The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-07

KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKs.
Beyond all comparison the most re-
markable contention put forward by
those who oppose the payment of ship
subsidies is the one that, because Brit
ish maritime commerce, while not sub
sidized, hourishes, Americans should not
eXpend the national funds in promoting
their shipping industry.
We can very easily refuse to accept
either the premise or the conclusion in
volved in this proposition. They are
equally unreliable Englands foreign
commerce, the most immense, as it is
the most far reaching, the world--has
ever known, is, pure and simple, the
product Of protection. We use the word
protection advisedIy 1t is the most Of
fensive that can sound in Democratic
ears. Protection is today, and has been
since responsible legislation was first
formulated in England, the great policy
of the British empire in regard to its
maritime interests.
Now that England has won through
Well-cOnsidered and liberal national poll
cy toward shippers, the virtual control
of the worlds commerce, what more
natural than that she should disaffirm
any policy on the part of a commercial
rival which might head in the same di-
rection? She finds quite a clever advocate
sof tbic idaa IN +ba o,,r,o,,+ ,,,,,o,l,o, ~ ~,
Forum 1t is Mr.. Benjamin Taylor,
and he lives, by the way, in Newcastle
on-tae-Tyne. Mr.. Taylor is a bright
man. He knows how to state a case
in half to make the better seem the
WORSE and to keep out of sight all facts
z hich might injuriously affect his case.
Mr., Taylor, very wisely for his cause,
takes up the contributions of Mr.. Eu-
gene Chamberlain, the present commits
sioner of navigation, to the literature of
the subject and seeks to meet their con-
itentioas How lily he succeeds IS
made very plain by his entire article.
Let us see how at the outset he avoids
the main facts involved in the case at
issue In the early paragraphs of his
article he says:
1.-THE British government does grant what
are called mail subsidies TO certain
steamship companies; and British ship
Iping ana ship building have tnrIven as
! the shipping and snip building Of no
other country have done. But there is
mo connection between the two facts.
1.-The progress of British merchant Snip
ping IS III no sense or degree due to the
/ payment of mail subsidies, which are
siMply remuneration for cargoes car
Tied. That cargo is postal matter, but
; the money paid for the carriage of it is
just as much freight as the money paid
10y me- Chants for the carriage of Man
chester COttOnS or American flour. If the
United States commissioner of navigation
falls into the error of connecting Brit
lsh maritime prosperity with mail sub
sides, it is not surprising if the fallacy
is pretty current in the United sta tes''
This sort Of special plea Of confession
and avoidance will deceive nobody. 1t is
bad enough as it stands. but when it is
followed up by matter far less covert
in its nature and effect, its true nature
as a plea is made palmer. 4"or instance,
in discussing these same subsidies, tho
amount of which Mr.. Taylor literally
dare not, for the integrity of his argu-
ment set forth, this advocate of foreign
Shipping interests says of them:
'@They are only attractive Indirectly in
respect-tO the prestige attaching to the
right to fly the Royal Mail flag, and
many of these mail steamship owners
Will confess TO you, in the confidence of
private intercourse, that the game is not
worth the candle. They are IN it, and
they continue in it, as is the custom Of
Pll men of commerce, to run in grooves;
but they are by no means the beneficent-
~ endowed beings that MIR. E. S. Cham
berlaln's argument may lead the gen
eral reader to believe"
Why does not Mr.. Taylor tell US how
little they are endowed? He has every
variety of figures to give on different
phases OF this subject, but not a single
one to show how much her majesty's
government pays for carrying mail
E'frcight"
But, misleading as his position is, he
would not urge that England has never
put forward her national funds to aid
her shipping. He would be laughed at
for the contention. And no student of
this question who is anxious to see
american shipping develop to reasonable
piOf'cl Luis VIII ueiuoe hlnlseT Tor
moment with the belief, after nearly
forty years of experience that there
can be anything like a spontaneous
growth of American foreign shipping.
No; reither Mr.. Taylor's arguments or
figures, nor those of any other of the ad-
.Nocstes of his school. touch the vital
question Of how best to promote the for
eign shipping of the United States.