Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1900-12-14
PUBLIC TAXATION FOR PRIVATE
BENEFIT,

BENEFIT.
In days that have gone when the bold
sailor boy unreefed his canvas 10 the music
of the waves as the white. winged messen.
gers of commerce whitened every sea, bear.
ing upon American bottoms and under the
protection Of the American flag, the pro.
ducts of hardy and industrious people,
any American ship owner or captain would
have laughed to derision the suggestion that
he required assistance from the government
TO carry on his trade. Those were Demo
cratic days, when the old Democratic war
cry of "Free trade and sailors rights" rung
all over the land, when we had better ships,
and built by American workmen. All that
the men who owned them expected or asked
of the government Of the United States was 70
secure to them their rights To the freedom of
the sea.
How is it nowf The Republican party
has protected" American shipping till 1t
cannot venture away from the coast. The
tariff has go increased the cost OF everything
that merchants cannot afford TO have ships
built at home and are not allowed to buy
them abroad, and when they have ship II
costs 80 much TO handle it that their foreign
competitors have taken the business out OF
their hands. Such, at least, Is the explana.
ton given of the decline OF our merchant
marine. Other trades have been killed In
the same way, but American enterprise ls
still energetic and struggling hard, in spite
of bad laws, TO help itself, and with any
thing like fair show in the field of com.
merce, it would restore the flag upon every
Sea upon which the sun shines.
The Republican party is the open and
active enemy of every individual enterprise,
traverses every avenue of trade-it throws a
whitening blight over every individual in
dustry. The great commerce of the coun.
try is controlled by the trust combinations,
and II it be not profitable To them they go
TO Congress and get all the legislation they
need to make 1t profitable.
The bill now pending In the Senate,
subsidy scheme, which is being engineered
by Senator Hanna, and which was carefully
laid away in the secrecy Of silence and con.
cealment until after the election, Is the most
fragrant, un-American device that the Ad.
ministration has produced. 1t Is, no doubt,
u natural development of the protective
tariff system, which is a system Of increas
ing individual profits at the general expense,
but only 10 the instance OF the sugar boun
ties, which were enacted really for the hene
fit of the Trust, has a single industry been
directly subsidized in this extraordinary, and
no way old, outrageous way
The Philadelphia Times, in writing of this
great outrage, says;
at is admitted by Senator Frye that under
the bill he has in charge a steamship would
receive considerable sum annually beyond
the cost of her fuel and handling-that Is,
beyond the chief expenses Of operation
aud the immediate advantage to the large
steamship lines, while helping them against
their foreign competitors, would make them
dictators in the shipping business against
any such commercial spirit as built up our
old merchant marine.
ali such subsidies are necessary, II Is
confession that the system which requires
the government TO pay the expenses of
private business is radically wrong. The
true remedy is that indicated 10 the substi.
tute offered by Senator Vest, Tree ships and
the removal of the artificial restrictions that
have made American shipping Improbable
Without such restrictions,s natural demand
will create natural supply. No industry
can ever have healthy growth under arti
fetal stimulation The Republican policy
is not for the honor OF the American flag; it
is for the enrichment of few at the expense
OF the many"