Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-08-23
THE SOUTH WANTS SHIPS
BUSINESS MEN FAVOR NATIONAL
AID TO MERCHANT MARINE.

The rapid growth OF nnanulac'u.n
in the South and it's beneficial eHect
upon other industries are arousing IN
the minds of the people new thoughts
and hopes for the future OF their great
section of the Union. One or the most
reliable authorities on Southern prog
ress and development is K. ii. Ed
monds, the well-known Baltimore pub
Usher, who keeps in constant personal
touch with the up-to-date sentiment OF
the leading manufacturers, bankers
and influential men of the South. 1t is
his repeated declaration, and as re-
suit of his own observations, that the
Southern business men are almost
unit in favor of national aid in the re-
establishment of our ships upon the
seas. He fnus the sentiment among
men representatives of Southern indus
trial AMI commercial progress quite at
variance with that disclosed by their
REPRESENTATIVES, and Senators in Con-
gress. The latter seem to represent
theoretical opposition to the utilization
of modern methods for the advance
ment of Industrial prosperity that has
kept back Southern development for
fully a generation.
In the foreign trade of the United
States, as conducted between Southern
and foreign ports, one of the rarest
sights is the American flag floating
from the sterns of the ships conduct
ing that trade. That the demand has
grown in the South for national legisla-
ton for the upbuilding of our merchant
marine seems to Mr.. Edmonds to be
logical. He sees in the realization of
the growing hopes of his people in this
respect much of permanent beneht to
the section he represents. He has made
an especial study of ante-bellum senti-
ment on the subject of American mari
time development. and was surprised
to find that, as far back as sixty years
ago. the sentiment in favor of safe
guarding and promoting our merchant
marine commanded the thoughtful at
tention of the most advanced of South
ern statesmen and business men.
In an address before the Cotton Spin
ners' Association at Charlotte, \. c.,
recently, Mr. Edmonds stated that in
1915 John c.. Calhoun presided at
convention in Memphis, at which the
subject was discussed. In 1851 re-
port was made at a Virginia conven-
ton in favor of facilitating the mails
through the establishment of steamship
lines running between Hampton Roads
and European ports. Another conven-
ton in Memphis, held in 1858, favored
Government encouragement and pro-
lection in the establishment of steam
ship lines between Southern and Euro
pean ports. The Charleston conven-
ton of 1854 urged Congress to encour-
age the establishment of mail steam
ships, even to the extent of granting
State bounties in the form of rebates
to shippers employing American YES
sells. In 1856 Louisiana's Legislature
passed an act paying So per ton bounty
on all ships exceeding 100 tons burden
built in the State. A report made to
the Legislature of Alabama as far back
as 1888 showed that her citizens con-
tributed $1,S00,000 a year to get their
cotton to Europe, and contained the
query, IF this amount must be paid,
why should it not be paid to our own
citizens?" No wonder score of years
later Alabama's Legislature passed an
act granting bounty of S4 per ton on
all steamers built within that State.
AT Charleston. in 1899, Robert Y.
Hayne discussed the subject before
commercial convention held in that
city, in which he said that Southern
and Southwestern States were produc-
ing nearly three-quarters of the do
mestic exports of the Union, although
importing not to exceed one-tenth of
the foreign merchandise entering the
United States, and that foreign COM
merce was causing cities of other
States to flourish while Southern cities
were falling into decay" Lieut.. NJ. +.
Maury, famous for his invaluable aids
20 mariners upon the oceans, was i'm
pressed with the immense benefits
Southern States would derive from the
establishment of steamship lines be-
tween Southern and European ports.
For many years he urged the invest
ment of Southern capital in such lines,
showing the great and growing power
her rich foreign commerce was giving
to New York and deploring the fact
that the South was missing its oppor-
tunities to share therein. He saw fer
Norfolk, Virginia, possibilities of de-
velopment which have never been re-
allied, but which it seems possible are
likely Of fulfillment through the grow
Ing scarcity of European coal and the
inevitable dependence of the world in
the future for the greater part of its
coal supplies upon the United States
In our trade with other American re-
publics Maury saw advantages even
greater than those possible through our
commercial intercourse with Europe
and he was never done urging upon
the people OF the South the wisdom of
generously encouraging American mar
itime development through the estab-
iishment CT steamship lines to the West
indies Central and South America. He
advocated ship canal across the