Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-01-03
THE SUBSIDY BILL.
SENATOR FRYE EXPLAINS BENE-
FITS OF THE MEASURE.
Shows Very Clearly that the Building
Up of American Shipping Will Be or
Direct Advantage to All the People
of the United States.

Washington correspondence:
Senator Frye is concededly the pest
posted man in the Senate on marltlme
subjects, as it is to them, proDaDiy
more than to any other national Ques-
tons, that he has devoted more OF MS
attention during his more than quar-
ter of century in Congress. Beng
chairman of the Committee on Com
merce of the Senate these questions are
constantly forcing themselves upon ms
attention in the most practical OF ways
and it is his decision that is oIten oe-
cisive for or against measure aHect-
ing these subjects. Not alone is he re-
markably we'll versed in all OF the ue-
tails that appertain to our snlppins
upon the ocean, in the foreign trade, out
he is quite as we'll posted concerning
our vast coastwise and inland COM
merce. During each session OF Con-
gress, moreover, he is obliged to Iamli-
iarize himself with the details or the
commerce of each river and harDor OF
the country, in order to intelllgentiy de-
eide upon items in the river ana narDor
improvement bill.
It is not too much to say, In these cir
cumstances, that Senator Frye is a YER
liable human commercial and maritime
encyclopedia. 1t is this, of course, that
gives great weight to his expressions,
and the greatest weight to his opinions.
IL "a roma
lacking in any of the myriad details
affecting the vast commercial ana
maritime interests for which his posi-
ton requires that he shall take the lead
in legislating. And it is not remark
able, in these particular matters, that
his colleagues in the Senate should re-
pose the most implicit confidence IN
his Judgment, and generally accept his
Judgment as their own. When to this
may be added the remarkable, fact that
he has never yet reported bill favor
ably from his Commerce Committee to
the Senate that has not been passed by
that body, some idea of the extent of
his influence among his colleagues may
be obtained.
So, it was, that when Senator Frye
rose to speak in the Senate, a day or
two after the short session began, on
the shipping bill that has been before
the country, because it has been before
Congress for the last three years, his
colleagues gave the closest attention to
all that he said. The extent of the de-
toll of +ho
when it Is known that the Senator con-
Sumed several hours on two successive
days to say all that he wished to say
concerning the recent history leading
up to the shipping bill, and in making
plain every detail of the measure. The
memory Of no man can go back to a
time when Senator Frye delivered a
more thorough analytical, exhaustive,
detailed and convincing speech on the
great subject of our merchant marine
than in his last great effort in the Sen
ate.
That the people of the country are
still reading and digesting his speech
is shown conclusively in the demands
upon him for copies Of it. Certain Sen
ators and representatives have asked
for several hundred copies, each, in or
der to place them in the hands of their
influential constituents, and it is safe
to say that the general knowledge the
country over regarding our maritime
conditions and needs will be infinitely
more widespread and accurate as q re-
suit of the delivery of that speech than
1t has ever been before. Feeling that
the readers of these letters would like
to have a word or two from the Sena-
tor on the subject Of his shipping bill,
l sought him out, and asked him what
he could say, in a condensed form. that
could be readily grasped and under
stood by the busy millions. To this he
replied as follows:
THE people will be for or against the
Dill, as their minds are satisfied upon
two cardinal points, namely ~ Will if
the cost Of carrying our ex-
ports, and (2) VIII it be benefit to the
whole nation. On the first point, | am
convinced that from the very start
American ships will be compelled to
carry our foreign commerce more
cheaply than foreign ships do now. to
Wrest from them any of that business.
The benefit Of this goes right back to
the producers, whose products are
worth more or less as the cost of trans
portation to the consumer is cheap or
dear We may be sure, then, that the
producers, and by this mean the farm
ers, the men employed in the mills. in
the mines and in the factories, will all
receive a direct personal benefit. But
the advent of American ships will no
sure TO preclpltate a war of freight
rates with the foreign ships that now
10 our carrying, and here it is that
feel sure there will be reduction. for
years, of fully 25 per cent in our pres
mt freight rates-a reduction that will