The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-12
Chat Of the Capital.
Washington Gossip, Political and
Otherwise, for the Readers
Of the Globe.

1
was considered In the last congress in
both branches, but it was impossible for
! lack of time to make it law At this
session, Hanna, who introduced one
| measure In the senate, and Congressman
Fayne, who introduced like measure in
the house, will make every effort to
| push these measures through That they
viii meet opposition goes without saying.
A determined effort is to be made to pre-
| vent the bills introduced from becoming
law, but In view of the fact that the
| opponents of this measure are well
| known, and their desire to beat it no
| torlcus, the chances are that the men
! Iather1ng it will be successful The rea-
! sons why they will be able to put the bill
1nrcugn during this session are many. In
the hfst place, there Is the necessity for
the enactment Of a law to promote the
commerce and Increase the foreign trade
OK the United States, and to provide
auXlilary cruisers, transportation and
| seamen for government use when neces-
| sary 1t is we'll understood fact that
merchant marine vessels, officers. engi-
neers, machinists, seamen, ETC., are nee
essary to increase the commerce of this
|
| larry to the force of this government in
tlne or war and otherwise, and to better
| the security of the nation and protection
| Vi us possessions This fact being we'll
understood and, further that Interviews
| nave been secured by me with MANY men
! oA prominence in both houses assures the
| success or either the bill introduced by
senator hanna at the last session, or
! mat proposed by Representative Payne,
| Oh New York. Reports during the last
! session We're made regarding the import
ahce or the measure then pending. The
| principal reason for the passage of such
| measure is that it will aid and en-
| courage our own shipping and help to
| create when necessary the advancement
| OF our just interests, and in this way
promote our commercial desire to carry
our surplus productions Of every kind to
| countries and peoples that need or wish
Chem. In addition to this, as has hereto
lore been pointed out, in time of war this
aduluonaI assistance, rendered purely
! through commercial basis will be rec
| ognlZeo as right and just by all CONNER
cal bodies. and our national officers,
| whenever they find it necessary tn have
| the aid the. merchant marine will give
| them in case of trouble anywhere on the
| high seas. The purpose of the bills in
| troduced by Senator Hanna and Repre-
| sentative Payne is well known. Sdbstan-
| tlaIly the necessity is pointed out in the
IoloWlng paragraphs quoted from one
| of the congressional reports:
| Inc great bulk of our export trade
| must depend upon shipping. No theory or
| doctrine of protection or free trade no
| theory or doctrine of finance or currency
! can anect the fact that our only means
OF communication and intercourse with
more tnan ~ per cent Of all the inha hi
tants of the globeri is shipping In order
/ that the United States can fairly compete
| with other nations in the markets be-
! yond the seas 1T is essential that our
! means of communication and intercourse
with the buying nations should be put
| under the protection of our flag, and on a
| footing Of equality at least with our com
petltors In the present condition of ma
j tional affairs and trade in those parts of
| the globe where perhaps the largest
| opening for sthes trade of ourselves and
| our competitors will exist in the ,.fut,1re-
the most et1cacious means to these ends
| must be adopted. 9
| II Is an unpleasant fact that at the
present time more than S5 per cent of the
| foreign commerce Of the United States is
| conducted by means of foreign ships
! ana not only with the countries under
| whose flags such ships SAIL but with
other countries having little or no ocean
marine, the result of which is as above
| suggested, that there is constant. now
erful and successful influence exerted in
FAVOR. OF the productions and n1anufac-
lures of the country whose flag is borne
| py the trading ship, and by all the ac-
| eessor1es of government aids and of mer-
J camille and financial influences in the
ports ana countries to which such ships
! 60 Ii we do not speedily eudeavor, by
| every just means, TO obtain a fair and
| equal footing in the foreign markets re-
! 1erred to, and not to abandon them to
| our competitors, whose wise and just
| policy for their own good maintains at
| every cost niece ssary 10 sue ess their ship
| ping intercourse and the facilities and
| aids that necessarily flow from it. we
| must speedily adopt a corresponding pol
| Icy, and by the most liberal Inducements
| rehab1htate our merchant marine, and
| try, by every fair means, to regain the
! position we once occupied, and which we
| ought to occupy in the future
! Such a course of policy does not de-
| pend chiefly upon the idea of helping the
| ship building and ship sailing interests
| Of the United States on their own ac-
| count, but upon the element-common to
| all our productive and manufacturing in
| dustries-of their being one of the essen
| t1al cooperating means of general pros
| per1ty and welfare. The main thing is to
| enable the producing and all other in
| dustries of the United States to regain
| our just position in the markets of the
| world. There is no honest and industri-
| Gus worker in the manifold fields of Ia
| Dor in the United States who is not con-
| cerned in such an undertaking. The la
| boring man can only have house and
| home and food and clothing fer himself
and his family in proportion to the en-
| ployment and compensation for his labor;
| and his employer can only pay him by
| the advantageous cooperation, organized
by law, of it's citizens in all things Telat-
! ing to the safety and prosperity of all.
THAT American natural resources, ca
pacity and enterprise cannot be excelled
by those of the people of any other oCun-
try may be asserted without presump ion.
And yet, in the facercf this, the foreign
commerce conducted by our own ship
ping has decreased from so per cent in
1916 to &c per cent In 1860, to II per cent
in 1887. Other manufacturing nations in
fuenced by the considerations before stat
ed, have aided in ship building and in es-
tablishing and supporting lines of sea
connection under their own flags with
distant countries, and have thereby en-
abled their citizens to establish trading
houses banking houses and other facili-
ties for the sale of their productions in
those countries; and they have thus, in a
very large degree, secured a compare
lively exclusive market for their own
goods Besides this, the cost of their
shipping, owing to the price of labor,
and so forth, being generally lower an
those paid in the United States, has been
considerably and sometimes very much
less than that of ships built in the United
States.
''The result of all these circumstances
has been to deprive the United States of