The Saint Paul globe., 1900-12-25
EMPIRE OF THE BRITISH SHIP
The Ship Subsidy Bill and the
COastwise Navigation Laws.

C0astwise Navigation Laws.
To the Editor of the Globe: I ac-
cept with pleasure your kindly offer to
answer in Your columns the editorial in
the Dispatch of last Wednesday, which
ridiculed my attitude on the ship subsidy
question. But let me say at once that
my letter to the Dispatch was perhaps
immoderately long for daily paper
which is compelled to dispose of such
considerable matters by a mere hasty
paragraph thrown off upon inspira ton
and not upon study. l submit the let
ter to you. realizing that it may also
De too long for You to use. as I will
also ask your permission to add other
matters In a separate article. Very re-
spect1ully, w. F. Street
Mr.. Streets letter to the Dispatch is
given herewith:
10 the Editor of the Dispatch: It is
with something akin to curiosity, blend
eu win surprise. that l have read YOUR
Tt recent articles, on the ship subsidy bill.
dHe ,Dlspatch has been heretofore uni
!oTIhIy Republican, and a believer in the
protective tariff I cannot remember
Ht When 1t ran after the free trade heresy.
Ihe American market for American
goods has been it's theory in politics.:
ana 1t was my impression that its cor
ieiallEe-American freights for Amer
eGel oIsd sdnps.Weuid find in you as anxious
ana earnest ian indorser. It is diflcuIt
10 10 understand what has come over the
western Republican press since cleo
~ ;toH IS the American market less than
IL formerly was? Because our iron mas
teTS are selling a few million dollars
worth of iron@ and steel abroad. lis that
reason 10 make 3upstarts of us, and in
ouce us to- throw open our doors to the
Steel and iron of all the world? I know
II is said thai our steel mills can now
compete &C IT7 with the world. But the fact
IS. all the steel mills of Europe have
been oVercrowded with work and We
are getting onlya the overflow That is
atJested by the inability of the English
iiIinr, Ii,ielS 10 compete with our mills for de-
thilate ourselves. England practiced pro
cectlon and reciprocity for 200 years be-
1pFe she arrived at free trade If YOU
thlnk not, examine her trade treaties
WIN the, Spaniards and Portuguese.
since the days of Elizabeth and Sir
waiter Raleigh there has not been a
British ship. Even though the American
coIohles were lost to her, British COM
mon mon sense succeeded in throwing enough
qosC tbs' INTO american politics TO obscure
tne VISIONS of our statesmen on the shin
ping question, and English ships con-
unued carrying the carsoes across the
AbIldf15lc, A. 6n:.e ana from American ports on
the PacItic to European ports The
american people have persisted. with
persistence worthy Of better sense
"a tio,i not understanding the shipping ques-
sHIlfpnasters. 81 L would say that the chief
defect in American politics lies in the
oerteht oe t lnndeiity in our own genfuses
Of trade. We have been too ins1lar. foo
much occupied in railroading. too much
gwen TO d1scOntent at ourselves too in
IITospectlVe-there have been too many
fianletS among us. for us to understand
that. If we would save our sbinDinp hills
we must listen to the voice of the dock
and snip owner. and not charge him too
1io pi,tt5eriy ots with schemes for personal en-
Ilchmeht Tbe earnest desire of every
american should be that every American
snip owner should make money. Yon
faa' fba yes; put not at the expense of
tne rest OF the community" But every
man who gets rich gets so at the ex.
pense of his fellow men Human nature
Is so constituted.
Te 94nie must watch. while others sleep;
mus runs the world away
Dismiss the notion that if is GRIM
Ior an American abroad to get rich. and
to call upon the flag of his counf,a, ~
protect him in his possessions, and we
shall have aHiYed-after-a hundred VaarS
at that common sense which has rno,,Is
ed England into, the grea test empre 1he
world has ever had. Let 1t becnms a
matter OF NATIONAL pride that landed
concession IN Venezuela, a railroad con-
cession in China or Africa, or a min
privilege in Russia, has been granted II
an American and that he has asked the
ChiIed states government to Drot ect
him IN his lights and that he has been
protected anl we shall have b G me son1n-
thing more than 1gul-s and sinpletens in
The axiom that trade follows the flag
sprang from the. docks and WAREHOUSES
OF Liverpool and the Mersey, and rot
from the parliament houses in Lond0n.
and that axiom has been the secret
art Of the British sailor in carrying hone
to the war office or the admiralty his
stories st of new lands and new islands in
lhe far OF waters CT the Pacific The
Brlush Hag must control the trade of
each new discovery. How? Why, Cf
course. by making British territory of the
new land. The navigation laws Of Great
Britain. for over two hundred years re
quired every vessel trading between Brit
lsh ports to carry the British fag, to be
a licensed English vessel When the col
onIes came IN they We're not permitted
to extend their coastWise navigation laws
to prohibition of English vessels, but
were required that ali YES els tradin9r
between colonial ports should carry The
British ensign-that is, should be licensed
by either the colonial or the royal ad-
miralty or shipping office
Mr. Benjamin Taylor, in 2. recent ar
t1cle on THE Development of B,i iSh
Shipping" says that there is no longec
any s,1y such thing as protection, to Britt h
tkrived after the old onerous navigation
laws We're repealed, and the throttle
thrown wide open to all the ships of all
the world His article may safely b.
taken with some grains of allowance hv
Americans. For the fact stands bevon6
question that no American vessel ever
traded between British ports Or Rritish
colonial ports. If the English navigati N
laws which gave England exclusive CON
troll of her ''ceastwise'' trade and which
carried the British flag into al parts of
the world, have been repealed, it is sim
gular that no British customs officer has
been advised of It,
1t is something to have accumulated
Capital-low rates of interest-and
port-to-pOrt traffic Ocean way freiphts
are the empire OF the British ship. And
ocean way freights came to them bv yir-
tue of the English faith being pinned to
the axiom ogItheir dockmen that trade
follows the flag" Three per cent diyi
dends are enough for the average Eng
lish investor ;to get out of his investment
in English sp1pS;E While their large lines
pay somewhat better than that, the aver
age hardly reaches it, But there are 9th
er things that go with the ship such as
early Information, private advices, new
lines of trade, and, of course, opportun-
tiles of investment. A British concession
is secured abroad and the next ship's
crew consists of some of the sons of
stocl1holderSs~W who go abroad to inspect
the premises with perhaps an engineer
among them to come home and report
to the British public II the property
secured abroad is valuable a British war
vessel will S6bn be found in the neighbor
hood. That Isl the sequence of British
common sense. The dividends will he
paid in London, if there are any.
Mr. Benjamin Taylor is one of that
school OF British writer's and statesmen
who have inundated the world in politics
and statecraft, just as Bacon and Shake
speare have in letters. And they all |
SrsraTy from the same era Raleigh was