St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-24
SUBSIDY TRIUMPHS.
Grave and Reverend Senators Give Way
to the Steamship Job.


The postofflce bill came up and Senator Frye
offered an amendment appropriating
$500, 600 for the transportation of foreign
mails. Senators Bayard aud Beck opposed
this as being general legislation.
Senator Frye said that Beck had always
! been consistent. He had always endeavored
/ to prevent anything being done for Ameri-
can ships. Senator Beck said that Frye's
amendment was subsidy to certain small
/ classmen. 1t was the old Pacific mail sub
sidy; an unjust discrimination giving
| $500, 00O out of the treasury to a few men
now owning few ships. There would be no
time to build any rewships before
THIS SUBSIDY
would expire, as it would expire with the ap
! preparation bill This would enrich q few
/ pets of congress. Whenever Senator Frye
1 brought in bill making raw materials free
and shipping he (Mr Beck would be found
! for it. AS long as we kept a Chinese wall
about our industries we were only crippling
our own merchants by depriving them Of
markets. Senator Frye inquired whether it
was not subsidy for a one-horse stage
running through the back hills of Kentucky
TO get $500 year, more than a dollar year
/ for every letter carried. He supposed it was
/ not "subsidy'' for the rest of the country
| to make up Kentucky's deficiency of half
million dollars a year on her
Mail service, but 1t became a 'suhsidy'
when any one proposed to help American
steamships by paying fair price for carrying
TIE United States mails. The Pacific Mail
company was always brought up as
BUGABoo
whenever proposition Of this sort came up.
Senator Frye was not afraid Of that bugaboo
That company had expended SO, 1000, 600
in American ship yards, among Amer
lean mechanics, instead Of expending
the same amount Of money in the shipyards
| in England or on the Clyde, where the sena-
tor from Kentucky Beck would have it ex
pended: instead of S400, 900 Tor the good of
merchant shipping. If Frye could have his
way he would eXpend $4,000 900 so
that the American flag may be seen in the
! ports of the world, and We could carry
not - per cent. as at present, but so per
cent, as in the past, of our own manufac-
| lures. Senator Beck, replying TO Senator
Frye, said that the object of the postoflice ap-
preparation bill was to provide for the ex-
penscs Of the postofiice, under the existing
Law. Its object was not to change the ex-
isting law. Kentucky paid more into the
federal treasury each year than Maine had
paid altogether in
THE LAST HALF CENTURY.
One state contributes to the treasury in one
form and other states contribute in other
forms. Why had We only Is per cent. of
the carrying trade of our own products!
Because We had a high tariff. Be-
cause Of the Republican party when
we had Democratic administration and low
tariff, we had carried so per cent. of our own
products Protection, subsidy, the Gripping
Of commerce by high taxation had reduced
the United States TO the pitiful position in
which they now were in regard to shipping.
The amendment OF Frye would not help
them. Senator Vest said that there should
he no mistake about the question in nand.
IL was to encourage the building of ships in
the United States. No legislation of con-
gress, however, could build up shipping or
commerce under the present condition of
production in the United States. We might
as well try to chain the winds. The amend
mcnt of Senator Frye was
naked donation Of S4O0, 900 to the Pacific
Mail company. II was a subsidy, and
subsidies don't pay. Railroads, aud mining
and
STOCK JOBBING
aud agriculture paid better than shipping.
Until Americans found it paid better to work
on sea than on land they would continue to
work on land Money provided by the pend
ing amendment might as well be- thrown
into the ocean. On Bayard's points being
brought TO a vote the amendment was held
to be in order, yeas 33, nays 20. senator
Van WycS offered an amendment to Fryes
amendment, providing that no part of the
money should be paid TO any steamship com
pany now established and which had been
paving dividends. Van Wyck, supporting
bis amendment said he sup
posed Frye's provision was meant
for the protection of infant industries. He
therefore saw no reason to pay any Of it to q
strong company like the Pacific Mail com
pauy. That company had paid well. This
money was, after all, for the benefit Of the
KINGS OF OUR PACIFIC RAILROADS
They controlled the Pacific Mail company.
Senator Vac Wyck read from letters OF c. P.
Huntington to show the relations Of the ORR
entail and Occidental Steamship company to
the Pacific mail Senator Van Wvck charac-
terized Huntington as ''that jolly historian Of
American politics. The letters he denomi-
/ mated ''those elegant epis;les addressed TO
his friend C0ltou." senator Van Wyck's
amendment was not agreed TO- Senator
I Frye's amendment was then agreed to, yeas
+ 30, NAYS Is The vote in detail: