The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-08-03

ing and rebuilding to be done would give more
work for our shipbuilders than they could at
present undertake, and would soon place our
ship-owners on an equality with others, so far
as invested capital was concerned. Shipbuild-
ing material in this country is in abundance,
and through the convenience of our ore and coal
fields and by our ingenuity in labor-saving ma
chines 1t Is not at all improbable for us to com
pete with England. We can foster and build
up class OF private ship.yards and almost self
sustaining sea-going steamers with but a small
traction OF the expense necessary to maintain a
grand naval establishment by continuing the
awards to private firms for the construction of
our men-of-war and encourage the building of
vessels suitable for conversion into war ships
These yards, with the establishment of plants of
sufficient capacity for building war vessels in
case OF necessity with their skilled workmen,
are as beneficial in defense as forts scattered
along the seaboard BY the establishment of
bureau of commerce in the proper executive
branch OF the Government the Navy Depart
ment, would tend greatly to the successful con-
troll OF our commerce, as at present the merchant
marine has no special representative, as in
England, in the highest councils of the nation,
but the various interests drawing on the subject
are scattered through the different Departments,
ana is LETT without that fostering care it so much
needs. No one seems to take a sufficient inter-
est 10 propose legislation necessary to its welfare
or care OF Its seamen, and from the beginning
OF the war up to the present time Congress has
not passed single act for the relief of our over
burdened merchant marine but during that
same period more than q hundred laws have
been enacted in aid of internal transportation
In fact, from the earliest periods of our history
the merchant marine has never received the at
tention bestowed upon other great national in
dustries. We have no political machinery for
concentrating the power of Government on this
vast interest. The Government should make
some proviso in regard to the difference in
wages paid for seamen to that paid in foreign
vessels, to enable our merchants to compete
with foreign shp-owners. This could be ac-
compished by governmental supply of GER
tain number of men as a naval reserve to each
and all vessels suitable for conversion for naval
use in times of necessity, and allow liberal
allowance for carrying the mails. In this way
the Government won't receive in full return
for the moneys paid out, as every naval war has
shown the advantage of having large number
OF merchant seamen from which to recruit the
regular service, and the value of men-of-war
improyised from the commercial marine has
been demonstrated more than once in our own
history. Legislative action is slow and uncer-
tain upon this subject, and public opinion does
not seem to have awakened to n full reality of
the decline of our merchant marine but if the
above should be followed out it is only
question of short time when the American flag
would again float upon the high seas carried by
American vessels loaded with rich cargoes,
oticered and manned by Americans, and making
the quickest, safest, and cheapest delivery.