The Washington times., 1901-09-17
Our Merchant Marine.

| Speaking of the foreign trade of
Hamburg, the greatest commercial city
of Continental Europe, "Bradstreets"
states that not a ship carrying the
American flag left that port for the
| United States last month or returned
| with American goods. This. in the view
of the trade journal referred to, is hu-
initiating circumstance, and especially
so because more goods are imported into
| Hamburg from the United States than
| from any other country. 1t is not easy
| to see where the humiliation comes in.
1t might as well be claimed that the
! merchant should feel humiliated when
he employs a truckman to haul and de-
| liver load of goods to a customer.
| The opinion seems to prevail largely
| in some quarters that our goods sold
I abroad, as well as those imported,
! should be carried in American bottoms
| and under the American flag, whether
! it would be profitable for the people of
this country to engage in that business
! or not. There is a great deal of senti-
/ mentality. and not of a very healthy
sort. either, in much of the talk going
the rounds about how much of our for
| eign trade is carried in foreign bottoms.
| For some unaccountable reason it
seems to be assumed that because we
produce and sell certain things we
should also carry them to their desti-
nation, and not only this, but that we
| should also carry what we buy The
| two propositions are contradictory of
each other, while there. is an absence of
! sound logic and good business sense
from both.
Everybody will concede the desira-
bility of having all of our national in
dustries move on apace, and develop in
harmonious proportions, subject always
to the condition that such development
is natural one. But there is no coun-
try on earth in which anything of the
kind ever has taken place or ever will.
| This is simply because no country is
| equally well adapted for all industries.
| Our ocean tonnage is comparatively
| small, because American capital could
be more profitably employed on land.
| That is perfectly obvious proposition.
And yet there are many people who
seem to think that the American mer-
| chant marine for the foreign carrying
trade should be built up at any cost
The answer to this is that if merchant
| ships are to be built at the expense of
| the whole people they should belong
to the whole people. and not to a few
individuals.
As before remarked, the building of
ships in America has been somewhat
retarded by the enormous profits to be
realized in other branches of business.
1t does not follow that ships could
not be built and sailed at a profit, but
merely that the prospective returns
were smaller than those which could
be obtained in other pursuits. If a man
with million dollars capital can build
a factory and realize twelve per cent
upon the venture he is very likely to do
SO rather than build an ocean steamer
and content himself with five or six or
seven. There is the explanation in
nutshell.
OF the vessels entering and clearing
at Hamburg, thirty-nine were Norwe-
gian, but that does not prove that Nor
way is more prosperous than the United
States. Very far from 1t. Norway is
an exceedingly poor country, and partly
from inclination and partly from ne
cessity she engages in the business of
carrying goods on the high seas for
richer nations.
Just as soon as the conditions are
such that the business of ocean car
riage becomes approximately as profit
able as the leading lines of industry
conducted on shore. We will find Amer
lean capital seeking investment in ma
rine enterprises on large scale.
Everything indicates that the time is
rapidly approaching, for the shipbuild-
ing industry is more fiourishing now
than 1t has been before in many years,
with strong indications of still better
conditions to come. We need give our
selves no particular distress on this
head. If Norway sent thirty nine ships
into the port of Hamburg. we sold thir-
ty-nine times as many goods there as
Norway did, and probably the dispro-
portion was still greater. If Germany
is building ships faster than we are, we
are manufacturing vastly more goods
than she is, and there is great deal
more profit in making the goods than
there is in Juggling them around the
world after they are made. When the
profits are equalized we may have no
fear but that American energy and
acumen win build up our ocean marine
in full measure with our requirements.
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