The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-08-09
SUBSIDIES PAST AND PRESENT.

a deyiliSh ingenuity IS that or the SUD-
sidy scheme-to build ships and carry
produce by taxing the people for the
benefit Of the ship owners and carriers.
This is no new scheme Of plunderers
and rascals. The people who settled
Massachusetts early entered upon ship
ping. and to solicit special favors."
This was the very beginning Of causes
that finally led to that sectional con-
fict which produced war between the
Northern and Southern states" Read
chapter five closely in that magazine
of truth and facts, 1.-The South Against
the North" by Hon. Benjamin f.
Grady, Of North Carolina. We read,
page II, that in 1886 Captain Oldham
commanded a trading vessel On the
Connecticut river and that it was dur
ing this very year-1636-that 1.-The first
New England slave-ship, the Driver
was built at M~arblehead, and entered
upon that inhuman traffic, which was
kept up till May 1862" Mr.. Grady re-
fers to Naval War Record, Volume I,
pages II, "a, 26 81. By turning to the
= 74-75th pages you will see the develop
ing of the gains of the commercial
states enriching themselves, at the ex-
pense of the agricultural, as a writer
in New England the 18th of December
1901, avowed By 1910 the shippers of
this country mainly northern-controll-
ed a greater proportion Of the carrying
trade of the world than Holland or
Great Britain. By having the benefit
of special legislation and a most un-
warranted, hurtful and unfair system
of paternalism Massachusetts in twenty
one years. had Asa, 500 tons, while Vir-
ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia had but 50 tons. Mr.. Mad
ison, as far back as 1877, said that "the
great danger to our general government
is the great southern n northern in
terest of the continent being opposed to
each other" So at the very beginning
the iniquity began and favoritism -four
ished. What a pity that the two Sec
tons a not remained separate. 1t
would nave saved countless treasure and
hundreds Of thousands of lives. In
chapter sixth Mr.. Grady develops the
wrong lone under navigation laws to
the south. William Maclay, of Penn
~sylvania, United States senator, wrote
in his Journal" page 240: II would
now remark, if I la done it before,
that there is very little candor in New
England men," On page 341, he writes:
"If my knowledge of Eastern character
warrants me in drawing this conclu-
sion, that they will cabal against, and
endeavor to subvert any government
--L:i +Io,- Io1o not tho mana garment
of" This was written between 1880 and
1890. If you would read the discrimi-
mating duties against the south and the
subsidies for ship builders consult MI.
Grady's mine of facts.
We are taken away back by the ship
subsidy plans of the present, of such
sharpers as Hanna and his associates.
The whole thing is wicked and scoun-
drelly. In the Philadelphia Record the
able Missouri Senator Hon. George G..
Vest in an elaborate article that would
probably fill five columns of The Mes
senger, exposes the the ras-
cality of this. ship subsidy business.
Any one who will take the pains to
study the able senator's discussion will
gather IAN arsenal of facts" with which
to confound Hanna, and
their commercial democrat allies, to
quote the Charleston News and Cou-
rier. Mr.. Vest c~onclusively establishes
that much the largest share of the
subsidy is really designed for the bene-
fit of already established steamship
lines. which are now profitably carrying
passengers and freight to and from the
chief ports. On the other hand, the
smallest share of the proposed subsidy
-Hanna's BILLS for the real pioneers
of commerce, the freight steamers that
visit every seaport which affords the
prospect of a cargo. The lions share
is for the greedy schemers and their
personal advantage, while the ships
that deserve the help, if any can so de-
serve. get a very small part of the divid-
ed plumber taken from the people. What
a most foul iniquity! Senator Vest
writes: Not only are the rates of sub
sidy twice as high for swift passenger
steamers as for ordinary freighters,
but, as will appear from an examina-
ton of the amounts of subsidy which
would go to various steamships and
lines. the passenger steamers, at least
for the first few years, would get con-
siderably more than half of all the SUBJ
sidv given, and yet the passenger
steamers do not carry more than about
10 per cent. of our total exports and less
than 5 per cent. of our agricultural ex-
ports. A careful examination of the
manifests of passenger and freight
steamers makes this statement apparent
n leads to the further conclusion that
the swift passenger steamers carry
mainly a high class of freight. compos-
ed largely of manufactured goods ex-
ported at prices considerably below
those charged to American consumers"
We do not follow the great senator
further today. His contribution is val
liable and convincing. His argument can
not be broken or vitiated by a thou
a Hannas. We have merely glanced
at it.