Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-01-28

Hciency, even more than by its wages
and by this test American labor on the
sea may again become the cheapest, be-
cause the most effective. as 1t is in so
many pursuits on land
False and blatant pretenses are seen to
be the patriotic professions of the bill
in its title and preamble, when tested by
its provisions.
TO promote the Commerce and In
crease the Foreign Trade of the United
States, and TO Provide Auxiliary Cruis
ers, Transports and Seamen for Govern
ment Use When Necessary" Surely
most desirable ends these, and what pa
triotic citizen would begrudge even nine
millions year for twenty or thirty years
to attain them. But how does this bill
do it?
There is not a word to increase trade
directly by ultimately reducing freight
rates, as is claimed, will promote COM
merce and increase foreign trade The
subsidy merely puts American ships on
an equality with foreign by paying the
owners of the former a bonus equal to
the extra cost of running them, as the
promoters claim. There is not a word in
the bill requiring lower freights. If
freights are already so low that Amerl-
can ships cannot be run without a gov
eminent subsidy, how can they be run
when freights fall still lower. unless more
subsidy be paid? Either this pretense is
false, or the promise to confine the sub
sidy to nine millions year is made 10 be
broken.
If, however. this amount of subsidy
should be increased sufficiently to throw
all our carrying trade into the hands of
the subsidized companies, there would be
a more serious danger This is ably
pointed out by David Lubin, who as the
representative of the farmers oranges
of nine States. advocates direct bounty
on agricultural exports, and who now in
the name of the great interest he repre-
sents opposes the ship subsidy on the
ground that by driving away foreign COM
petition in ocean freight rates, such a
measure will make possible a combina-
ton which will give the shipping people
of this country the power to raise and
lower the cost of freights at will Such
shipping trust, he says truly, could
raise or lower at will the price of all the
products of the country, and tax the peo-
pie hundreds of millions.
A reasonable reduction of the tariff, or
would vastly increase our foreign trade
without a dollars expense to the treas
ury, and to the great benefit of the peo-
pie at large. Well may we distrust the
professed efforts to increase foreign trade
by those who have raised the highest tar
if barriers in the history Of the country
on purpose to prevent foreign trade
Auxiliary Cruisers and Transports
The bill contains no requirements for
fitting ships for war purposes or for any
better, stronger, or faster ships than mer-
chant marine On the contrary it ac,
tually releases existing lines which will
avail themselves of its subsidy, from
those under which they are new placed.
1t only provides that subsidized ships may
be taken by the government in time OF
war on paying fair compensation, which
is already the right of the government
under the law of eminent domain to
which all American vessels are subject
American Seamen Sacrificed.
American sailors are deprived of what
little protection they now have. The SUBJ
sidized vessels are actually exempted
from employing American sailors by the
cunning provision that at least one
fourth of the navigation crew shall be
American citizens, but if they cannot be
reasonably obtained the shipment of per-
sons not Americans to make up the nee
essary number of the crew is allowed.
The only other provisions for the benefit
of the American sailor are that one
American boy shall be employed for each
one thousand tons, who shall be paid
what his services are worth, and a bounty
of one dollar month to deep sea fish
ermen while at sea, and that one-third Of
the crews of fishermen receiving subsidy
shall be American citizens. BY these
cunningly devised provisions the protec-
ton of existing laws requiring in certain
mail line one-half of the crews to be
Americans, and other advantages, are re-
moved from the ships subsidized under
this bill
Nothing more clearly proves the mala-
fides of this measure than the cynical
abandonment Of the American sailor. No
one who recalls the former proud pre-
eminence of our American merchant ma
rine, and the glorious record of the Yam
Ike seamen, but must feel indignant at
TIL barefaced attempt to extort a sub
sidy in his name. Were 1t possible to
ACNANC IlletI ptteu OI SdlIOTS, only recent
~ extinct, their skill, daring and business
ability would soon distance all compel
itors without a dollars subsidy. No sub
sidy scheme will ever bring them back.
The very nature of subsidy paralyzes its
recipients, teaches them to lean on the
government. and robs them of self-re-
lance. 1t is the free field Of unrestrained
competition which calls forth mans lat
emit powers. and leads to his brightest
achievements
Trust Measure.
1t has well been characterized as a |
measure of trusts, by trusts and for |
trusts.
1t Is concocted by those who will be its |
chief beneficiaries, and is cunningIy con- !
trived to fit the vessels they have. or have |
contracted for, giving them the lions |
share of the subsidy, with small per- |
centage for outsiders. There is no pop |
ular or national demand for IT, and II |
would seem that nobody has petitioned |
for 1t except at the instigation or the pro- |
motors, and few even then.
Senator Mark Hanna's new shipbuild- |
ing company on the Great Lakes the 1
American Shipbuilding Company. the /
Cramps, the International Navigation |
Company, whose president, c. A Girls
com, has been most active as witness |
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