Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-26
NEWS
DEPEW ON SHIP SUBSIDY.
Eloquent New Yorker Defends the
Subsidy Measure.

Washington, Jan. 26.-In speaking of
the ship subsidy bill in the senate YES
ttrday. Senator Depew began with sur
Vey of the country's first century devel-
opment, pointing out the immense ma
teral progress thai has been made in
agricultural and manufactures and how
our exports had gone down to 81, 500. 900
IN excess of the imports, and how the
International lines of communication had
heen developed into the most compre-
hensive in the world. But ne insisted
tH"t the development Of the country had
been one-sided. While prepared to feed
ana ciothe all the world outside the
rlted States, we had developed orr
transport system only to our own coast
line and had allowed our merchant ma
rine to remain undeveloped, so that there
was actually greater tonnage of Amer
lean vessels built in this country for the
foreign trade in 1870 than in 1900 Said
MI Depew:
me farm. the factory and the mine
nave filled the warehouses ana the docks
OF our Atlantic and Pacific coasts with
'neif wealth, employment and the hap
p'hess OF our people, and left their
transportation to Europe. to Asia. 70
Africa, to South America and to Aus
traila, 10 the greed of foreign ship
owners, TO the protection of foreign flags
, and to the hazards OF foreign wars
"A general collision, which is often
predicted in the European Newspapers.
among the great powers of Europe in
the mad haste of their na:ies and
armies to outstrip each other If. the a..
| QUESTION of spheres of influence in Asia
! and Africa, would act upon the United
, States, which might be simply a spec
tator of the conflict as an embargo on
our coast. We would be shut up within
ourselves as absolutely as if the navies
of the world We're blOckading our ports"
Looking to the remedy for the present
, stagnation in the American merchant
marine, Mr.. Depew said the cry Of free
ships" had long ago been discounted. 1t
! was not to be considered as a remedy,
! for it left out of the question the leve.-
! opment of an American shipbuilding in
! dustry. The plan of discriminating
! duties he said was also impracticabie
! France had tried it and been forced 10
repeal her law within year. No ma
ton would submit to discriminating
! duties without retaliation against us,
. and no nation like ours. which is more
Of seller than Il buyer. can afford to
provoke such retaliation and thus stimu-
late production in Russia. India, Egypt
/ and Asia against our cotton and our
corn.
The speakers conclusion was that
there remained only the subsidy as a
| practical solution of the problem. Said
he:
"All nations are agreed that their
merchant marine can be built up only by
bounties. The bOunties paid last year
by the different marine nations were
$a6.000,0o, in round numbers, against ST.
| tn hare II IL Iy,,;t
! States. German statesmen discovered
that if the empire was to find a market
for its growing surplus it must have Its
own ships. Within the past few years
the German government has been In
creasing directly it's subsidies and has
lent every possible government encour-
agement to the enlargement of German
/ shipyards and the construction ana OPP
era. ton of German steamships
i The result has been that Germany has
I come 10 the first and second rank as q