Omaha daily bee., 1896-08-30
THE MERCHANT MARINE.

In his letter of acceptance Major Nc
Kinley approves the declaration of the
republican platform in favor of the up
building of our merchant marine. Ho
says we should no longer contribute
directly or indirectly to the maintenance
of the colossal marine of foreign coun-
tries. but provide an efficient and COM
plete marine of our own. Major Nc
Kinley says: Nov that the American
navy is assuming a position common
surate with our Importance as a nation,
n policy | am glad to. observe the re-
publican platform strongly endorses, we
must supplement it with a merchant
in both Il coastwise and foreign trade,
that we ought naturally and properly
to enjoy. 1t should be at once Il matter
of public policy and national pride to
repossess this immense and prosperous
trade" There Is no doubt about the
meaning of this and it assures the fact
that If elected president of the United
States Major Mckinley would do all
in his power to promote n policy in
which every section of the country Is
interested, that of providing a merchant
marine that would give our producers
and keep in our own country, for eX-
penditure upon our own people, the
very large amount of money that an
nually goes abroad for the payment of
freights and passenger fares.
The policy of supplementing the navy
with a merchant marine is so obviously
dictated by every consideration of ma
tional expediency that it must be pre-
sumed no one will question it. The
one is n natural complement of the
other. But the really impressive point
made by the republican standard bearer
is his statement hat we should no
longer contribute directly or indirectly
to the maintenance of the colossal
marine of foreign countries. How
enormously we have don this in the
past thirty years. 1t is not an eXag-
gerated statement to say that
what the producers of the United
States have paid to European
ship owners In the past thirty years
would have constructed Il merchant
marine nearly twice as great as that of
Great Britain and would have created
n navy many times greater than that
we now have and nearly equal to all
the navies combined of the great
European powers. The American peO-
pie, with all their boosted intelligence,
do not properly understand this ques-
ton. They nave never given 1t the
consideration to which it is entitled.
They do not appreciate what it means
to pay 81 0 ,0OO,O00 or more annually to
European ship owners which might be
kept at home and expended among our
own people. They do not understand
that we can never have commercial
independence and can never extend our
foreign IN as we should do until
we have adequate facilities of ocean
transportation under our own flag.
This is Il question in which all sec
tons OF the country are equally in
terested. 1t has been too commonly
assumed that only the people of the
east We're concerned in building up the
merchant marine, but this is a grave
mistake. The producers of the west are
no less, if not indeed more, Interested
in the question of being able to ship
their products in American rather than
in foreign bottoms. Even If il be as
sumed that they could not do so at a
less rate, still the money they paid
would remain at home and be expended
for home products and in the extension
of home shipbuilding, while there would
be a valuable prestige in the fact that
American products We're transported
under the American flag. Whatever
divergence Of opinion there may be as