The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-03

the carriage of our 81, 2,010 100000 worth of
foreign commerce annually employs.
They say that we can buy the ships
abroad that we need cheaper than we can
build them at home And this Is true.
Until we have shipyards established in
sufficient number, the mechanics skilled
and experienced in their work, and suf-
flc1ent demand for ships to keep them
steadily employed, it will cost more to
build them here But after that we should
soon be able to build better and to build
as cheaply as our rivals. But suppose we
abandon the idea of building our own
ships, and rely utterly upon our foreign
rivals for the tools of Carrying trade
what then? May it not happen that the
very nation we rely upon most for our
enemy? Who can tell? We must admit
1t is possibility. More than g hundred
years ago the writer of the Declaration
of independence gave long study and deep
reflection to this same subject, and what
ne then said, as secretary of state dur
ing the administration of President
Washington, in compliance with a request
formally made by congress, is we'll worth
repetition. He said:
Our navigation involves still higher
considerations. AS branch OF industry
tense essential The position and circum-
stances of the United States leave them
nothing to fear from their landboard,
and nothing to desire beyond their pres
ent rights. But en- the seaboard they are
open to injury, and they have there too a
commerce which must be protected. This
ii
able body of citizen Seamen, and artists
and establishments in readiness for ship
building. If particular patrons grasp at
undue shares and more especially If they
seize upon the means of the United States
TO convert them into aliment for their
own strength and withdraw them entirely
from the support of those to whom they
belong, defensive and protective measures
become necessary on the part of the ma
ton whose marine resources are thus in
yaded, or 1t will be disarmed of its de-
n inT Nxyfll ha kIov
cy of the nation which has possessed it
self exclusively of the means of carrying
them, and its politics may be influenced
by those who command it's commerce.
The carriage of our own commodities, if
once established in another channel, can
not De resumed the moment we desire.
II We lose the Seamen and artists whom
1t now occupies we lose the permanent
means of marine Defense and time will
be requisite to raise up others when dis
graces or losses shall bring home to our
feelings the disgrace of having abandon
ed them"
With what wonderful provision and
precision he described, in 1898, the mari
time condition of his country in 1899.
There Is not a sentence in that quotation
that does not either describe our present
condition, or predict the result of it. We
nave not moment to lose, if, needing
the prophetic warnings of Jefferson, and
hitting them to our present dangerously
weak condition, we repossess ourselves Of
the sea power upon which may depend,
at any time, our very existence as an in
dependent nation.
EARLY DAY SHIPPING.
Under the leadership Of such men as
Jefferson and Madison, protected Amer
lean ships carried an average of 80 per
cent of our foreign commerce from i789
until 1926. Those ships were built in our
own shipyards, by our own people, and
were owned and commanded by our own
citizens. They carried US triumphantly
through the war of 1872. They took the
then young nation out of debt and made
it prosperous. They gave US standing
and a prestige abroad far beyond what
our numerical strength justified. Those
ships, their officers and men were the
glory and the mainstay of the nation,
and history and tradition are replete with
their successes. But for forty years our
shipping has been unprotected, and from
the proud position Of carrying 80 per cent
of our own foreign commerce in our own
home-built ships, We have dropped down
to the humiliating position Of carrying
less than 10 per cent. We had more
ships on the sea ninety years ago than
we have now, and at that time our for
part of what it Is today. To this weak
and shameless position a once great mari
time nation has fallen.
Fortunately, we have not gone abroad
to buy our warships. By prohibiting the
purchase of either our warships or their
outfits abroad, our own ship builders
machine tools needed to enable them to
turn out our modern WarshipS Compe-
tition in the construction of American
warships was confined for thirteen years
(and is yeti to American ship builders
and at the best there were few enough
OF them-Wfth the result that at the end
of that period we could build as good ard
as cheap Warships as could be built any
where else in the world. If we can do
that in the case of warships, who shall
say we cannot do as well in the matter
will say that American ship builders
will combine to keep up the price?" If
so,.. what will they say about our ship
builders failing to combine to keep up the
price of warships and their outfits? Civ
en- condition even approximately similar,
and within the same space of time our
ship builders will reduce the cost of mer-
chant shipbuilding to the level of foreign
prices. But one thing is lacking, and
that is the demand. If congress can give
impetus to the demand the problem is
solved
FOREIGN SUBSIDIES.
We have eXhauStleSs quantities of iron
ore and coal, unlimited capital lying alike
in bank, thousands of able-bodied citi-
zens seeking work who would make mag
nificent seamen, commerce to carry that
ranks third in the list of nations, and
which commerce pays to its carriers hum
dreds of millions of dollars annually.
Thus situated, what prevents us from
equipping ourselves with an abundance OF
auxiliary naval ships and citizen Seamen
with which to reinforce our navy in time
of need? Only this: Every year the ma
many, France Italy, Spain, Austria Rus
sia, and even Sweden, pay out in the ag
gregate nearly twenty millions of dollars
in subsidies, subventions and bounties to
their merchant ships. For the aid that
these ships and their seamen may be to
them in the event of war, those nations
cheerfully pay to their shipowners 49,
sum from their several national treas
urier.- So aided, those ships are imports
and exports cheaper than unaided Ameri-
ships would lose, unaided by their govern
ments, is made good to them and a fair
dividend besides, in the form of govern
ties. In the last annual report of the