Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-05
Free Ship FaIIacy.

tn relieve the consumers Of our land in the
cost of their daily life"--he should say,
to relieve them of their wages. but he
esn't-with this prospect before the
country the President deems it the proper
. thing "to go the whole hog this latter
ought to be- In brief the President
recommends free ships as part OF that
free trade policy buried Nov. q, beyond
hope of resurrection for years to come
There is now bill to this effect upon
the House calendar and it remains to be
seen what "A discredited and desperate
Congress will do with it.
With just as much reason as he advo-
Gated free trade and the markets OF the
world so Grover Cleveland now talks about
free ships and the control of the sea. He
endeavors to belittle our shipping when
a little knowledge of the subject would
enable him to tell the people that our iieet
Is second in size only to that, of Great
Britain including the ships of her colo
MES In the amount of our steel ana
iron ship building as well as in our total
tonnage we are the second power OF the
world This too in face of the fact that
England 5 power depends more largely for
its support and it's future upon its ship
ping than is true of any of the other great
powers of the world. To maintain her
supremacy England stops at no possible
effort and votes millions in subsidies
annually. The president of the Canadian
Pacific wasn't making idle talk when he
said that if necessary the proposed line
from Halifax to Liverpool would get a
subsidy of a million dollars annually
President Cleveland in trying to picture
the decadence of American shipping evi
IDENTIFY hadn t read the last report of the
United States commissioner of naviga-
ton This report shows that notwith-
standing the deadly blight of the past
two years of Democratic administra-
ton and the threat of free ships
and not including the splendid American
liners built at Philadelphia there were
constructed S3S vessels with tonnage
aggregating 131, 1876. In 1898, there were
registered for foreign commerce and sail
ing under the American flag SS3, 1919 tons
and in 1894, 9l6 $50 tons. The gross ton
mage of American shipping has increased
from 4,271, 239 tons in 1884 to 1864, ,029
tons in 1894, and our steam tonnage has
nearly onchalf and our steel tonnage is
now 20 per cent. of the whole, so that the
carrying power of our merchant fleet has
increased at least two million tons in ten
years. We now have some of the finest
steel plants for ship building in the world
and the number of ports with steel plants
has increased from four to sixteen within
ten years.
/, In the face of all this and more the
President tells us that shipbuilding has
been protected to the point of strangula-
ton Facts apparently have no weight
with him when he wishes to turn what
he doubtless considers neat sentence or
to give utterance to that which he imagines
laundering down the galleries of time,
while truth is putting on its boots. In the
United States today there are 1910 ship
building establishments, with capital of
s53, 393,04 paying in wages to 25,934
laborers, $40, ,02S, S47 annually. The an
nual product is valued at $40, ,342, lis.
This is the remarkably healthy condition
into which protection has 'strangled'' our
ship building 1t is difficult indeed to be
patient with President giving official
utterance to such worse than rubbish.
As our foreign trade has been Obliged to
compete in many instances with subsid-
lied lines the advance made is remarkable.
The protection which is most thoroughly
enjoyed by the coasting shipping has SC
far from "stranlgcd'' it that it has thrived
wonderfully and the rates of Transports
I ton have decreased in much greater pro
portion than in the foreign trade.
But the worst phase of the President
/ position is that if his recommendation be
; adopted the ship building industry must
be hopelessly ruined, or his whole argu-
| ment falls fiat Notwithstanding that un
der the tariff law, which Mr.. Cleveland
now finds to be bene.icent, there is a
( duty upon the material and machinery to
be used in the ships if built in this coun-
try, he would admit all this free if built
into u ship by foreign hands in foreign
, yards Ii under protection it is possible
for the material to be furnished as cheaply
{ in this country as abroad, then his whole
free trade free ships fallacy hasn't a leg
, to stand upon. If it isn't possible to get
, that material so cheaply. then his advo
cacy of free ships at this time is the gross
est favoritism to the British ship builder.
Under protection our iron and steel in
dustries have grown to the point where
, they are furnishing material as fine rs
, anv in the world at low cost and are pay
ing wages that enable their workmen tc
live like Americans. Under protection oul