The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-01

on the high seas in merchant marine in
stead of paying, during the last thirty
years, the enormous tribute of over three
billion dollars for transporting goods
chiefly to Great Britain.
Almost instiuctively the mind inquiries,
What is the cause Of our present insignifi-
cance'in commerce on the high seas! TAX
ing into account our mineral resources,
our forests, our long sea coast with our in
terror lakes and mighty rivers, 1--WE ought, !"
as an eminent gentleman asserts-"we
ought to have been the ship-building, ship
owning and ship-carrying nation of the
world. Into our hands ought the commerce
OF the world to have naturally drifted !;
Into our Golfers ought to have been gath
cred the profits of these exchanges And
what is unfortunate for the Republican
party is that thirty-fve years ago it was
ours; not all Of it. OF course, but 20 per
cent Of it was. "We have lost t." continues
the gentleman above quoted. eve own no
ships except those in the coast wise trade,
with such exceptions that they scarcely
need to be spoken of. Our own exports
are transported in foreign bottoms under
foreign flags, and ali the profits of their
carrying in every way, and of the return
ing cargo of imports for which they are
sold, go to foreigners. Millions upon mil
lions which ought to have belonged to US,
have been literally, by US, thrown IEto the
laps OF foreigners by our own action.p
II men would know why our shipping
has been driven from the high seas until
our merchant marine is insignificant, let
them study the following facts:
The capacity OF American ships in 1850 was
900 tons, and in 1850 the shipping industry
had so prospered under revenue tariff that
the capacity had become $780, coo TONS In 1860
our commerce encompassed every ocean, pene-
trated every sea and traversed every navi-
gable river. But the Democratic was sue
succeeded by Republican administration and
the ruin brought TO American shipping by
free trade" as shown by these statistics must
now, of course, be followed by the opposite eff
feet due to the Republican system of 'protec-
ton. AS soon as the high tariff had time to
bring about its legitimate results, the tonnage
of American vessels fell to 100000 TONS and in
1881 the United States had but 10 per cent. of
the sailing vessels and Great Britain had 80 per
cent, while prior to 1860 the United States had
twenty years Of high protection, of 555 steam
ships that traversed the ocean, only four be-
longed to Americans or carried the American
flag.
In 1860 the value of our exports and imports
was 500 900, of which S5O7 600 900 worth were
carried in American vessels Under high pro-
lection the proportion continued to fall till 1888
when OF Sl,300,000O00 of exports and imports
only S-63 COO COO worth were carried in American
ships. That is, in 1888 American ships carried
only IL per cent Of our exports and imro
while in 1860 they carried 20 per cent.
1t may be denied by Republicans that
high tariff, the tendency of which is to re-
strict our foreign trade, is not wholly re-
sponsible for this change in our ocean
commerce, but if they deny that their pol
icy produced this result, they cannot deny
that it has failed to arrest this gradual
decay. To arrest it now and establish
the supremacy of American commerce on
the high seas, which Democratic policy
had won for our country thirty-fve years
ago, they propose q system of subsidies,
which means taking money from the
pockets of the people and putting it into
the hands Of ship building companies
That the Democratic majority of the House
committee on merchant marine very prop
erly characterizes as robbery. From 1860
until now, the Republican party has been
in the control of the government with the
exception of single presidential term
During that time the American carrying
trade on the high seas has fallen from more
than 10 to less than 16 per cent, and let the
Republicans shuttle how they may, they
cannot get rid of the fact that this result
has been produced under their rule and
that their policy is responsible for it.