The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-24


The Hanna Frye Ship Subsidy bill came
up in the Senate yesterday as soon as the
Legislative. Executive and Judicial bill
had been passed. The move to have the
bill called up was a signal for alert ac-
tion on the part of the opponents of the
measure. and Mr.. Pettigrew insisted upon
and obtained a ruling which will permit
all amendments, pertinent or other
wise" to be offered and freely discussed.
This opens the door for all manner OF
debate. which can be indefinitely pro-
longed.
Mr.. Frye left the chair to call up the
Subsidy bill.
Mr. Jones of Arkansas said that the
Senate should dispose of the appropria-
tIon bills before any measure of this kind
should be called up.
The motion to bring the bill before the
Senate was carried without division.
Mr.. Pettus obpected to the committee
amendments being passed over. and in
sisted upon their consideration.
Mr.. Pettigrew demanded that the Chair
make no arbitrary rulings Mr.. Foraker,
who was in the chair, said that he would
not do anything of the kind.
The reading of the committee amend
ments was then proceeded with.
Mr.. Vest Takes the Floor.
Mr.. Vest was recognized and addressed
the Chair in opposition TO the bill.
aThe decline of the American marine,
f-o,, ISEI ,xbar eS-
ent navigation laws we're placed up5n the
statute books. The civil war. which the
Senator from Ohio tMr. Hanna) says
caused the decline Of the merchant ma
rine, had nothing to do with the matter.
The repeal Of these navigation laws will
do more TO foster the construction OF VS.
sells than a dozen subsidy bills.
THE present tariff laws are the inter-
dependent mutuality of greed, and TINS
bill is the outcome of the tariff. This bill
is the embodiment of the essence and
spirit of barbaric exclusion, and should
never be adopted.
when this measure was before the
Committee on Commerce l asked former
Senator Edmunds if this bill was not
merely a subsidy measure. He replied in
dignan.ly that it was not. He said that 1t
was a bill to provide for auxiliary cruis-
ers for the navy. The absurdity OF this
proposition has often occurred to me.
After Mr. Edmunds had made this state
lnent he wrote a letter to the Committee
on Commerce. stating that export poun-
ties were unconstitutional
Dictated by Special Interests.
Continuing. Mr.. Vest said that while
the bill came ostensibly from the Com
mittee on Commerce. 1t really came from
a committee of promotion, composed of
twenty-five very respectable and even en-
inent gentlemen. Four of them were mem
bers Of the Senate. and one a member. of
the House-all selected by the Senator
from Maine (Mr. Frye. The chairman OF
that committee on promotion was Glenn
ent a. Griscom, of Philadelphia, Presi-
dent of the American International Ship
ping Company. That company was the
largest beneficiary under the proposed
. legislation and no just or fair man could
blame Mr.. Griscom for endeavoring to do
the best he could for his corporation. He
(Mr. Nest) could not help expressing sur
prise and regret that there was not, on
that committee OF promotion, one member
who was willing that citizen of the Uni
ted States should be permitted to buy his
ship where he could buy it cheapest and
sail II under the flag of his country.
"In other words said he, 'the commit
tee of twenty -fYe is, in the language of
the Senator from Maine, unanimous in
favor Of the obsolete and outrageous nav
igation laws, which are stain upon the
statutes of the United States and which
for fifty years have been riding our mer-
chant marine to death as the old Man of
the. Sea rode to exhaustion 'Sinbad the
SAILOR
Democratic member of the committee of
wenty-hve-Eugene T. Chamberlain of
New York-who had, he said, held the
office of Commissioner of Navigation
under Mr.. Cleveland In 1893 and who then
was a violent antagonist of ship subsidies
and an earnest advocate of free ships,
who now advocated subsidies and opposed
free ships.
Mr. Chamberlain said Mr.. Vest,
''awoke one morning and saw the smoke
drifting TO the Republican camp, and the
Commissioner drifted with the smoke.
Decay of American shipping.
NJ Vest denied that higher wages in
the United States were the cause of the
decay in American shipping. and in
stanced the success OF the British against
the other maritime nations of Europe,
where wages were so low. Six years ago,
he said he was in Hamburg, the largest
shipping port in the world. There were
then in that harbor. he said. 152 steam
ships, nearly two-thirds of them under
the British flag, and not one under the
flag of the United States. England had
been wise enough. he said. to do what
Americans in their stolidity or stupidity
refused to do, and had repealed her nayi-
cation laws.
Mr.. Hanna asked Mra Vest whether the
Democratic party had not had the oppor-
tunity to repeal the navigation laws.
Never, never. never" Mr.. Vest ex-
claimed There never was a time when
certain Democrats from seaboard States
did not vote with the Republicans on this
question. Never has there been a time
during the twenty-ons years that / have
been in the Senate when we could pass
through the Committee on Commerce a
bill for the repeal of these outrageous
navigation laws. The whole tariff inter
ests AID influences were arrayed in behalf
OF them"
Mr.. Vest ridiculed the idea Of using the
subsidized steamers for war purposes, and