Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-01-09
RESORT TO A TRICK.
ENEMIES OF TIE SHIPPING BILL
BECOMING ALARMED.
fake Steps to Prevent Passage of the
Measure byInfiaming the Public Mind
Against It-Great Foreign Steamship
Lobby Present in Washington.
washIngton eorresponaenee:


circulated concerning the merchant
marine revival bill, and most of which
are alleged to originate in Washington,
Indicate anything at all, il is that the
enemies of that measure are alarnle j,
and are taking steps to prevent It's
passage by the old trick of inhaming
the public mind against it. Not DAY
passes. but an alleged special from
Washington is published fin this Of that
newspaper-an it may be 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
favofs the passage of the BILL as is
well known here, is never alluded to
in the dispatches referred TO. The fact
that the great leaders on the Republi-
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. The
presence in Washington of great
lobby, representing the foreign stean-
ship lines, finds no SPACE in the oppo-
sition newspapers. nor is the peculiar
work that these lobbyists do pointed
out, as it should be, for the information
of the people at large. These kinds of
.dctics may succeed for while, and
the people may be fooled by them, but
it can't last forever
te, n hn GaS
fayorably 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 public
way, and has been discussed from one
end of the country to the other. Its
provisions are we'll known; it has been
Endorsed by State legislatures. by
chambers of commerce, boards of
trade, agricultural organizations and
other representative associations. 1t
has been indorsed 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 II, 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 a 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
shall become a creditor, and cease to-
be debtor, nation. Nothing but
American interests. they see. win be
advanced if the bill passes-only Ger
tain foreign interests win be injured
II Ii passes. This is a sort of situation
that will become so clear to the people
that ttey will be very apt to manifest
IL Congress again adjourns without
enacting legislation that will start the
country on the way of building up its
shipping in the foreign trade
The producers OF the country have
seen where they viii be benefited
through the enactment of shipping
bill. They have been shown that Amer
leah ships will only be able to secure
the carrying of exports from the Unit
ed States, now enjoyed by foreign
ships by a 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 ship
viii be willing to carry it for, and the
passage Of a 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 praeti-
cally what they like for 1t. 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 co.,
! 600 year. 50 enormous is the annual
sum now paid for our foreign carrying.
To save such a sum, by sending our
exports abroad in our own ships, aud
to give to, our own people the employ
ment that comes from the expenditure
i'm the United States of the whole 5000
600. 600 a year now paid for ocean
freight transportation, is pretty big
undertaking and naturally the opposi-
ton will be fierce on the part of those
who now enjoy that carrying and the
enormous enrichment that follows
| thcrefrom. But that IS precisely what
| Congress is expected TO do, and pre-
| cisely what those IN the majority in
Congress nave for the past i've years
been promising viii be done
Much surprise was felt in some quar-
ters at the size of he vote on the Hay
Pauncefotc treaty The President has,
! through Secretary of State Hay, al
ready. transmitted the treaty to the
Z