The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-09

since none of the other nations has
seemed disposed to adopt his plan. The
commissioner of navigation evidently
/ inclineS TO this opinion, for he said, in
his annual report for last year:
although three-fourths of the ton
mage in foreign trade entering and
clearing ports in the united kingdom
Is British shipping, vessels are taxed
to maintain the lighthouse and life
saving service and for the improvement
and maintenance of harbors. Although
three-fOurths Of the tonnage in foreign
trade entering and clearing ports in
the United States is foreign, vessels
are subject to no federal taxes tor the
lighthouse and life-saving serrice ,or
for the improvement and maintenance
of harborS. OF the $40, 600. geo annually
expended by the government of the
United States for the benefit of navi-
CATION, foreign shipping contributes
only a share of the tonnage taxes lev
led for the maintenance OF the marine
hospital service. This contribution for
the fiscal year ended June So 1896.
amounted to- only $475.0G0, in round
numbers. and for the last fiscal year
to $3.50 600.
a proposition from Great Britain
that all nations should abolish all
charges on shipping in foreign trade
would be readily Ineligible. British
kGSSSlS. undoubtedly pay OllL III lOiSlSH
ports q sum annually larger than for
eign vessels contribute toward the
safety of navigation in British ports
and along British coasts Germany
might, without considerable loss, make
the same proposition. In 1886, when
the United States suggested the aboli-
ton of these dues by international
agreement it had, as a maritime ma
ton. virtually nothing to gain by eX-
70 Hrro lANT sGi1
ing, years before, lighthouse dues and
reducing tonnage taxes much below
those charged elsewhere it had removed
practical inducement for other ma
tiOns to accept the invitation. In so far
as these charges may be regarded as
payable by the ship rather than as a
factor entering into the ultimate cost
of cargo, transported by it, the nation
al advantage accruing from the aboli-
ton of such charges must be reckoned
by the extent to which national vessels
conduct the trade relieved from
charges.
so far as our foreign trade is con-
cerned, foreign vessels make three
times as much use OF the results of
our expenditures for improvements in
navigation on the seacoast as do Amer
lean vessels. AS a rule steamships en-
gagged in the transatlantic trade are
those which call for the greatest depths
of water in our harborS, and the ratio
of foreign vessels engaged in this trade
compared with American vessels is
many times greater than 8 to 1.
In any general project concerning
American shipping it is respectfully
suggested that our present law in re-
gard to tonnage taxes may properly be
reviewed and the question be consid-
cred whether the large amount of ship
ping in foreign trade which enters and
clears at American ports, should not
contribute something toward the MAIN
tenance Of our lighthouse establish
ment and other federal aids and i'm
provements to navigation"
At the coming session of congress
several bills viii be introduced looking
to the encouragement of American
shipping and the abolition of the pres
ent' discrimination which, as American
shipowners declare, now works in ia
vor of their foreign competitors. One
of these bills will relate to the aboli-
ton of reciprocal exemption from ton
mage taxes. American shippers COM
plain that this law has never been fair
ly enforced by other nations. Last
year the secretary of the treasury in
vestigated a report that the cities of
Germany, with which nation the recip-
rocal arrangement had existed for sew
eral years. were charging American