Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-29
WHAT WE MUST DO.

There Is no issue of fact concerning
the diversion of our commerce from Amer
lean transcontinental lines to the Canadian
Pacific Railroad and its subsidized ocean
connections-all the facts were clearly set
forth in the letter of testimony of Mr..
Towne to the Senate Committee, and SO
far as the diversion of the cotton goods
trade is concerned, the testimony of Mr..
Smythe, when the committee was in Bos-
Gen, was positive that cotton goods are
almost wholly going out Of New England
by the foreign route We have not there
fore, to deal with any disputed facts.
What we have to do with is the policy of
the nation. The one single and overshad-
owing question is, "Shall the commerce
of the United States be protected from the
assaults of an alien road, behind which is
Che persistence, the wealth and the COM
mercial shrewdness Of the British Empire?"
There are three parties to a combined eff
fort 10 strip from our transcontinental rail-
ways the carrying trade; these are, the
English home Government, the Dominion
Government and the English possessions
in Australasia. Thel only way to meet
this triumvirate, and thwart its CONNER
cial schemes, is by the setting up of pol
icy of protection, under which the Cana
dian road cannot unfairly compete
FOR American freight, despite the fact
that, because of non-taxation, enor-
NOUS subsidies and governmental
support, it can underbid the American
carrier. If the foreign combination can
control the carrying trade, from that to
control Of industrial forces in the United
States will be short one; from that dom
ination to the political management of the
country will not be a longer one We
have been governing our railroads so much
in this country that we have well nigh
deprived them of the power to resist the
most ordinary assault of a foreign COMPETE
tor. What the United States needs to do
is to take its hands off Of the carrier lines,
leave them free to the operation of the
1mmutable laws Of trade, protect our traffic
from the encroachment and unfair compe-
tition of foreign government-aided lines
refuse to yield what little we retain of the
ocean carrying trade, by meeting English
assault with like weaponry, until that ma
ton finds the contest at least an equal one
and consents to a cessation Of hostilities.
For it must be kept in view that the Bri-
fish Government has not put its shoulder
beneath the new scheme of conquest with
any expectation of present gain, or even
tritiing return of the enormous outlay to
which it has subjected the country to aid
the Canadian road-its scheme looks far
beyond the present or the near future. It's
purpose is to fasten upon and possess the
tranScontinental and trsns-Pacifc trade,
though il may take decade to accomplish
1t; after that it will consider its reward.
The American nation must be Just as far
seeing il il copes with the British Govern
nent. Heretofore we have lived in the
time of the present, and have trusted to
the morrow when it should come, to be
favorable in all its conditions to us. For
the future we must look ahead and lay the
lines of our policy along as great
stretch of the time to come as do our
shrewd and patient cousins over the Allan
tic or across the border