Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-08-17
Communicated. /
OCEAN TRAFFIC.

The VUginidn and NeiCS is very
much exercised because Mr.. Blaine
was forced to come home in what
it terms a British free trade ship"
and claims that the heavy duties
on material entering into ship
building prevents Americans from
building ships to compete. Now
we are quite willing to accept the
VWginidR as an authority on biz
yards, but when it comes to mari.
time affairs 1t is evidently quite
beyond its depth.
Every article entering into ship
building is produced in the United
States and need not ana should
not be imported at all.
First class ships, both sail and
steam, can be bniIt IN the United
States at a cost of about twelve
per cent more than on the Clyde,
and they are that much better, but
The first cost is not the obstacle, il
is the expense of outfit and sailing.
British seamen accept wages and
food that an American sailor would
not leave the dock for. The City
of New York, in which Mr. Blaine
returned, is not a "free trade ship
She Is protected by a heavy govern.
ment subsidy, as is every other
British ship IN regular mail lines.
The Concord Line, the oldest and
most successful in the trans.Atlan-
tic service, was established by
Burns q Mclver in 1910 with two
small side wheel steamers, It was
named the Cunard line in honor of
Sir Samuel Cunard who obtained
for it the government subsidy
which has beer continued to that
and other lines ever since, and to
this protection do these lines owe
their success. Since 1910 the Brit
ish government has paid in subsi-
dies upwards of two hundred and
twenty millions Of dollars, largely
through the POstoilice department,
in cOntradistinctiOn 10 this "A demo
cratic administration tries TO
squeeze a small profit out of its for
eign mail business, regardless OF
speed or convenience. A Demo
cratic Postmaster General under
this administration actually refus-
ed to use an appropriation voted
by Congress and left to his dlscre-
ton. At present the bulk of our
tea impOrtations come to ports on
the Pacific and thence across the
Continent by Pacific railroads.
There is an American line to San
Francisco and a British line to
Vancouver, connecting with the
Canadian Pacific Railroad. The
British line has government sub
sidy of 100000, per annum, the
niggardly policy OF a Democratic
administration refuses to place the
American line in competing posi-
ton and the British secure not only
the Ocean transportation but the
overland freight by the Canadian
Pacific. The catering to British
interests in this and sacrificing
every American interest Is on a
par with the Mills bill and Fisher.
les treaty. Tt's English you know"
American enterprise is not want
ing to establish American ships.
The bitter partizan hatred of a
Democratic administration drove
the leading American steam ship
builder to bankruptcy and prem
ature grave after he had spent a
fortune and almost. a lifetime in
endeavOring TO place American
shipbuilding on solid basis and
had put aioat some OF the finest
specimens OF naval architecture
that the world eyer saw,
The Inman line, to which the
City of New York is the latest and
grandest acquisition, came to grief
few years ago, and was secured
by a firm of American capitalists
who are now its agents and control
it.
The Williams y Guion line,
though built aud sailed under the
British flag, Is owned almost ex-
cluslvely by Americans. The North
German Lloyds, running steamers
from New York, Baltimore and
New Orleans, to Hamburg and
Bremen, though subsidized by the
German government, is still large
ly depend ant upon American sup.
port for Its growth and success.
There is another class OF British
steamers that enter largely into the
problem of ocean traffic. They are
known as Ocean Tramps. \ more
appropriate name would be Ocean
Collins or Ocean MurdereIs. They
are built III the cheapest manner
OF most inferior material, insured
for every dollar that the underwFi-
ters will accept and sent forth to
prey upon the commerce Of all ma
tons with the earnest prayers of
the owners that they will never re-
turn. The rates that these tramps
accept, and they will accept almost
anything, is what a Democratic
administration says, IN elect,
Americans must be content with.
In the old days, before steamships
attained their supremacy, it was a
tradition of the sea that British
ship was a bread beggar, and the
ships of all other nations would
avoid her on the ocean. Garry out
the democratic policy of free trade
and American wOIkmen will be-
come bread beggars and merit the
ooorn nf oil civilization