The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-15
STILL, IRcING THE SHIPPING BILL

In his address before the Southern
Cotton Spinners' Association at ATTAIN
ia last night Senator McLaurin of
| South Carolina gave a great deal of
time to the shipping bill, which COM
manded so large a share of the atten-
ton of the last Congress, and which
will be vigorously pushed in the pres
ent Congress. He declared that from
an economic point of view the South
| should favor the bill because it was
to her interest to have large Amer
! lean Merchant Marine. According to
his view the freight rates to foreign
ports on the Souths cotton, lumber,
naval stores and whatever other prod
ucts she exports would be less if there
were regular lines of steamships run
ming between her ports and the ports
of foreign countries. He also called
attention to the isthman canal, and
said that the South would benefit more
from that great work than any other
section, provided there were American
ships to carry the commerce between
her ports and those of the Far East.
The promoters of the shipping bill
will find it a difficult matter to con-
vince the American people that they
ought to be taxed to build steamships
and establish American steamship
lines. In the first place, unless the
appropriation for subsidies were much
larger than it is now proposed to make
it, only a few steamship lines would
be established by means of the bounty,
and having the benefit of the bounty
they could guard themselves against
| competition. Thus the bounty system
would check rather than encourage
the building of an American Merchant
Marine. 1t is worthy of notice that
France has been unsuccessful in her
efforts to build up her merchant marine
by means of bounties. The aid which
she gives it is more direct than that
given by any other country.
And it is a question whether any
new steamships would be built with
the aid Of the proposed subsidy, if it
is the intention to give bounties to
steamship lines composed of ships
owned, but not built, in American
shipyards, because from recent reports
it appears that a syndicate, of which
]. P. Morgan is the head, has already
| bought enough steamships to absorb
all of the bounty.
AS a matter of fact bounty is not
needed to encourage shipbuilding. Our
ship yards have now more orders than
they can fill. They are crowded with
work.
But the weakest Of all the arguments
which Senator McLaurin advanced was
that the shipping bill would enable our
merchants and manufacturers to cap
ture the trade of the Central and South
American states, the greater part of
which now goes to European countries,
and he endeavored to create the i'm
preston that the manufacturers of
the South would have little trouble
in getting the lions share of this
trade.
little inquiry would have satisfied
! the Senator that the reason the bulk
of the South American trade goes to
| Europe is not for the want of Ameri-
| can steamship lines to South American
| countries, but because American mer-
chants and manufactures refuse to
comply with the conditions demanded
by that trade. They do not offer what
is wanted, they do not comply with
requirements in manufacturing, they
refuse to pack merchandise as desired
and they decline to extend the credit
that South American merchants are
accustomed to. The trade is lost to
us therefore because of the short COM
ings of our manufacturers and mer-
chants, not for the need of greater
American Merchant Marine.
We are not of course against a mer-
chant marine great enough to carry
our entire commerce, but we do not
believe the way to get it is by taxing
the people to build ships and support
steamship lines. Amend our naviga-
| ton laws so that Americans can buy
ships in the cheapest market and sail
them under the American flag, and It
will not be long before the American
Merchant Marine will compare favora-
BILE with that of any other country.