The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-03-22
CRAZY FOR SUBSIDIES.
SOME PERTINENT REMARKS ON An
IMPORTANT SUBJECT.

purpose OF revlvlng American shipping
by means of subsidies. The bill proposes
a subsidy to American built vessels of
thirty cents per ton for every thousand
miles sailed. A lobby has been at work
in Washington to show how our declin-
ing merchant marine would be put upon
its feet again by the passage Of this bill.
or course 1t is the men who would get
the money who are pushing for the pas
age Of the measure. Mr.. H. K. Thurber,
president of the Brazil Mail Steamship
company, and Mr.. j. NJ. Lachlan, gen.
eral manager of that line, have been be.
fore the house committee to show how
good a thing it would be for the country
to pay them for doing their own business.
If the bill should he passed q 5000 ton
steamship of Mr.. Thurber's line would
receive about $40, 900 for each round trip
between the ports of New York and Rio
de Janeiro; and q 5000 ton vessel would
receive almost an equal sum for the
round voyage between New York and
Liverpool.
If such a steamship should make only
twelve round voyages to Liverpool in a
year her owners would receive for this
single vessel not less than $11O,000 a
year. This is equivalent to the interest
at 5 per cent on 81, 1900, 900.
Evidently the subsidy men know what
they want.
Mr.. F. B. Crawford, on the other hand,
has written a letter to The Manufacturer
of Philadelphia showing what a burden
to the taxpayers this subsidy scheme
would become. Mr.. Crawford thinks
and very reasonably-that if we under
take to grant subsidies we ought to aim,
at the very least, to make u steam
shipping half as great as that of Great
Britain. If it should have that effect,
then, elf each steamer traversed 80, 900
miles per annum "a low estimate) and re-
ceived 30 cents per ton gross las proposed
by the bounty billy per 1000 miles, the
annual cost would he about S44, 000, 0OO."
With figures like these kept before the
American taxpayer, how long do these
subsidy hunters think they could be able
to keep the taxpayer up to the scratch of
footing their annual bills? Of'course.
with these munificent sums going every
year into the Golfers of the subsidized
ship owners, these men could become
very promising subjects for fiat frying"
and the growing needs of the G. o. P.
would render the creation of a wealthy
class of ship owner most desirable at
this particular time. when there is a
growing tendency among manufacturers
to demand of congress to remove their
shackles by giving them free raw ma
terials.
The argument of the subsidy hunters is
n of the queerest things that American
politics-with its many queer phenomena
has exhibited for many a day.
The example of England!
The men who have been filing the air
for years with ordinations of horror ut
British free trade, and who have dill
gently circulated forged extracts from
English newspapers to brighten American
workingmen, now face about, all of a
sudden, and plead the example of Eng
land!
But what are the facts?
The best Republican authorities are not
agreed.
Mr.. Blaine says: England has never
been affrighted by the word subsidy"
and he makes a ridiculous attempt to
show that England has built up her com
lmercial marine by granting subsidies.
Gen. John c. New, President Harri-
consul general at London, reports
to the United States treasury depart
ment, under date of Sept. 8, 1889, that
British government does not grant
subsidies, in the general sense of that
term, to any steamship company"
The fact is that not more than Q per
cent. of England.s shipping receives
money in any way from the govern
Some III are paid small sums
by the British admiralty on condition
that their ships be built.so as to carry
heavy guns, and that the government
have the option of buying or hiring these
vessels in time of war. The estimated
expenditures for this purpose last year
were only e3s, $50, or about $500, 900.
Then England pays for the carriage of
her mails; but she is often provokingly
careless as to who carries them. For
example, a French company holds the
contract for carrying the British mails
from Alden, in Arabia, to the island
of Mauritius-both Alden and Mauritius
being British possessions.
Would not the subsidy hunters be more
and state their case more eff
fectively if they held fast by their old
argument, which serves them SO we'll in
election times: England does it: there
fore, we must do the opposite"
President Harrison, in his long and
almost pointless message, does at least
manage to get up courage to advise the
granting Of subsidies, under the form of
liberal appropriations, for carrying the
mails. But applying this to the Bra
lillian line, which seems to be the hun
griest and to cry the loudest of all the.
subsidy hunters, who wants to send let
tiers to Brazil by that line in twenty-five
and often thirty days, when, as at pres
ent, those letters can 20 all the way to
England and thus reach Brazil in twenty
three days?
But have we no shipping?
Much more, at least, than the flags on
the seas indicate.
The fast steamers, the great "ocean
plying between New York
and Liverpool, are largely owned by
American stockholders, but they are in
cluded in the royal naval reserves of Eng
land, and in case Of war they would be-
come British cruisers.
There is a firm in Boston which carries
a large trade in fruits with Jamaica,
but it il forced TO sail its vessels under
the British dag. A wealthy capitalist Of
Boston owns . ship which he Is forced to
sail under the flag Of the Hawaiian
Islands.
The moral is plain.