The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-06-16
NOT FLYING ABROAD.

The Stars and Stripes Keep ut Home Be-
cause 1t Doesn't Pay to Compete with
Cheap Foreign Ships, Cheap Captains
and Cheap Crows.
Our flag is not on the sea to any
great extent. Why should it be? Is
that sort of national vanity which is
the mere cockade of patriotism more
important than are our genuine COM
mercial interests?
Because the Democrats in Congress
decline to 20 into the subsidy business
the Tribune INDUCES in the following
loose talk:
The Democrats still persist in playing into
the hands of England and other nations on
this question Of foreign commerce. The
can flag, and the increase at our expense OF
the commerce of other nations has opened
the eyes OF some few Democrats; but the
party Leaders are not yet wiling to admit
The Tribune is so located that ii
ought to know the bottom facts which
it sedulously keeps from its readers
1t ought to know that our merchant
ships were driven from the ocean-not
primarily because we were at war, but
because the business of ocean-carrying
had ceased to pay. 1t ought to know
that the foreign vessels that tie up
within sight of its windows at the
wharves Of Manhattan Island do not
return two per cent. profit to their
owners az an investment. 1t ought to
know that ocean-carrying is about the
least remunerative business in the
world, and that Americans can not af-
ford to engage in it to any great ex-
tent in direct competition with the
cheap ships, cheap captains and cheap
crews of Europe. The captain of an
Amsterdam or Genoese bark gets $500
year, but a man for the same service
in New York costs $1,000 to $1,000.
To make serious effort to rebuild our
merchant marine would be about as
wise as it would be for American capt.
talists to 90 and establish maccaroni
factories in Naples or pulque mills in
Mexico.
To-day it costs less to transport a
can of kerosene from New York to
Marseilles, France, than it does to car
ry it from New York to Philadelphia,
and it costs just about as much to get
a ladies' handbook carried from WILL
ards Hotel across the Potomac to
| Alexandria as it does to send pack
age of the same size from Baltimore to
Calcutta in Hindostan. This is the Sc
rious fact: The reason why American
ships are not on the ocean is because
they do not want to be; because it
does not pay to be-; because they can
not afford to be. If the thronging
paupers of Holland, Spain and Italy
are eager to serve us as oceanic porters,
why not let them do it, while we calm
ly continue to busy ourselves about
something that payse A bank presi-
dent might, on arriving at the depot.
shoulder his own trunk and carry it to
his home; but why should he, when
there are clamorous hundreds who
want the job and can do it cheaper
than he canp
In times of peace we can not afford
to struggle with the hungry stevedores
| of Amsterdam and Liverpool and the
wretched lazzaroni of Italy for the
privilege of carrying the flour barrels
and kerosene cans Of the world, because
there is so much more money in
manufacturing the load; and in times
of war, a large merchant marine is al
ways an element of weakness.
What we want, and want at once, il
a respectable navy, worthy of ou1
wealth and our pretensions. Let puts
SAINT ships-of-war bear our flag where
it is needed, and let the poverty-strick-
on porter-aeets of the world carry any
flag they please.
On this platform the Democratic par
ty can securely stand Washington
Post.