The morning call., 1891-02-27
TIE sHPPING ELL.

The fate of the Shipping Bill will be de-
cided tonight. The shape in which the
bill comes before the House is not free
from objection. 1t provides that the United
States shall pay bounty OF 10 cents per
gross register ton for the first 1000 miles
sailed outward or inward by any American
steamer or sailing ship with a speed not eX-
ceeding eleven knots, and 20 cents per ton
Tor each gross register ton sailed after the
first 1000 miles. Where the speed of the
vessel exceeds eleven knots cent per gross
register ton is to he added for each knot
over eleven. The act is to remain in force
for ten years. Ali vessels with a speed of
twelve knots or over must be so built tina.
they can be converted into transports or
auxiliary cruisers in time of war, and the
crews Of all vessels claiming the bounty
must, for the next two years, be one-sixth
American, for the following three wears
oue-third, and after that one-half American
. Provision is made for the establishment of
a:syStem OF apprentices
With some Of the features of the bill fault
may be found. Vessels which cannot steam
an,aVerage Of over eleven knots are hardly
entitled at the present day to Government
aid. a minimum rate of speed of, say four
teen knots, would have baen in better keep
us VAN TIC COLlIillOu VI naval
architecture. 1t might have been prudent
to provide that the erovisfonu If the hin
should not constitute ten years contract
with ship-builders. If, five years hence,
the average rate of speed of mercantile sea-
going steamers should be fifteen knots. the
GHited States would be in ridiculous po-
sltion If they were obliged to go on paying a
Bounty to vessels which could only steam
eleven. But, despite these defects, which
may be corrected hereafter, it is a direct step
:. toward the restoration of the American
merchant navy to the position of supremacy
which it once occupied.
-" The measure is opposed by Mr. Clunie of
this State and by Southern members gener-
ally With regard to the former, it is enough
to say in the words of the merry play that
is now deiighting crowds at the California,
= his acts do show his days are nearly done"
The position of Southern gentlemen is sin
gularly inconsistent and thoughtless If the
Slipping Bill should become a law it would
not be many years before American vessels
would be steaming to all the countries of
any importance in the world, and instead of
selling, as the South does now, nearly all of
its cotton as fiber, it would sell it as fabric,
and the difference would be some $500, 0OO,-
coo. The Southern people would have ac-
quired fine industry, which they need so
badly, hundreds of thousands of them would
be steadily employed building mills, operat-
ing them, mining coal to run them, and out
of this initial movement, and connected
in one way or another with the conversion
OF fiber into fabric, employments would
arise which are now unknown.
1t is extraordinary that Southern mem
bers should oppose this contamination on
the ground that political dogma would be
violated If steamships were subsidized.
They are acting like the dying man who re-
fused to be cured by medicine which was
not recognized by the school to which he
belonged, or the drowning man who refused
to seize life-preserver because it is rule
IN the art of swimming that the apprentice
to the art should not rely on such adven-
titiOus aids.