The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-27
BOUQUETS ron THE SOUTH.


In the number OF the Manufacturers
Record of Baltimore, issued yesterday.
Senator Hanna discusses the ship-subsidy
bill in connection with the South. Those
who read the article will admit that he
makes TWO or three very good points
Among other things he says:
Il shall not be surprised II the seat of
American commercial empire is event.
ually transferred from the East to the
South. The great problems of the future
with which American statesmen mus
,al stlike directly home to every South
ern interest"
The Senator calls attention to the fact
generally forgotten. that prior to the
Civil War the South lea all other sections
of The country in its demand for subsi-
dies for ships. On this point he says:
Southern commercial organizations
then, as now. placed themselves squarely
on recotd in favor of di ect national hep
in the crea ion of American lines of ships
The fact thdt so much Southern money
earned in raising cotton went to the Tor
eign ships that carried it to Europe was
dwelt upon more than sixty years ago
and It was asserted that tie South would
paid to American shipowners and thus
kept at home, employing our own people
Even Southern State Legislatures felt
impelled forceful.y 20 appeal TO the ma
dunal government for direct aid In order
10 secure frequent and regular sailings OF
American ships with American cargoes to
distant lands"
There is of course a great deal of truth
in what Senator Hanna says, namely,
that the industrial interests of the South
are but in their infancy. Her great min
eral and agricultural resources are just
beginning to be developed The exports
of the South are certain to be vastly larg-
er in the course of a very few years
and it is not too much to say that South
ern ports will benefit more by the build
ing of the isthmian canal than those OF
the East. On this point Senator Hanna
says:
with the upbuildlng of our shipping
supplemented by the creation of an 18TH
milan canal going hand in hand, there 10
everything to suggest that the great Mis-
sissippi Valley and the whole Southern
section will pour their surplus from mine
and soil and mill into Southern seaports
lOI export 10 the most INSTANT parts u
! the world"
| The main objections to the ship-subsidy
bill are that the subsidies will go to a
| few swift passenger lines. and the real
freight carriers will get nothing. There
fore the commerce of the country would
not be benefited. An appropriation of &c.
100000 year. the amount proposed would
/ be so small that it would be Of very lit
tie help II 1t were fairly distributed
among all lines carrying the commerce
of the country. If the bounty system
should be established it would soon be-
come, like the pension system, an almost
intolerable burden. Lastly, the chances
are that II would take longer to build up
a merchant marine with the aid of boun-
ties than without 1t. Let the bounty prin-
ciple become fixed and capital would not
be put into ships unless induced to do so
by the promise of government help
Money is becoming so cheap now that IL
will find its way into ship-building with
out such an lnducement as is offered by
the Hanna ship-subsidy bill There are
capitalists now who are proposing -
build ships on a large scale, and, that
| too without any expectation of govern
ment help. The subsidy scheme would
hinder rather than help the American
people to do their own ocean carrying
trade.