Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-02-12
VERY FUNNY, INDEED.

The wisdom OF the dudSe Iho| eNN
shoemaker should stick to his last
was never more forcibly eXempllhed
than in the case of the alleged humor-
ist. M. D. Langdon, otherwise known
as Eli Perkins who on passing
through the city was interviewed by
the Intelligencer. and talked in serl-
Gus vein, choosing the Hanna snip
subsidy bill as his subject. Our friend
Eli" is in favor of this scheme to
plumber the American people OF $270,-
600 900 for the benefit of a monster
shipping and ship building trust.
This SO, 100000 year bonus paid to
our own people" says Eli Will
save 5000, 100000 from being paid to
foreigners. This subsidy would cosc
our people about eleven cents apiece
and when our people build the ships
and get the business we can stop the
subsidy as we can now stop the tariff
on steel and tin"
ELI" is unfortunate in his selection
of tariff illustrations TO bolster up his
subsidy theory. 1t wouldn't do to tell
the steel or the tin plate trust that 1--WE
can now stop the tariff on steel and
tim" Let the unsophisticated Eel"
try it on if he wants to get jumped on
real hard. Although the American
people have been paying these in
FAINT industries a high tariff bounty
for years, most of them for genera
ton, instead of being able to stop the
bounty, the demands have steadily
grown for more tariff, and the last
tariff-the Dingley-is the highest and
most exoribitant in the history not only
of this country but the entire world.
Doesn't Eli" know that the subsidy
bill proposes to continue the bounty
for thirty years? And who will say
that the beneficiaries will be any more
willing to let go the public teat at the
end of that time than the fairfield
trusts now are at the end of similar
peIIOu vi IdFlH bounty
Eli should be sure of his facts be-
fore speaking so positively. And this
applies also to his assertion that we
now pay s200,00O,OO0 year to foreign
ers in ocean freights. We do nothing
OF the sort, and the proposed subsidy
grab would save neither this nor any
other sum, for the reason that the
bulk of these freights is already going
to Americans, who largely own and
man these foreign built vessels but are
prohibited by our Anticipated shipping
laws from flying over them the Amer
lean flag. The simple repeal of these
absurd laws would Witness the return
of the American flag to its old-time
place on the high seas in one night
and without a dollar of aid. The pro-
posed subsidy measure would simply
drive these small American ship own
ers from the seas and substitute
gigantic shipping trust, which we
may be sure would charge trust"
prices when it had secured monopoly.
Such trust is already on the docket
ready for formation on the passage of
the Hanna bill And it is English
capital, by the way, that is chiefly in
terested, so that, after all, foreigners
would be .ne principal beneficiaries of
the subsidy scheme, just as they profit
most by our high tariff laws. which
enable the foreign consumer to buy
American made wares of the trusts at
one-half to one-third the prices the
same trusts charge American con-
sumers.
Eli should read up on the subsidy
grab before airing his views thereon.
or. better still, he should stick to
legitimate humor and not encroach on
the domain of the ridiculous.