The morning call., 1894-05-22
MERCHANT SHIPPING.

The Boston Herald presents statistics
| showing how England and Germany have
! increased their merchant marine tonnage
while adhering TO the policy of buying
/ ships in the cheapest market, while the
/ United States has practically stood still ID
! this respect under law refusing American
register to foreign built vessels. The Her
! aid concludes as follows:
! II we are to succeed in having great ocean
! merchant marine II must be Drought about by
! adopting the methods that have proved through
! experience TO be successful elsewhere. The
means by which the maritime nations of the
present day have secured their pre-eminence
has been the right to bug their ships in the
! cheapest markets, while attempts at specific or
general subsidies have resulted, as experience
( shows. in entire failure.
The Herald can hardly prove the cor
rectGess OF its conclusions by its own fe-
ures. England, which has made the great
est strides in gaming the ocean carrying
trade, is the most liberal in payment of
subsidies to its great ocean steamship com
panies. 1t is true that the tramp steamers.
which go wherever they can be sent with
profit. are not subsidized, and it is equally
true that they hold the business without
subsidies. England offers protection in
the form of subsidies wherever such pro-
lection is needed
journal so intelligent as the Herald
must know that the conditions under which
an Industry is prosecuted determine the
wisdom or unwisdOm OF a given policy
For example, since England can build mod
ern vessels at less cost than other coun-
tries, and especially at less cost than the
United States, there is no harm in allowing
her people to buy vessels in the chapest
market. The cheapest market happens
10 be England, and as no one but now and
then an American fool pays more for a
thing because it was made abroad Eng
land builds her own ships. precisely as
she would if she did not permit her people
to buy ships in the cheapest market. Thus
we see that law which would send our
shippers to England in search OF cheap
ships has absolutely no effsct in England.
1t is not likely that there is a single Ameri-
can built iron or steel vessel on the Brit
ish register at this day.
Again, the very condition of trade
which prevents US from building ships as
cheaply as England would also prevent
our people from running them as cheapiy.
The principal feature of this condition is
the higher wages in this country. Al
present American seamen receive higher
wages than English, and American ship
mechanics are at least equally favored
with seamen. The same rule of higher
wages runs through all our industries. No
one knows what the condition of our in
dnstries will be when Mr.. Cleveland gets
through with his tariff-reform policy, but
IN the years past higher wages have pre-
vailed In this country than in England.
The ocean carrying trade will always be
done by the lowest bidder 1t is not prac-
tlcable to subject it to the protective pol
icy. The cost begins with the building of
ships and ends in the arrival of a cargo at
its destination. The nation which can
make the lowest cost all through gets the
trade. Now, ii would be Of little advan-
tage to buy cheap English ships if an
English shipper can navigate them at less
expense than an American. The mere
fact of flying the American flag would not
make an English-Uuilt ship American. In
the event of war the bulk OF England's
merchant marine would be transferred to
a neutral flag. There would be no money
gain in this. though certain American
statesmen and certain American news
papers are trying to make the American
people believe that there is lots of money
in buying English built vessels and run
ming them against the more cheaply
manned English vessels. II the United
States was served as we'll by her own
statesmen as England is by certain class
of Americans we would get along fairly
we'll.