The Forrest City times., 1901-12-20
IT SHOULD BE DROPPED.
Tne ship Subsidy Scheme Should Not Be Permitted to Offend
 Again.

Hlle III nO pOSltlon IO pOSltiNtly assert that the ship subsidy scheme will not be urged upon the next con- ,ress we stand by the position taken over since the attempt at legaliZed robbery was entered upon and insist that its abandonment is the only hon. orable course open to it's promoters. Reliance cannot be placed upon their dropping it because it's adoption would infict a great wrong upon the people says the Detroit Free Press.
 They apprehended the moral status of their case as clearly when they in- itiated it as they do now. It was con- ceived in selfishness and pushed with the single idea of benefiting certain pre- ferred interests that were exposed during the long discussion of last winter. The men behind the under taking have known from the outset that they were merely planning great financial coup that, if executed successfully, would mulct the country in the sum of at least 30,000,0 ,000, that it would receive literally nothing by way of compensation and that the sole beneficiaries would be those working the colossal confidence game.
 Yet, while conscience has worked no change of heart on the part of the men who started out to enrich them selves by the method which has grown as familiar as it is obnoxious to the people, popular opinion has checked, if it has not halted them. It will be surprising if their shrewdness has not detected the handwriting upon the wall. The masses who pro- vide the revenue of the government are in no mood to make an enforced contribution at such dictation or for any such purpose as it has been sought to conceal under the cloak of building up our merchant marine, keeping pace with our expanding commerce. getting into the game" with our foreign competitors and ris- ing to the dignity of a world power. These are winning slogans in the ab- straet and liable to ignite infamma- ble patriotism, but the promoters are now in the position of a man who has shown his hand when nothing but bluff" could have made it ne- gotiable possession. The country, through the debates in congress and exhaustive discussion in the newspa- pcrS knows the true inwardness of the subsidy scheme and realizes that ii is without a material feature de serving commendation or support.
 In addition to being exposed as a ring that is out for the money when hov tot tnD iy, fnr eign trade than can find employment when private capital is giving the shipyards all that they can do and stands ready to meet every demand that commerce makes, there is g grave political consideration. Tho schemers are republicans and include such party luminaries as Hanna. tht head and front of the party manage ment; Senators Frye, Aldrich, Lodg, and many other republican leaders il their respective sections of the coun try. They have been forced to under stand that their subsidy plan is un popular and that to give it the fore, of congressional sanction would i'm peril the future of the party.
 The president himself, although h, has been quoted as an original sup porter of the movement, sees how i'm polite it would be to urge the schema in his message and will probably pas 1t over. The rural congressman have been hearing things at home and w. are inclined to believe that the meas ure will not figure in the records o the next session. Political policy, i impresses us. blocks the gra bbers.