Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-08-17

tends west from the northern part of Lake
Huron to the Pacific coast, can ever com
pete with any American line except That
it completes at a loss and goes to ruin or is
aided nv its government, as 1t Is. There
are seven months in the year when, at
whatever risk, the actual cost of trans
PORTING a million chests OF tea or mi
ion boxes of silk from the eastern coast
of Asia to the eastern coast OF the ATTAIN
tic whether it he Halifax, or Portland, or
Boston, or Baltimore, or SaVann n, Will
not be one-haf by way of American lines
that it is by the other and when you add
to that as a growing concern OF TACT That
your American lines are, every one of
them, capable of doing and are dong an
immense local business, that prosperous,
industrious population furnishing the ma
terial and means of railroad employment
has been built up along them and is build
ing up every day, any American citizen
who flushes himself in this presidential
campaign into great fever on the sub
ject of competition as against American
interests of these Canadian lines for A STA.
tic business is falling into an immense
delusion.
1t is true that so long as the money can
he found to run at loss and to carry goods
at half what 1t costs to do 1t, and with no
local business ever capable of being built
up to help it, just so long, like the cutting
of rates between the great trunk lines in
our country when they carry for half cost,
they will get the patronage of everybody
who has anything to send and to whom it
is convenient to send that way. That is
human nature: but somebody has got to
foot the BILL and those who foot the bill
will stand the loss, and so long as the
British government or the Canadian gov
eminent think that for their great politi-
cal interest it is desirable to build up these
lines and pay for them, so be it that Is
their affair we can not help it bU it
must be said, as the senator has intimated
in very small degree, that the contrast
between government encouragement and
assistance of the enterprise and the com
merce aud the trade and the manufactures
of Great Britain and her colonies to that
of the United States is very great.
As he says, they subsdize railways, they
sub>idize steamships they establish colo
MES they establish confidence, and they
promote trade They resent and get repair
alton for wrong to their subjects instantly
The government of the United States, rs
at present constituted, does not do So The
senate of the United States has year after
year endeavored in some small degree, not
halt what 1t ought to have done, to pro
mote American interests by the Ncara-
qua canal which will command the trade
of the globe, railroad or no railroad IL
has endeavored to stimulate South Ameri-
can and other commerce by the smallest
of mail subsidies to steamships, and the
democratic House of Representatives
says no and the democratic senators in
the mass say no.
There are some honorable and patri-
otto exceptions. do not mean to impute
Il want OF patriotism to those who voted
the other way they voted according to
what they think. The democratic presl-
dent says no, and he takes out OF the
hands OF the Senate-lt is a public fact
can state-the treaty which was to give us
the Nicaragua canal and allow us to be
the masters of the world. And yet the
senator from Maryland stands up here
and says we are partlsans on this side and
they are patriots all on the other. II |
were to quote somebody, | should say
Shame, where is thy blush?
This is the undeniabe history, not half
stated now, because ! do not intend to
take the time to state it. That is where
we have stood rs part es and when we
come to q later event, referring to the
treaties affecting Canadian and American
Affairs, the senator has intimated that the !
DIVISIONS of the Senate as they appear i'll !
he debate-we have had no vote yet on |
lhe fisheries business-are partisans on |
his side, not on that. And yet it Is not Is |
months ago-too long, | suppose, for any |
body on the other side to remember it
nat TINS Senate unanimously, taking in |
he patriots with the partisans over here |
IN the yeas and nay-, stood up for Ameri- |
IAN rights and directed the presir ent what |
he ought to do, and gave him the power |
20 do it, But IS months afterwards, now, |
he British lion has opened its mouth, rs |
he irish phrase is, and as the senators on |
The other side appear to hope, Is to swal |
ow us all by making new treaty which |
S still better for British interests than
any we have had before 4; and yet it i we
who are alleged to be partisans, although |
we stand on the same ground that we did |
only IS months ago, and it is they who |
have reversed their position. That is
enough, | think, for the present HIS to the |
matter.
Let us see Il little further how this mat
ter stards. The senator says that the act
Of 1866, passed by a republican Congress,
As it was, and voted for, as | believe, by
what few democrats there were in it in
both branches, there having been no party
has been injurious to American
rights in respect of allowing the Cana
dams 10 cross the Niagara river, and so on.
My belief is-but | speak under reserve,
for | have not examined the matter, and
have forgotten about it in detail-my be
lief is that until the present democratic
came in the construction
put upon the act of 1866 was quite more
favorable to American interests and less
favorable to British Interests than that
which the late Mr.. Manning acted upon
under the advice of democratic law Off
Ger OF the government, probably one OF
the ClNll-StrNlCt reform democrats, tne
question TO whom being under the civil
service democratic commission would be
whom ne last voted for, how much he con-
trlbuted, and how many votes he was able
to- WAS about to use very lmpolite eX-
pression-l will say to obtain for his can
didate.
That is where We stand on the act of
1866, in my humble opinion, with great
respect to everybody else. The construc-
ton that Mr.. Mannng's democratic law
officer has put upon that act Is incorrect.
But, as usual, where there is doubt upon
a statute under this admin stratIou that
doubt is always solved III favor OF the for
eiguer, not because the administration
loves the foreigner, but on account Of the
generosity of It's disposition, its love of
human mercy and human nature, it al
ways makes the point against its own peo-
Pile ana gives the benefit of the doubt To
others. Well, when free trade comes in,
as the world is all one family and we have
no questions Of home concern AT all, of
cOuise that will be a most useful and
Christian and capital idea to act upon
but IN the present condition of the world,
when it is supposed that government has
something to do peculiarly attached to
the interests OF the people that it is created
to govern, it is going "A little too far, TO
speak with great modesty on that subject,
-. & a IL s.IN