Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-05
AN1RRICAN oOmmERCE.

Sh1ps-A New Haven Mans Reasons Why the Free ships BIlI Should Nos | Pass.HOw American Merchant ships l Sailors Made She Blockade of our Southern Coast EHeetuR1.
 [ A great deal has been said of late regard- I ing the admission of foreign built ships free
 for United States register, and as cur port of New Haven has large interest in domestic commerce as well as foreign few words said on the subject by one of our New Haven del eeates from the Chamber of Commerce last l winter while the board was in session may in- | terest many. They are repeated here verba- 1 tim:
 Mr. Chairman-I feel it necessary to speak | against MT. Bakers amendme ent for the reason l that I consider the matter of admitting free ships as direct blow against not only the
 foreign trade of the country, but the eoasting l and river and like trade as well. If we allow I our people to go abroad and buy ships it is the | entering wedge whereby we will allow them
 on the lakes and rivers, to utilize foreign lines of steamers running in opposition to ours, between New Orleans and St. Louis, and be- tween Chicago and Buffalo, and also on Leng ! Island Sound. I shall certainly oppose the amendment. Having spent 25 years at sea, l ip the United States mail steamers and pack et-ships from the port of New York, I have had some little experience. I carried the last batch of the United States mails to EuH rope in the steamship Fulton. then running
 under subsidy. I have had a chance to
 study this thing and look it up thoroughly,
 and consider this attempted purchase of
 foreign ships a blow against not oply our foreign marine, but the coast ing marine of the country. For in-
 stance, suppose foreigners come here and run
 along our cosat; they get knowledge of our
 business; they get knowledge of our rivers
 and harbors; they drive out of the hands of
 naval architects all ship building; one would
 then depend upon them to build ships for us. I These ships are all manned by foreigners, people who are in the interests of the gov ! ernments that go to war with us, and we have nothing to fall back upon to replenish
 our navy, as we had at the commencement of the rebellion. When President Lincoln pro- claimed a blockade of southern ports our government was notified by the European I nations that a paper blockade would not be recognized, that we must
 make it effective. We had only one ship ! that we could send away. What did the \ United States government dos The govern \ ment at once fell back to the merchant I marine, manning and equippiDg block \ ading squadrons that dramatically sealed I our southern ports and prevented foreign | governments from breaking eur blockade. OuT merchant ships were manned by mer- I chant seamen, transported, and armed with ! munitions of war and provisions along our coast; and our friends from the lakes were ! protected by the sailors of the west that went ! and manned the lake steamers and the river | boats and formed the nucleus of navy that | went down the Mississippi and saved that ! river. say let Americans have share in this shipbuilding. Let the money that is | being paid into the hands of foreign mer- chants be paid into our hands and dissribut- | ed in this country.
 i am perfectly astonished at the stand some of our western gentlemen take in re- gard to our commerce. I have bsen assuf- | ferer The last ship that I commanded was | the Ontario, 5,00o tons, built to run between Boston and Liverpool against the Cunsrd ! line. We had everything against US, and they actually starved us out, and we have
 been starved out by the action of our western \ friends that come to salG water and seem to | go against everything that is for the interest ! of the American merchant marine Only \ think of it.
 You cannot send United States minister l abroad without sending him in foreign ! ship. You cannot send a confidential dis patch to a..diplomatic officer abroad without having to get some Englishman or foreigner to carry it. say it is disgraceful.
 | Here is another thing. The marine is & the coast now and look at our sailors. There \ you find representatives of all nations of the ! world. You can hardly find an American \ going to sea to learn the art or science of \ navigation. 1 remember when commenced ! going to sea in 184S it was an honorable pros | fession. There were four boys of us on board \ ship; one was a Livingstone, one was Wool \ sey, one was Goddard of New York, and ! myself. We were all before the mast. Those 1 boys worked up, and it was an honorable profession to learn. But now whom do you | find going to sea as boys? The scallawags | from the different parts of Europe come | over here and starting in as sailors.
 I have been in England every year of my life for the last thirty years except three, and 1 know there are thousands and thousands of N<ll Iusr ok T | London that waiting for chance for a | free ship bill to pass so that they .can be | turned over to the American people, and then their owners will build other ships to run us of.
 It is the easiest thing in the world for ! foreigner who owns ships to send clerk or | somebody here to be a special partner to get | all the business and remit the money gained l in the business here to his partner abroad to spend there and our country net have any benefit whatever from ships.
 1 am opposed to this free ship notion. I \ will here, by way of illustration, show how \ free trade ruined one English house. This \ was the we'll known house of Charles Cur now 6 Co of 19 Change Alley, Corn Hill, London.
 Their interest before the civil war in the United States had been largely American and \ during the palmy days of American com
 merce they held the consignments of larger number of United States merchant ships \ than any other London house.
 Ths destruction of our commerce by Britt
 ish built and equipped privateers, such as the
 Alabama" and others, ruined their business.
 but the house had become rich. MT. | Gurnow died-and the business was carried | on by Mir. Ford, who had for years been the junior partner. The latter, in order to use their surplus, decided to build several steam | CTS (Tramps) and run around the British Is- ! land, and to foreign ports. But the British navigation act which had been passed for I some years previously, did not work so well ! in 1S72 as during our rebellion. Hundreds \ of Norwegian, Swedish, German and Italian ! merchants had filled the routes that Ameri-
 cans had formerly, and with their cheap | money and content with lower dividends I than the English, and their crews who were
 also satisfied with cheaper diet and longer | working hours, they had ruined the English ! domestic and short voyage routes, so far as English tramps are concerned; and the Eng | fish house l speak of sent their ships into ! the Indian ocean and China seas with little profit. It was just after this house had de-
 cided to operate their ships in the eastern | seas that the writer called early one morning \ on MT. Ford, who informed him of the dis
 astrous effect that their navigation law had
 on his own shipping interests. During the ! afternoon of the same day the writer hap pened to meet Mir. Ford again, who had just | returned from the club, and forgetting the mornings conversation he at once threw @ N follow the English example, fffree trade and
 sailors rightsl" Open your American ports | and allow all nations in, as we do. The con | versation was closed by reminder to the gentleman of the morning talk and his in- consistency, which he acknowledged; and will here add that England to-day | is advocating the very thing for | the United States to do in the way of | free trade in ships that she knows has crip- pied her merchant marine and vastly benefit | ted her European neighbors, and if we wish | to note steamships for an illustration we will mention the North German Lloyds, which | call at Southampton, to the damage of Eng | fish freighters, en route for New York. To return to my text: will say the Amer | ican architect has built as fine and as fast | steamers as any in the world. We have fur-
 nished models for England, France and other countries of Europe. Iremember when Cap tain Comstook's Baltic of the Collins line went to Liverpool that on the pier head and docks stood a mob and they called her "a square-nosed bruiser" and shouted at her, I<,,. A