Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1901-01-18
RESORT TO A Trick.
ENEMIES OF THE SHIPPING BILL
BECOMING ALARMED.
Take Step. to Prevent Passage of the
Measure byInflaming the Public Mind
Axainst It-Grcat Foreign Steamship
Lobby Present in Washington.

Meusure OyAuuamtn8 u the FuOltC Mind
ARainst It-Grcat Foreign Steamship
Lobby Present in Washington.
Washington correspondence:
Ii the number Of Measurements being
circulated concerning the merchant
marine revival bill, and most of which
are alleged to originate in Washington,
indicate anything mt all, it is that the
enemies of that measure are alarmed,
and are taking steps to prevent its
passage by the old trick of intiaming
the public mind against it. Not day
passes but an alleged special" from
Washington is published in this or that
ncwspaper-and it may he said with
truth that the great dailies in New
York seem to be worked more often
and at greater length than any others
which dispatches predict the failure of
the shipping bill.
The fact that the administration
tavors the passage of the bill. as is
vel! known here, is never alluded to
i'll the dispatches referred to. The fact
that the great leaders on the Republic
can side in each branch of Congress
have Ill expressed themselves rs deter
mined 10 do their utmost to pass that
hill scarcely ever appears in type. The
presence i'll Washington of Il great
lobby. representing the foreign steam
ship lines. finds no space in the oppo-
>ition newspapers. nor is the peculiar
ftnt 1n0, st n
ont. as it should be. for the information
OF the people at large. These kinds of
tactics may succeed for while, and
the people may he fooled by them. but
it can't last forever.
Here is Il measure that has been
favorably reported for passage to the
Senate and to the House by the proper
committees In two Successive Con-
crosses. 1t has been under consider
alton for over three years in Il public
Way. and has been discussed from one
end of the country to the other. Its
provisions are we'll known; it has been
indorsed by State legislatures. by
chambers of commerce. boards of
trade, agricultural organizations and
other representative associations. 1t
has been indorsed by political conven-
tlons and by industrial conventions.
Nearly three hundred different organi-
cations. many of which are representa-
tive OF the greatest industrial and COM
mercial interests of the country. have
petitioned Congress to pass it. and
Congress is right on the eve of doing
so when opposition, instigated by the
foreign interests menaccd by the bill,
appears in Washington determined to
defeat it.
But the people will not stand for this
thing. 1t is very clear that the public
are determined to see American ships
succeed to Il portion-a majority por-
ton. too-of our foreign carrying. The
idea of paying to foreign shipowners
each year as much as we collect at
all of our custom houses. the idea of
having paid during the past generation
to foreign ship owners twice as much
as the sum of our national debt at the
close of our civil war. is becoming in
tolerable to the people. This sort of
ring the time when the United States
shall become Il creditor, and cease to
be Il debtor, nation. Nothing but
American interests, they see. will be
advanced if the bill pnsses-only GER
tain foreign interests will be injured
IL it passes. This is sort of situation
chat will become so clear to the people
that they will be very apt to manifest
their displeasure in drastic manner,
if Congress again adjourns without
enacting legislation that will start the
country on the way of building up it's
shipping in the foreign trade.
The producers of the country have
seen where they will be benefited
through the enactment of shipping
bill. They have been shown that Amer
lean ships will only be able to secure
The carrying of exports from the Unit
ed States, now enjoyed by foreign
ships, by reduction in the rates of
ocean freight. No one will he willing
to give an American ship larger
amount of freight money for CARRYING
away our exports than foreign ship
will be willing to carry it for, and the
passage of measure of this kind, it is
seen, will raise up rivals to the foreign
lines that now monopolize our export
carrying. and which charge us practi-
cally what they like for it. 1t was
clearly pointed out by Senator Frye, in
his great speech in the Senate, that
there would be an average cut of %
per cent in the cost of carrying our ex-
ports and imports. as soon as the meas
ure then and now pending got into
good working form. Such reduction,
in the saving in freight rates alone, he
pointed out, would amount to $50, ,OOO.-
900 year, so enormous is the annual
sum now paid for our foreign carrying.
TO save such sum, by sending our
exports abroad in our own ships, and
to give to our own people the employ
ment that comes from the expenditure
In the United States of the whole $780,
100000 year now paid for ocean
freight transportation, is pretty big
undertaking. and naturally the opposi-