Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1900-05-26
WILL REVIVE OUR
SHIPPING TRADE
Passage Of the Subsidy Bill Will
Restore American Supremacy
on the Ocean.
GREAT BRITAIN AS AN EXAMPLE
Her Shipping Makes Good Her
Enormous Adverse Balance
OF Trade---Views OF
an Expert.

Four generations of the Cramp fam
lily have III succession contributed to
their present pr%e-eminence in Amer
lean shipbuilding. Their Philadelphia
shipyard now ranks in extent and out
put with the best In Europe, the pro-
uct being always regarded as unex-
celled in finish and efficiency. Charles
II. Cramp is the present head of the
family and its shipbuilding company.
On this account, and the weight OF au-
thority given TO his utterances on the
the probable early passage of the
shipping bill, what he says is of time
ly var4fr
Great Britain's imports in 1884,
said Mr.. Cramp, when asked for a
brief statement, exceeded her eX-
ports by $780, Oo, 600, which is the
largest adverse balance of trade in
British history. How does she make it
good chiefly through her vast ship
ping. Let me explain: At the last
meeting of the directorate of the
Peninsular and Oriental Steamship
company--the largest in the world, by
the way--its president placed it's av-
eragc earnings at $50 per gross ton,
and which, in view Of the competition
to which it is subjected, may be re-
garded as the minimum per ton earn
ing of British steamships. lnforma-
ton from other authentic sources in
dicates that the average earning OF
the entire British steam feet, consist
ing of 100000 tons, will not fall short
Of $40 per on per year. The British
steam feet, therefore, annually earns
$500, 0 0 600 n year. Her sea-going
sailing feet, consisting of 2,73j,076
tons, earns between $45 and $50 per
ton per year, or say in the aggregate
$130,000, 000. The annual profits of
banking, commissions and insurance
in connection with this shipping, are
about II per cent Of the traffic earn
ings. This shows: Steam feet earns
$500, 000, 900, sailing feet earns $780,
100000, and other profits on shipping
amount to $62, 500, OO0-showing n to-
tai annual earning from British ship
ping of $69s, 20O,O a year, say in
round numbers 100000 600.
The earning of her shipping, it will
be seen, nearly wipes out Great Brit
am y uuNtISc lTuut DdldItc, 'OI'll-
ued Mr.. Cramp, land her revenue from
foreign Investments far more than cX-
ceeds the difference.
"Of this colossal revenue conclud-
ed Mr.. Cramp, "the United States con-
tributed a little more than two-fifths
directly: or, in other words, the pro-
ducers and of the United
States pay to British shipowners not
less than S2s0,000 900 n year as the
common carriers of American COM
merce to and from all parts Of the
world"
Congress is therefore confronted
with the necessity of relieving the
American people from the annual
drain of $3.50, 100000 now contributed
10y them for the employment and per-
manent enrichment Of Britons. II is
conceded by all, and the president and
his cabinet are emphatic on the sub
iect, that the only way of overcoming
this adverse and dangerous condition
is for congress to speedily come to the
aid of American shipping. The pass
age of the shipping bill, the provisions
of which are in perfect accord with
the urgent official recommendations
of the president and the secretary of
the treasury, and which bill has been
favorably reported from the commit
tees TO each branch of congress, will
revive American shipping in the for
eign trade and lead to the eventual re-
tention at home of those vast millions,
the foreign outgo of which drains rs
of our gold or its equivalent in our
products.