The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-26


| west Indies, or between Buffalo and
Montreal, or between Baltimore and Cape
Town. Then he draws the usual English
deadly parallel that after the English mad
discovered protection to be Injurious to
them, they repealed the coastwise navi-
cation laws, and that then the American
shipping went on increasing until 1850
when the iron ship came in with it's
steam screw; but that, by singular inad-
vertence on the part of the Americans
the American wooden clipper could not
hold out against the British iron screw,
and America could not then build iron
screws
30 1t was our inability to build iron
screw steamers, and not our navigation
laws, which finally put our shipping into
decay! Excellent But what are the
facts? Somewhat lengthy for a newspa-
| Fer article, yet I beg your Indulgence.
Inc English and colonial navigation
laws, so-called, SO far as they relate
to coastwise or colonial or inter-colonia1
traffic, have never been repealed. No
American vessel can now traffic between
Toronto and Montreal, any more than a
Canadian vessel can between Duluth and
Buffalo, or between New York and San
Francisco. No American vessel can take
cargo at ports in Australasia for ports
in Canada or the British West Indies
BY act Of George ~, no goods could be
carried from any British possession in
Asia, Africa or America, 10 any other
such possessions, nor from part of any
such possessions to another part of the
in
the establishment of the coastwise nav
1gation laws which We now initiate. And
the Britishs free ports,'' so-caIied by
act of parliament were free only so far
that ANY foreign vessel may pass from
one colonial port to another and dis
charge part of her cargo at one and a
part at the other. Portions of the re-
turn cargo may also be taken in at diff
ferent ports, but cannot be landed either
in any other colony or in the British
European dominions.' The freedom of
such coastwise regulations is conspicuous,
to say the least; but trifle Anticipated.
And even in 1880, after retaliation had
reduced the British seaman to a due
sense of the Importance of the American
i trade, the utmost reach of the English
| liberality went this far and no farther,
| to wit:
| And his majesty doth further, by the
| advice aforesaid, and in pursuance of the
| powers aforesaid, declare that the ships
| of and belonging to the United States Of
! America may import from the United
1 States aforesaid, into the British posses
| sions abroad goods, the produce of those
! states, and may export goods from the
! British possessions abroad, to be carried
/ to any foreign country whatever.
And the same act of George ". also
provided, that:
mo goods shall be imported into any
! British possession in Asia, Africa or
America in any foreign ships unless they
be the ships OF the country OF which the
goods are the product and from which
they are imported"
There is no sign Of protection" or sub
sidy in that is there? And by the same
! act, every British ship, during the whole
of any voyage, in any part of the world,
must be navigated by the master who
is a British subject and a crew three
fourths of whom, must be British sub
! jects. Only within the last fifty years
have the navigation laws of the United
| States required American vessels to be
mastered" by American citizens, and
there is still hiatus in the matter of
said in my letter to the Dispatch, ocean
way-freights have been for over q hum
dred years the empire and power OF the
British ship. They are the backbone
Of the British mercantile marine. The
| tramp ship could not exist without them,
! unless protected or subsidized. And look
| at the way-freights that England has
| gobbled up under cover Of 4'coastwise''
navigation laws. Cape Town, Melbourne,
| Sydney, Hongkong, Ga British seaport
| On the coast of Asia,) Alden, Alexandra,
British Honduras. British West Indies
| Ga dozen or more ports). the mouth of
| the st. Lawrence, the north coast of the
| great lakes, the mouth Of the Congo,
| Calcutta, Borneo, New Zealand, Cey1on,
| Cypons almost Cons tantinople), Vancou-
! ver-where they had not set Up the Eng
fish coastwise navigation laws.
And what is the play of the game? Lat
in America buys of Europe over four
! hundred millions Of manufactured goods
| per annun1, and We buy Of Latin Amer
| lea almost three hundred millions OF trop-
| zeal products-coffee, sugar, tobacco, rub
Der, etc. IN excess of our sales to these
| practically cargoed for Rio or Buenos
Ayres. She finishes her cargo at Ant
werp or Hamburg. At Rio or Plata she
! discharges portions of her cargo of goods,
and takes on coffee OF rubber for Bos-
ton or Baltimore. She turns about, and
drops further goods at Guiana, or Vene-
! zuelan ports. taking further cargoes of
/ nuts or fruits; at Central American ports
! the same, and at Cuba and Bermuda
the same, landing at Baltimore or New
York in partial if not full cargo, and there
easily cargoing with wheat or corn Or
-four or cotton for home
| What of the American ships? The same
fate that befell three whalenacks that
entered the Central American trade in
! 1891. They must leave Boston OF New
| York or Baltimore in ballast, OF nearly
| SO, as we sell these countries, under the
/ shadow (the cloud of the Monroe doc
! trine, scarcely anything. The trip out
wards is, therefore, made a a dead loss,
! necessitatfng good rates on return cargo.
| But the return cargo is secured at the
! expense of competition with the English
ship making the triangle from London
! to Liverpool via South America, and the
rate is cut rate, and the voyage a los
/ ing one. The vessel soon goes out of