The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-14
rhrottIed American shipping.

ThrOttIed American shipping.
If there were any reason in the world
TO doubt that the policy Of protection
10 American shipping which has been Of
force ia this country for years is worth
less-worse than wort hless-that reason
would be disproved and set aside by the
official figures from the treasury depart
ment, just published Illustrating the de-
cadence Of the American merchant ma
rne. These figures show that American
vessels, during the last fiscal year, trans
ported only IS per cent. of the American
deep-sea commerce, while foreign vessels
carried s. per cent. of il. British ves'
sells carried considerably more than half
OF the total, ana German craft came
next i'm the list Of foreign carriers.
In Great Britain and Germany there is
free trade in ships. The prospective yes
sci owner is permitted to go into the mar
kets ana purchase his craft where he may
be able to get them cheapest, and he is
then granted full rights under the regis
try and navigation laws. Both Great
Britain and Germany encourage ship own
ing and deep-sea carrying by making the
burdens upon shipping as light as pos
sible. They consider the carrying trade
first knowing that with that business
nourishing the building and repairing
trades will also flourish. Now. the Amer
lean policy is just the reverse. The car
rylng business is regarded as of incense
quential Importance. and the shpyards
are plastered all over with protection"
cure American registry, a vessel must be
built in an American shipyard, and no
vessel that is not so built and registered
may fly the American flag. Every
item that enters into the construc-
ton of the American ship is protected"
for the benefit of special interests, which,
by the way, are not the interests Of the
ship owners. who must compete with for
eign craft bought in the unprotected,
open market if they would engage in the
foreign carrying trade. Being bottled up
by this protection" policy, there is nat
rally a minimum of American flags up
on the high seas; American owners can
not pay big bonuses to New England
shipyards and meet the foreigners in open
competition.
Both our local and Geographic reports
tell of a demand for freight room, coast
wise and foreign. The outlook for ship
ping is quite bright. There has, indeed.
been a good demand for vessels for year
or more. Room is wanted now for grain
shipments to Europe, and there is a de-
mand for coal freight room between
American ports. There should be Amer
lean vessels enough to take in at least
majority percentage of the money which
will be paid for these freights, but there
is not The foreigners will reap the bene-
fit from the great grain movement from
this country to Europe. For years il has
been estimated, we have been paying for
eign ship owners 100000 a day for trans
porting our commodities to foreign mar
kets. Except for the imbecie policy
which has been written into our shipping
and navigation laws the greater part of
this sum might be going into the pockets
of American owners and sailors. That
our shipping policy is false and costly is
abundantly proved by the success of 9TH
er nations which pursue diametrically the
opposite policy. Before we. can attain TO
anything like commanding position in
the shipping world, we must put our ship
owners IN a position to successfully COM
pete with those of other countries. which
they certainly cannot do under existing
conditions.