Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-01-31
SWIFT AMERICAN SHIPS.
Their Importance in the Transport
tation of Perishable
Products.
UNFoUNDED OPPOSITION TO SUBSIDIES.
Value of Ocean Flyers to the Gov
eminent in Time of Peace or War
Build Up the Nations ocean
Trade and Augment Its Naval
Power,
Especial Correspondence

Considerable opposition to the payment
of subsidies to swift American steamships
has developed in the press of the country.
The statement has been widely circulated
that these ships merely carry passengers
abroad to spend American money, and to
bring back wines and silks for luxurious cit
liens, and that such ships, SO employed, are
Of no help to American commerce. What
is wanted, these opponents declare, is car
60 carriers, the iowpowered steamships
that take cargoes wherever they offer, and
carry them wherever they are consigned,
regardless OF established lines. And these
are the ships, they 60 on and assert, that
have given Great Britain her prominence
as a maritime power.
All this sounds plausible, and somewhat
logical, and, if not analyzed by those hav-
ing knowledge Of the facts, helps to create
an unfavorable and hurtful sentiment to-
ward the shipping bill now pending in
congress which properly considers swift
steamships, as we'll as SOW ones. As mat
ter of fact, the swift steamships carry those
products from the United States that are
the most valuable, and, in many cases, the
most perishable. Were it not for the fast
steamship California fruits "a growing
busness-couid not be exported to Europe;
with them, the expectation of Pacific coast
fruits steadily grows and prospers. All
kinds of dressed meats, ham, bacon, lard
and an infinite variety Of agricultural or
farm products, that have gone through va
rious stages of manufacture are sent abroad
in swift ships.
Swift ships carry the mails; and it is es-
sential that the mails be carried with the
utmost rapidity. Invariably swift ships are
parts of regularly established lines, and
they make regular and frequent voyages to
and from their terminal points. The swift
er, the greater, the more powerful the ships,
the more profitable their use is to their re-
spective terminal countries, but the truth
is the less remunerative they all are to their
owners. They carry the most expensive
cargoes that go both ways, the manufac-
lures upon which labor and skill have been
expended, and which return the largest
sums to their producers.
But these are the ships, the large, pow
erful, swift ocean flyers, that are most Use
full to the nation in time of war. They are
al once available as carriers of important
dispatches, in cases where celebrity is of the
utmost Importance; they are useful as aux
iliary cruisers, they can be quickly trans
formed into cruisers and then prey upon
and destroy the enemy's commerce; they
can act as scouts for fleets, and keep them
informed regarding the movements Of the
enemy, keeping in touch with the enemy
and Guiding capture through their swift
ness This was we'll illustrated by the four
great ships of the only American line in the
transatlantic trade, during our war with
Spain. They were steaming at full speed
between 500 and 600 miles a day, far out
upon the Atlantic, keeping watch for
SPANS cruisers, ready to report them to the
flying squadron at Hampton Roads. 1t was
this scouting work, so effectively done,
that compelled Spain to send Cervera far
to the south, when but for them Cervera
might have threatened if not seriously and
irreparably injured our great Atlantic and
Gulf seaports.
The swift steamships are the nearest at
tainment to the ideal, the contamination Of
the highest hopes of the artists engaged in
their construction, at once an effective dem
onstration of mans best handiwork and at
the same time an invaluable aid to the ma
ton when most in need of aid. Such ships
are the final outgrowth Of regularly estab-
lished lines where a trade has been built
up at great expense, after many years OF
faithful effort, and through service that is
thorough, complete and attractive. They
are the best of their kind and nation whose
people fail to appreciate them does not
grasp the full significance nor the full value
of sea power.
The so-called tramp steamships, the YES
sells that carry cargoes wherever destined,
are merely the carriers of the surplus car
goes that accumulate after harvesting, or at
exceptional times, when the regular lines
III D. - / ,1,r
that build up nations trade-never the
tramps-and they often do it for years at
loss, until they are thoroughly established
and have accumulated a paying business.
And Britain's sea power lies in her great
steamship lines, not in her "tramps.
UIf the agents of foreign steamships are
deliberately working to- defeat the pending
shipping bill-as lis being said all over the
CONTINGENCIES should be warned. The
American people are not in the mood to see
legislation helpful to great American in
dustry defeated in the interest of foreign
ers.
UCongress is not, of course, deliberately
conspiring to injure any foreign interests.
But if the latter happens to monopolize any
great American industry, as they do the
carrying of our imports and exports, and
congress in legislating to promote this in
dustry in the United States does hurt for
eign interests, that is a mere incident, not
the objective.
DIf the foreign steamship lines are
spending money lavishly to defeat the ship
ping bill now pending in congress, as is as
serted in Washington press dispatches, it
must be that the bill in question would hurt
the foreign ships 1t that be SO, it must fol-
low that it would help American ships. Con
gress should not be SOW to follow this ar
gunlent to its logical conclusion.
UCongress, as body, cannot escape its
obligations to the American people in the
matter of providing legislation for the re-
vival of our shipping in the foreign trade,
by saying that this or that bill is not just
perfect. The people elect congress to leg
islate in the interest of the American peo-
pie and they have no time to study all the
details. Results count.
OMembers of congress cannot be any
more concerned to keep at home and cir
culating among American workingmen and
business men the $200,000,0OO now annually
paid to foreign ship owners for doing our
foreign carrying than the people are them
selves. What the people expect is that this
sentiment will find expression in an ct
fectiye statute before adjournment