Rio
myself. Every one of my ships that
sails out of this port needs 1900 tons of
coal and fifty-six men for the voyage,
and costs ME from 40 to 60 per cent.
more to run than if SHOULD start them
from Liverpool. 1 know what 1 am
talking about, because 1 have figured
the cost from each port. Who is going
to make up the difference betw cen the
American coal bill and the American
wages bill, or shall we reduce both
to a common level with the rates paid
abroad?"