The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-12
YESTERDAYS TEMPERATURES
THE LESSON OF THE PAST.

The considerations set forth in our
Washington correspondence this morning
which make it imperative en- the part of
our national government to take some
substantial steps in the direction of the
restoration of our merchant marine Will
be regarded by all intelligent readers as
of vital force and Importance. The en-
actment of the Payne-Hanpa measure or
soma other measure which will help us
out of our present hazardous situation
represents enc Of the gravest as well as
one of the most urgent needs of the coun
try at this time
The relative proportion of our foreign
carrying commerce done today and that
done in the early days of our national
existence and during the periods follow
ing, while our merchant marine was being
protected and maintained by national aid
is exactly reversed. Today we do less
than 10 per cent Of our foreign carrying
commerce, and foreigners do 90 per cent
or over of it for u.s. In the days of JEFF
ferson, Madison ana Monroe, and from
1fS9 to 1926, We did over 80 per cent Of
that carrying for ourselves and foreign
ers did less than 10 per cent of it for us.
Down to 1860 We maintained an approach
to the same proportion; but for nigh forty
years our shipping interests have been
neglected, and the inevitable result pre-
sents itself to view.
We have not been without warnings of
that result. Thomas Jefferson, while sec
Ierary Of state under President Washing
ton referring to this subject, spoke some
pregnant words 1t would not be per-
mlssible by the space at command here
to set forth those words with anything.
approaching completeness. A brief cx-
tract viii answer all present purposes.
Speaking of the dangers which presented
themselves through cur land and sea
board Jefferson said in 1893:
But on the seaboard they (the
Gnlted States) are open to injury. and
Lney nave there, toe, commerce which
must be protected. This can only rs
done by possessing respectable body If
citizen seamen and artisans and estabiish-
nehtS for ship building. If particular
a
uue snare, and more especially if they
Seize upon the means Of the United
safes, TO convert them into aliment for
their own strength and Withdraw thorn
entirely from the support Of thosa ~
Whom they belong, defensive and protec-
i've meas ures become necessary on the
par % tne ,nauon whose marine re-
sources are thus invaded or it will be
dlsarmed of its defense its productions will
De at the mercy of the nation which has
possessed itself exclusively of the means
OF carrying them and its politics NAV he
influenced by those who carry its com
merCe."
Is there nothing approaching prophecy
in these words? Do they suggest moth
ing of the actualities Of our situation to-
Gay, deprived as we are, almost abso-
lutely. OF means for carrying our foreign
commerce? Can congress, in view of the
awful significance of such a warning as
this from our greatest statesman. afford
to allow the situation to rest as it is to-
day? Had our recent war been not with
Spain, but with England, what means of
access would we have had to a single
foreign market which today we reach
through the agencies of her vast CARVING
commerce?
But jefferson does not stop here. He
proceeds to say:
THE carriage of our commodities IL
once established in another Channel can
pat - resumed in the moment we de-
sire If we lose the seamen and artisans
,,i-o.n II now occupies we lose the ner9
uahent means of marine defense and
tlmc viii be requisite to raise uD othaIS
When dlsgraces or losses shall brtn9
nome to our feelings the disgrace of hay9
ing abandoned them" - ma
Those who, many of them unconsciouslv
are doing the work of foreign ship own
ers are fond of telling us that our shin
ping was driven off the sea by the cruis-
ers of the Confederacy Have the cruis-
ers Of the Confederacy, too, excluded us
from the sea in the Intervening. thirty-fol
or five years? The war of 1872 was
fought against the greatest naval power
in the world then and now Did it result
in driving our shipping commerce from
the seas? Did it affect that commerce.
inJurieusly in the slightest measure for