Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-02-09
SUBSIDIES TO- SHlPOWNERS.

Following is tho report of the minority
of the committee on the merchant
marine and fisheries, House of Repre-
sentatiyes, Washington, d. c., on the
HANNAH Payne Steamship Subsidy bill:
The undersigned, members of the
committee on the merchant marine and
fisheries, being unable to agree to the
report of, the committee on ii. k.
1l,3l2, submit the following statement
of their Vows: .}rl, n.
This bill is one that was prepared
and brought to Congress by q voluntary
committee OF shipoShers and ship
builders, representing the gentlemen
who will receive the bounty which the
bill proposes to give from the public
Treasury. The bill as 1t is reported to
the House is In almost the exact form
and grants to penny the bounties de-
manded by the gentlemen who are to
receive Thorn. The duties and obliga-
items imposed upon the recipients of
this bounty are such, and such only, as
they have themselves Voluntarily sug-
gested. The bill Is, therefore, naturally
and entirely satisfactory to the Sin.
terests" which have organized this
movement to secure the vast Sums car
ried in the bill as Il gratuity 10 DO used
in CARRYING on their private business
and eniarging tho profits thereof.
The bill provides not simply for
bounties, but for bounties which once
granted can not thereafter be taken
away. 1t authorizes and directs the
Secretary Of the Treasury TO enter into
contracts with owners OF ships and with
citizens who propose to build ships.
binding the government to pay for a.
period Of twenty years the bountjes
prescribed in this bill, Ii this bill
becomes n law, the contracts will be
quickly made, and onuc entered into no
future Congress- can in honor break
them or. REFUSE to make the necessary
appropriations to pay them. To do SO
would look like repudiating national
obligation.
The twenty-year bounties thus pro-
vided are put in the bill in the Ian
guage of so many ''cents," but whom
the arithmetical calculation is made
to find how big these bounties by
cents will prove to be when the time
comes to pay them, we find that they
must be figured in tens of millions of
dollars. by q careful and conservative
estimate we find that the government
will be obligated, by the contracts
likely to BIO entered into during the
first twelve months under this bill, to
pay hounties amounting to more than
S165, 600, 900.
This bounty Of IS, 25O, 900 year does
not include any estimate for supposed
increase of our merchant marine, due
to stimulation incident to bounty
system. 1t includes only the shipping
now in sight and the shipping which
must be built. under the contracts, to
cover. according to the requirements
of the bill, the shipping in sight The
new American built shipping, covered
would amount to only $4,000 tons of
steam vessels and l62, 600 tons Of sail
ing vessels. In short, this bill must
cost the Treasury sl65, 600, 900, even if
it be repealed by the next Congress.
What it may cost, il 1t remains unre-
pealed, no man can foretell; probably
not less than $500, 600, 900.
OF this enormous. bounty OF S165, :
600, 900, which THIS bill must cost the
public Treasury, the lions share will
go to single, company. Under the
provisions of the bill the international
Navigation Company will be entitled
to receive subsidy for twenty years
of more than 81. $50. 900 q year, amount
ing in the aggregate to more than
s57, ZOO, 600. To give out of hand to a
single company operating for private
gain $50, 600, 600 OF tax-raised money
strikes us as monstrous proposition.
The bounties in this bill do great
credit to the courage of tho gentlemen
who formulated them. Few men asking
the government to aid in their private
business by cash contribution would
venture to ask for quite SO much. An
ordinary citizen who is building a
house would be satisfied il the govern
ment would contract to pay him in
twenty, years bounty equal to the
whole cost of the house. But in this
bill it Is provided that IL man who
builds great and speedy ocean steamer
shall be paid bounties in twenty years
amounting to twice the whole cost of
the ship. The bounty to be earned
even by.a slow freight steamer, with
speed Of less than IA knots, will
amount every year to more than per
cent of her cost when new. On the
faster steamers, like the best belonging
to the International Navigation Com
pany, the bounty will be rather more
than 10 per centso their cost when
new. 1t is admitted by the advocates
of tho bill that the hounties will be
large enough to pay all of the salaries
| and wages of the officers and crews
who man tho ships. In truth, thoy
will do, more than that. The bounty
will be- about large enough to meet
the payroll and to pay for the ships
supplies. We submit that on the face
| of it these bounties are excessive. They
go far beyond any effort to stimulate
shipowning. They go to the extent of
enrichrng shipowneis. at the expense of
their fellow citizens.
The right under this bill to contract
for twenty-year bounty will expire
at the end of ten years. During ten
years shipowners will nave tho privi-
lege of contracting to receive bounties
for twenty years from the date of con-
tract; but ships built after the ten
years hayp expired will receive no
bounty. The result will be that in 1909
every American ship will be under u
bounty contract for the full expectancy
of its years of usefulness. New ships
without bounty can not compete with
the Subsidized ships, and therefore no
new ships for foreign trade will be con-
| the shipbnilding interests of the conn
perity az bounties to shipowners can
give, there shall come period when
no American can afford to build new
ship The. difficulty above referred
to is Inherent inl the bounty scheme
and can not be avoided. Whenia bounty
/ is once, hegun no good place for giving
| it up can ever BIO found. A bounty
works on an industry like alcohol on
the human system. The more you take
the more you want, and after you have
| taken too much it will kill you to stop