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


men in locomotive works are about on
u par with the wages of men in ship
yards. With the cheapest material in
the world, our shipbuilders. like our
locomotive builders, will soon, if they
are put to tho trial, hold their own
against the Englishman, Scotchman
and German. But the way TO bring
about tho triumph of American ship
building is not by applying the sedative
of bounty. Let us rather apply the
stimulus o. freedom and open field and
fair competition. Our shipbuilders
have not lost their cunning. The be-
havior of the navy last spring and
summer shows that the ships built in
American shipyards are the best. Every
indication points that American built
ships may in the near future be the
cheapest as we'll rs the best.
1t is also argued that even with the
cheapest and best ship in the world an
American shipowner can not keep the
seas. The operating expenses are alleged
to be greater for an American ship
than for any other. The statistics
before the committee show that the
operating expenses of an English ship
ID greater than that OF any other nation
except our own. Yet, with greater
operating expenses than his COMPETE
| tors for tho United States has not
been a serious competitor for many
yenrs-the British mariner can still
sing, "Britannia rules tho waves. !"
Evidently there is something awry with
the argument that we can not run and
operate ships because of the high wages
paid American seamen. Our wages to
seameI were always relatively high.
That YVES the condition when our ship.
ping was in its glory, fifty years ago.
American seamen got high wages be-
cause they arc high class seamen and
are worth more to thoir employers. and
for no other reason.
| The whole argument that high priced
labor as u class can not compete with
| low priced labor as q class, whether
applied to labor on the sea or labor on
tho land, to labor in shipyards or to
labor in factories, is fallacious. The
higher priced labor is always the more
Intelligent, more ingenious, more skill
full, and more industrious labor By
| the law of the survival of the fittest it
always overcomes so-called "pauper
labor The markets of the world to-
day are dominated by the goods manu-
featured in the United States, Great
Britain, Germany, and France, and
these arc the four countries in which
the level of wages is the highest. In
the last few years there has been re
markable. growth in the exports of
American manufactured goods. These
goods are the product of American
high-priced labor, going out to COM
| pete in price and quality in open free
trade markets.
/ L.. Ill D.. 4
| that American sailors can not transport
across seas,without "a boupty the multi
tude of manufactured goods which
| high priced American workmen have
succeeded in making ut prices which
prove attractive in the markets Of the
world? Such proposition is contrary
to common sense and contrary to the
experience of American shipping in
the last. As to coal and ship Supplies,
the American and the foreign ship
owners are on equal terms, for ships
are supplied, turn and turn about, at
| the home and foreign port. With the
cheapest and best ships, and with tho
men whose services are worth the most
aboard them, there will be no trouble
about competing under the American
flag with foreign ships.
|
neither build ships nor run them after
they are built as we'll and as profitably
as other people the revival of American
| shipping would be q vain and hopeless
| dream. No bounty. although it gave
| to its recipients billions instead of the
| hundreds Of millions proposed in this
bill, could cure so hopeless case. 1t
would be like paying bounty to moles
| to. encourage them to fly or to birds
upon condition that they burrow be-
meath the ground. Happily it is not
SO. Our people are well adapted to the
seafaring life. They take to the water
naturally and have at every period of
our history, when conditions were favor
able, demonstrated their ability to
take care of themselves on the sea. The
success of our merchant marine in
peace has not been less conspicuous
than the success of our navy in war.
Our sailors have left the foreign carry
ing trade only because their govern
ment refused them the poor privilege OF
buying and using the best ships. Give
| them an open door to the sea, and we
believe they will go out once more and
earn their share of tire hundred million
of dollars which is paid every year for
transporting our exports and imports
across sens. We favor giving every
opportunity and facility to every Ameri-
can citizen who desires to sail upon the
sea, but we are forced to resist and
oppose this committee of sbipowners
and shipbuilders who have organized
for the purpose of sailing into the
Treasury of tho United States.
Notwithstanding arguments and state
ments to the contrary. this bounty
scheme is not framed in likeness to
the policy of any foreign country
notable for the success of its merchant
marine. The principle on which Great
Britain has built up her supremacy in
tbs carrying trade has been the free
ship principle. \ British subject
can buy his ship anywhere. The
British carrying trade. whether foreign,
colonial, domestic, or coastwise, is
open on equal terms to any ship in the
world. Great Britain does not give
bounties to shipping Her admiralty
subvention is small it is given only to
such ships as are built so as to be
especially adapted to the work of
auxiliary cruisers; and it is received
by not more than 20 ships. Her largest
expenditure Is for the carrying of her
mails. For this she pays less in pro-
portion than we pay.
/ To illustrate, we pay the Ioterna-
tional Navigation Company s757, $50 u
year for carrying mails across the At
lantic. This is earned by four ships.
The White Star Line and the Cunard
Line, with combined fleet of % ships,
competitors of the International Navi-
cation Company, receive both together
only 1897, $40. This latter sum is not
bounty at all. 1t is money earned by
carrying mails, and considerable
portion of il is Lid by our own govern