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

iiiuhiicoti1 hhcpudi anu ubJusb w thA
the farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths.
masons, merchants, railroadmen, miners,
and woodsmen of the country to pay a
bounty to shipowners for every mile
they sail upon the sea. Bounties are
SO odious that they have been seldom
attempted in the legislation of the
the Mckinley bill, which were quickly
repealed and never re-enacted, stand
almost alone in our history.
The pretence upon which the ship
owners ask for the bounties in the bill
is that they are necessary in order to
restore the American merchant marine
and give it fair share of the foreign
carrying trade. This We believe to be
q false and misleading assumption.
Our merchant marine was once the
most prosperous, and its growth the
most vigorous In the world. The sails
of American ships were on every sea
and the American flag decorated every
port in tho world. The advantage
gained by our shipping in the fifties
would have been held until the present
time but for our antiquated, iliiberabl
obstructive and unwise navigation laws,
They are the relic of the last century.
Every other civilized government has
long since wiped off from its statute
books the old legislation which formerly
hampered shipping. We alone have
kopt it in force. sslt{i
Notwithstanding the destruction Of
our shipping which has resulted there
from, the majority of our committee
still look on these old commerce-killing
laws with affection and speak of them
in their report as the shipping lows
of tho fathers. which have remained
almost unchallengod for more than q
century," Every maritime country in
Europe, as we'll as Japan and China,
long ago adopted the free-ship policy.
Our country forbids an American citi-
zen to buy ship in a foreign country
and use it on the high seas under the
American flag. That prohibition is Mt
the bottom OF the decay of the Amen-
can merchant marine.
Our shipbuilders and shipowners
gained supremacy on the sea when the
American built, wooden ship WAS the
best and cheapest ship in the world.
Our great virgin forests gave us the
best and cheapest materials for ship
building. Our Ingenious, industrious
and skilful artisans, with that adj
vantage in material, produced the best
and cheapest ships of that period,
although American wages then as now
were higher than those paid abroad.
Our daring and competent sailors,
with the ships thus built, underbid the
world in freight charges, although
wages on American ships then as now
were higher than wages aboard other
ships.
When the change came from wooden
sailing ships to iron and steel steam
ships our shipbuilders were at a dis
advantage, because steel and iron cost
more here than in Great Britain.
Englishmen and Scotchmen began to
build the cheapest and best ships.
When we built the cheapest and best
ships Great Britain repealed her nagir
cation laws, opened her trade to free
ships, and enabled her shipowners 10
buy American-built ships, and thus to
keep on the sea. When the tables were
turned on us we stupidity continued our
barbarous old navigation laws and
doomed our great shipping interest to
destruction.
To build up once moro great mer-
chant marine should be one of the
patriotic ambitions of American states.
manship. The way to accomplish 1t is
plain and wide OPEN and in full. accord
with just principles Of government. 1t
can be done by taking off the shackles
and giving American enterprise, Ameri-
can industry. and American seaman
ship an equal chance. Everything
needed in building and equipping q
ship should be admitted free Of customs
duty. Ship supplies should also be on
the free list. Every American citizen
should be free to buy ships to use in
the foreign carrying trade wherever he
can find them cheapest and best. Ton
mage taxes should be abolished. Vexa-
tious fees for official papers at our Gus
tom houses should be done away with.
This policy will build up an American
marine of natural vigor, like o tree
in the forest. The bounty scheme in
the bill under discussion can at best
make it little better than dollhouse
plant, unable to thrive in the open,
and sure to fade at the end of the
bounty period.
Free ships for the foreign carrying
trade could not possibly hurt the bust
ness of our American shipyards. Under
present conditions they get but little
or nothing to do in tho way of build
ing ships for the foreign trade. Surely
il they can not build ships cheap enough
to enter the foreign trade it will not
hurt their business to permit Ameri-
cans to own and use such ships built
elsewhere. The repairs of u large
fleet of free American ships. coming
naturally to American shipyards. would
amount to vastly more work than those
yards are now doing in building new
ships for foreign trade, because for
years they have practically built
nothing except for the domestic and
coastwise trade. Repairs on the ships
coming TO our register for the foreign
carrying trade under IL free .ship law
would be just that much additional
work for American shipbuilders. ~
But the truth is that we are on the
verge OF brighter days for American
bodybuilding. A change in conditions
has come about in the cost Of the ma
terial for shipbuilding. The pendulum
of advantage, which swung our way
in the forties and swung over in Great
Britain's favor in the sixties, is swing
ing our way once more. By changed
conditions of production American
steel and iron are now produced more
cheaply than any other steel and iron
in the world. We are exporting steel
and iron in many manufactured FORMS.
Steel plates TO be used in shipbuild-
ing are now being exported to Great
Britain. The materials for building %
great steamship can be assembled in
ono of the shipyards on the Delaware
cheaper today than they can on the
Clyde. Our cheaper steel and iron will
enable our shipbuilders to do in the
next 10 years what our cheaper wood
enabled them to do from 1915 to 1855,
viz, build the hest ships and the
cheapest ships in the world.
But il is argued that the laborers in