Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-02-09

protection of American shipping by the
imposition of q discriminating duty in
favor of teas brought in American YES
sells, thereby signalling the first Fourth
4 of July under the constitution by a dec
laration of commercial independence as
a supplement- to the declaration of polit-
ical independence made thirteen years
before.
The third act Of congress, passed six
teen days later, imposed tonnage duties
as follows:
Cents
American vessels, per ton ............. O6
| American built vessels belonging to for
eignerS, per ton 30
| All other vessels, per ton ...............-. 80
On the 1st of September the same
year congress prohibited any but Amer
lean vessels from carrying the American
flag. By the tariff act Of 1894 an addi-
tional discriminating duty of 10 per cent.
was levied on all goods imported in YES
sells not of the United States, and in all
changes of the tariff prior to the war of
1912 this discriminating duty of 10 per
cent. WIS ve-enacted. So great was the
| development Of our shipbuilding and
shipping interests under the fostering in
huence Of these acts that we sold ships
amounting to hundreds of thousands of
! tons to foreigners, and soon took front
rank among maritime nations.
Voicing the national pride in 1925
| Daniel Webster said: I'VE have COM
merce which leaves no sea unexplored;
navies which take no law from superior
force" How like bitter irony these
words would sound in 1891! The brill
! fancy of our achievements on the ocean
| oOnGHnnan on1 1ictnToiJoc 70
the siren voice of free trade we gradually
| yielded to the seductive phrase ''recip-
| rocal liberty of commerce., which at
| that time became very popular, until in
| 1928 congress swept away all protection
to our foreign shipping interest, and
opened our ports to the ships of all ma
tions on the same terms as to our own.
| So strong had our position become un-
der the protective policy of the first
| twenty-five years of national life that
our merchant marine continued to be
prosperous SO long as wooden vessels
were the only vehicles of ocean COM
merce and other nations refrained from
heavy subsidies to their ships.
But when wooden vessels began to be
supplanted by iron steamers and Euro
pean governments poured their contri-
| buttons into the treasures of their steam
| ship companies, the decadence of Amer
lean shipping began, and has continued
ever since. How could it be otherwise:
The American people ask no odds against
any in the world Give them an even
chance and they will distance all COM
petitors, but how can they be expected
to compete unaided, against foreign ship
yards and shipowners, backed by the
power and the treasures of their gov
ernments? The amount which has been
thus contributed to sweep our commerce
from the seas cannot be accurately stated,
but it is known to have reached lun-
dreds of millions Of dollars.
The mischief and its cause are both
apparent. What is the remedy? 1t can
not be found in the re-enactment of the
legislation Of 1889, because treaties stand
in the way, and it would not now be ex-
redient even if there were no treaties on
the subject. In my judgment the remedy
is plain and easily applied. If we would
regain cur lost prestige, reinstate our
flag upon the ocean and open the mar
kets of the world to American producers
we must make the contest with the same
weapons which have proved so success
full in the hands of our rivals. No nation
can better afford this kind of contest
than ourselves.
Surely no object is Of greater impor-
tance than the enlargement Of our for
eign markets, and nothing will contrib
ute so much to that end as the command
of direct and ample facilities for reach
ing them. The folly and the danger of de-
pending upon our competitors for the
means of reaching competitive markets
cannot be expressed. Aid to our mer-
chant marine is not aid to class, but to
the whole people-to the farmer, the
merchant and the manufacturer quite as
much as to the shipbuilder and the ship
owner.
VIII Government Aid Pay?
But it will cost money. Will it pay?
Yes. hundred fold. The aggregate of
our foreign carrying trade for the last
twenty-five years, while not more than
one-tenth our domestic trade, has new
ertheless reached the enormous sum of
$29, 1876, ,124 ,920. Estimating the cost of
transportation at 10 per cent. of the val
ue of the goods, we have an expenditure
of about S., 900, 600, at least 80 per
cent. of which-$S2, 400, 900, ,O00-has been
paid to foreign shipowners. If we add
to this 800, ,O00,000 year paid for pas
sage money we have q grand total Of
So, 900 ,O00,O 900 paid to foreign labor and
capital during the last quarter of a cent
ury, sum larger by nearly $500, ,00O,-
900 than the maximum of our bonded
debt growing out of the late war.
Are not the benefits which would ac-
crue from paying these sums to our own
people worth saving? During that period
-E11 20 al Gil 10
pay balances of trade against US, an ex-
cess of $607, 200, 900 more than we have
imported. Had we carried fair share
of our own foreign commerce in Ameri-
can ships, owned by American citizens
and manned by American seamen, this
vast sum, and much more, might have
been retained at home to enrich our own
people.
Suppose that for twenty-five years we
had given So, ,000, 900 a year in aid of our
foreign shipping, and reduced by that
amount the prepayments of our bonded
debt, should we not have been far better
off than we are now? Is it not high time
these vast interests receive attention?
Have we not tried the do-nothing policy
long enough? Shall we give that protec
ton and support to our foreign mer-
theirs, and which we freely give to all
our other great interests, or shall we ac-
cept as inevitable our present shameful
position?
regret to say that the uniform record
of Indifference, if not actual hostility,
during the last fifty years affords little
reason for encouragement. In fact the
tendency of late has been to surrender
to foreigners even our domestic COM
merce rather than to assert ourselves
upon the ocean. Determinations of the
most astonishing character have been
made, both by congress and by treasury
regulations, in favor of Canadian rail
road lines and steamships against our
own. One instance of this kind may
serve to illustrate the nature and extent
of many other determinations of like
character.
Asiatic merchandise destined for New
York, if brought in American vessels to |
San Francisco, must undergo all the |
forms and delays of entry, under the
strict scrutiny of customs officers, and
be then placed in cars, heavily bonded,
10