The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-05
THE NAUTICAL TRIBUNE.

The Tribune will not take our advice and
contine itself to its local knowledge of salt
water, but it wades out again upon the
broad Atlantic and stumbles upon rock at
every step. Its main weapon of attack is
its usual one of Justification of it's oppo
nent's position. The question was not of
the English practice Of subsidy. Had it
been, we should have disposed of that by
the well authenticated fact that not . per
cent Of their whole steam feet is subsi
died or receives payment in any shape
from the government. 1t related solely to
the Inman line, and that line is not subsi-
died. Notwithstanding the reiterated asser-
ton of the Tribune, and it does pay, as all
British and foreign steamers pay alike, the
regular port charges. The port charges in
New York and in every state OF the union
are the same on foreign as on American YES
sells. In England no ships are taxed as
personal property. The only tax is upon
their income. The states of Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New York and Pennsylvania
are more liberal even than England. Their
shipping is exempt from taxation alto
gether. Mr.. Cox never made any declare
ton of the kind attributed to him. Nobody
but fool would have made it, and he
was not a fool. His speeches in
Congress are on record, of his
advocacy of free ships as the only policy
for restoring our carrying trade. He was
fiercely opposed to bounties and subsidies
As to the relative cost of ships, we have i,
on the authority of Mr.. GEORGE GOULD
late president of the Pacific Mail S teamshiI
company, that he built the new steamship
China, the fastest and the best of the fleet
| at Glasgow, because she cost 30 per cent,
less than the price demanded by the Della
ware shipbuilders, and this he did with the
knowledge that in case Congress pays {
subsidy to the company, that ship would
not participate in it because she is foreign
built and carries foreign flag. Mr.
GOULD is certainly not an idiot or ;
s'lunatic." Neither is Mr.. Representatiy,
DINGLEY, one of the chief promoters o
subsidy, who states that from the specifica
tions he has sent and obtained from abroad
this is about the difference of cost, and h,
urges it in furtherance of his scheme.
The mariner of the Great Salt Lake ha
a contemptuous idea of the skill and energ,
of the American sailors upon the ocean
$50 long as it remains fact that if al
American could be presented with line o
half dozen first-class modern steamships
he could not put them in any trade in tn
/ world and make expenses, it is little bette
than the gibbering of an idiot for any fire
trade lunatic to say if Americans could onl
+lo;, no oh mo yo1
they would soon restore our flag to tn
ocean,"
The fact does not remain because
never existed. All experience has demon
strated the exact contrary. In the days c
wooden sailing ships costing alike to bot
countries. our carrying trade without an
government aid was as prosperous as tn
English, and their prosperity waned whe
in 1S49 we had built better and cheape
ships than they did. 1t was restored
them when they repealed their restrictiv
laws and allowed their people to buy GU
ships. Then when they commenced t
build better and cheaper iron ships, the
was their prosperity returned, and our
diminished simply because he neglected I
:, follow their example under similar circun
stances This assertion of the Tribute, wei
it notso supremely ridiculous, would be a
insult to the manhood of the America
sailor.
1t cannot be sustained even by the soil
argument of s'idiot and lunatic' vituper
ton.
But it is useless further to discuss tn
subject with journal that ,endeavors
, conceal its ignorance of it by its unblus
. ing effrontery and total disregard for trut