Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-03-27


and business.
LABOR AND THE SHIPPING BILL
A correspondent Of the American
Economist writes a strong appeal to
congress to pass the ship subsidy bill
in the interest of American labor. He
says:
why there should be any opposl-
ton to that measure by men who talk
so loud on the stump for the interests
of the people, for their country and
its flag. is a mystery known to its OPP
p~onents. They want a ship canal to.
carry ships across the isthmus. Whose
ships? The ships OF other ccun-.
tries. Surely not our ships. We have
not got them. The long distance
canal will cost from S25O,OO0,O0O UP.
Whose millions? They were produced
by American workmen. Who will
build the canal? American labor?
Certainly not. When will the work
men who created those millions get
anything back? They'll be all dead
before that 1OOsmile ditch through
Nicaragua will be completed.
When it has come to pass that a
measure of material benefit, such as
the shipping bill, is presented, a bill
which would give employment to u
own people within their own territory,
to increase the nations wealth and
augment its power, some Of our patri-
otto legislators become ~inoculated with
the plague of economy in the public
expenditures. But when the chance for
sinking $250,O00, 900 in a foreign en-
terprise beyond the reach Of American
workmen is presented the patriots are
restored to health and their bump of
extravaganza becomes enlarged. The
shortest. the cheapest and the safest
route for the canal is rejected for a.
route of twice the length, twice the
cost and twice the risk, over 100 miles
of lava beds, which, after millions had
been sunk, a trivial seismic disturb
ance may destroy by swallowing the
waters of the lake and leaving a dry
ditch asa monument to mark the folly
of the fifty-seventh congress.
Looking at the question from the
standpoint of American labor, the
shipping bill is the most important
measure now before congress. If
ocean traffic is advantageous to any
ether country, it would be beneficial
to this country, but more so, because
we have long been the granary and we
are fast becoming the workshop of the
world. Our resources of wealth are
inexhaustible. The producing capa-
city of our labor is so far in excess
of the demand that a large percent
age of u people is kept idle to keep
down the surplus. We have iron,
timber and coal, all the materials OF
construction sufficient to supply the
wants of the world, and we have mel
to work them as expert and skillful
as the world can produce. Why can't
we build ships and compare with other
countries for the transportation of ou1
own products? Because our pur-blind
Statesmen have persistently refused
to place our ship owners on equal
terms with the subsidized ships OF
&frt n or j. "a n nd1rffriac uvhoco 11opiro X nv.
penses are guaranteed by a govern
ment bounty for every mile they
travelled.
Apart from the inequality of condi-
lions caused by the bounty system OF
other countries. there is another, a
grander reason, which makes the
bounty requirements of the shipping
bill imperative. 1t is because the
standard OF living required by an
American crew makes the cost OF
maintenance so disproportionate to the
cost of any other nationality. If the
ships were given free no shipping firm
could undertake the cost of mainten.
ance without a government bounty te
balance the paid to foreign ship own.
ers and meet the extra cost OF thu
crew.
American sailors will not feed from
the hog trough ner work III the sack.
cloth selected for the subjects of mon
archy. Possessed Of the spirit Of free.
MISREPRESENTATION EE.. H+WyEEy
dom, nc contract can bind them K
slavery even on the align s4s. 10 Ell
gage the service Of American youth
the hardships inseparable from a sea.
faring life must be neutralized by
raising the wages and the standard 81
living on board our merchant ships.
As cnnana1ad with he mranns nnid j.