Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-01-10
RESORT TO A TRICK.
ENEMIES OF THE SHIPPING BILL
BECOMING ALARMED.
Take steps TO Prevent Passage OF the
Measure byInflaming the Public MArd
Against It-Great Foreign steamsnip
r.ohbv Present in Washington.

| Washington, correspondence:
If the number of misstatements being
circulated concerning the mercnant
marine revival bill, and most OF Wnicn
are alleged to originate In washington
indicate anything at all, It IS tnat tue
enemies of that measure are alarmed
and are taking steps to prevent us
passage by the old trick OF lnnamng
the public mind against 1t. NOT Jay
passes but an alleged "speclai IroM
Washington is published in this or that
newspaper-and it may be said with
truth that the great dailies IN New
York seem to be worked more orteh
and at greater length than any others
which dispatches predict the failure OF
the shipping bill.
The fact that the administrator
favors the passage of the bill, as IS
well known here, is never alluded 10
In the dispatches referred to. Inc Iact
that the great leaders on the RepuDH-
can side in each branch OF Congress
have all expressed themselves as deter
mined to do their utmost to pass that
bill scarcely ever appears In type. Inc
presence in Washington of great
lobby, representing the foreign steam
ship lines, finds no space in the oppo-
sition newspapers, nor is the pecuilar
work that these lobbyists do pointed
out, as 1t should be, for the information
of the people at large. These kinds OF
tactics may succeed for while, and
the people may be fooled by them, but
it can't last forever.
Here is a 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 a public
way, and has been discussed from one
end of the country to the other. Its
provisions are well known; it has been
Endorsed by State legislatures, by
chambers of commerce, boards of
trade, agricultural organizations and
other representative associations. 1t
has been Endorsed by political conven-
lions 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 menaced 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 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 |
thing, they see, is indefinitely defer
ring the time when the United States I
shall become creditor and cease to
be a debtor, nation. Nothing but
American interests, they see, will be
advanced if the bill passes-only GER
tain foreign interests will be injured
II 1T passes. This is sort of situation
that will become SO clear to the people
that they will be very apt to manifest
their displeasure in drastic manner,
II 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 win 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 be willing
to give an American ship a larger
amount of freight money for CARRYING
away our exports than a foreign shin
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
and which charge us practi-
Il he. |
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-
300 year, SO enormous is the animal
sum now paid for our foreign CARRYING.
To save such a sum, by sending our
exports abroad in our own ships. and
to give to our own people the employ
nent that comes from the expenditure
n the United States of the whole S2c0-
100000 a year now paid for ocean
freight transportation, is a pretty big
undertaking, and naturally the onposi.