The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1889-04-12
Our Merhsnt Marine.

Our Merhant Marine.
Chicago Inter Ocean: If the hund.
red and fifty millions of dollars now
paid yearly by Americans to Europeans
for the ocean carriage of American
freights were transferred to the pockets
of American sailors and vessel owners
there would be marvellous increasein
the volume of general trade. The diff
ference between Sl5OOOO,0O0 spent at
home and the amount spent abroad is
of itself almost inconceivable. But 1t
represents only a part of the loss of
American trade consequent upon the
decay of our merchant marine. In
1910 the tonnage of the mercantile
marine of Great Britain was only 304,-
$50. Thus, estimating the cost of
vessel building at $50 per ton, S16,5O0,-
600 has been spent in efecting this in
crease in the British merchant navy,
nine-tenths of which has been paid to
mechanics and workmen. The naval
property of the United Kindom now Is
estimated at s1,0oo,OOoooo of which
barely a tenth represents the cost of
raw material, leaving SoO0,00o,00O for
the wages of labor employed in British
ship building; 100000 Englishmen are
steadily employed in building ships,
and 225, 600 others in sailing them after
they are built.
Such is English progress. Weof the
United States haye no more merchant
tonnage than we had eighty years ago (,
though we now are the greatest ship
pers of goods in the world. We carry
ID per cent. of all our outgoing and in
coming ocean freight. Our shipping
trade with the Spanish American colo
nies was six times as great in 1864 as
it is today. We are making moregoods
for which profitable markets should
be found in Southern and Central
America than is any other nation, and
we are debarred from those markets
by lack of ships; England ships
cheaper than we do, and the difference
on freights is the difference
on profits. Not a single vessel flying
the American flag engaged IN the trans
portation of the surplus of the great
grain crop of 1883 to Europe. In that
year 44,2O5,000 bushels of American
grain crossed the ocean, and not a
bushel of 1T went in an American ship.
nor cent of the cost into American
pockets. English vessels carried more
than one half OF it. Belgian ships
about an eighth, German vessels about
tenth, Italian, Danish and French
ships taking the rest.
1t would be useless to contain of this
state of affairs were no easy remedy at
hand. But the remedy l. at hand, and
it is cheap and easy. Subsidize! That
is what England has done; it is what
Germany, France, and Italy are doing;
is is what every nation whose merchant
navy has increased, or is increasing.
has done and is doing. We pay pal
try s3l, AIS per year for an OCEAN mail
service, which traverses 1,19l, ,3O9 miles
between New Z ork and San Francisco
and the chief harbors of Mexico, the
West Indies, Central and Southern
America, China and Japan. England
grants a far larger subsidy TO one line
of ships on a 5000 mile route. We
have the iron, coal, and wood, the cap.
ltal and the skill to gain great mer-
| chant navy; all that is needed to sup.
plement these ls such liberal appropri.
ations for ocean mail service as is made
by the government Of other countries