The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-01-25
FREE SHIP FALLACY.
FOREIGN COMPANIES WITHOUT
SUBSIDIES.
Facts Submitted to Controvert the
Argument of the Theorizers Yer
dict of the People at the Polls Voiced
Their Views ON the Tariff.


NOT lncOrtcSs
The advocates of the Flthian free
ship bill keep hammcring away with
their deliberate falsehOods that foreign
Governments pay no subsidies TO their
respective steamship lines, or If any
are paid that they In no way affect the
successful operations of their owners,
who make money out of their steam
ships merely because they have free
ships and can have them built any
where.
AS another incontrovertible argument
to these theoriZers we again submit
facts and give them OH n foreign au.
thority, that of the president of the
Institution of Engineers and Shipbuild-
crs In Scotland, who, In his inaugural
address, said: "The total sum of sub
sides paid by Great Britain, France,
Germany, Russia and Italy is $1G,65I,-
S65, of which Great Britain pays near
ly 20 per cent"
Now let us see what effect subsidies
paid by foreign Governments have up
on the earnings of foreign steamship
companies and their dividends, and we
submit the amount of dividends de-
clared by two French, one German and
three English steamship companies IL
one year, as follows:
Dividends
Company. declared.
French Transatlantic. ........$ 100000
Messageres Maritimes. ....... 100000
North German Lloyd. ......... 100000
panin anI Oriental GOO 0tCD
Cunard Line. 34,510
Royal Mail Packet Company. 1,o10
Three of these companies do not run
their steamers to the United States
the Messageries Maritimes, Peninsular
and Oriental, and Royal Mail Packet
COmpany-but they are given merely
rs examples to show the effect of sub
sides upon steamer traffic to other
parts of the world, as we'll as to the
United States. Now, let us see the
amount Of subsidies paid to these diff
ferent companies in the same year:
Subsidies
Company. paid.
French Transatlantic. ...... 81. 81 600
Messageries Maritimes. ...... 2,71O,OO0
North German Lloyd. ....... 100000
Peninsular and Oriental. -. VI, 100000
Cunard Line. ............... ~ZoO,UOV
Royal Mail Packet Company. 100000
+The British Admiralty paid in addi-
ton SCI, 745 to the Z. and o. Line and
$67 800 to the Cunard Line.
A simple sum in subtraction will
show how the accounts of these foreign
steamship companies would have stool
with their free ships and without sub
sides. Deducting the amount Of the
dividends declared from the subsidies
paid and we find that, without a sub
sidy, the balance on the wrong side Of
the ledger for the years operations
would have stood as follows:
Debit balance
Company. without subsidy.
French Transatlantic. ..... 81 81 600
Messageries Maritimes. ..... 2,11O,OOO
North German Lloyd ........ $4,000
Peninsular and Oriental. 49,. 1,OO1, 900
Cunard Line. ............... 20, 40
Royal Mail Packet Company. AS, 400
This was the result of free ships
built by the cheapest possible labor,
manned by the cheapest paid sailors
and without Government subsidies.
What would the result be If we had
the same free ships and paid higher
wages to the officers and crew? Simply
larger deficit in the years balance
shoot