The Forrest City times., 1902-03-14
THE POLICY OF SUBSIDY.
uoy. the shipping Hill scheme Would Be Worked for Private
 Interests.

To show how the mind of the sub s;dv seeker works, it is worth while to consider some statements made by Alex k smith. subsidy promoter, em- nIoeed as lobbyist by the shipping interests Mir. Smith has edited what he calls synopsis of a Report on Steamship Subsidies, Submitted by a Select Committee of the British Par lament, August 1, 1901" and Mr. Frye has had it printed at govern ment expense.
 Mir. smith quotes from the testi-
 mony taken by the parliamentary committee. such extracts as seem to him most telling in favor of subsi- dies. He dwells fondly upon the pol icy of subsidy carried out by the French government. Referring to d statement to the effect that France pays the profits on capital invested in French shipping, he comments:
 The sentence is one that may well stagger the British, while disclosing the serious determination of the French government in its maritime policy. The capital being guaranteed by the insurance and the profits by the navigation bounties.' What will prevent French maritime success, so fortifea?a
 The fact France has not succeeded in creating q merchant marine, by her enormous bounties, leads one to suspect that there are some causes operating 10 prevent French mari time success"
 Mir. Smith gloats over the testi- mony. showing that the French gov ernmeHt pays from r to 90 per cent. of the gross earnings of French ves- sels engaged in oversea commerce. and that, without the subsidies, ships would be run at loss of from , to 16 per cent. per annum.
 The French policy is the kind en- thusiastically approved by the sub sidy grabbers, and indeed by protec- tionists generally. They think it is only necessary to show that an in dustry is unprofitable in order to have lien against the government for bounty. They come now as hum hle beggars, praying for a morsel- a paltry $j,00O, ,0O0-from Uncle sam $ abundance. It requires no gift of divine prophecy to picture the his tory of shipping subsidies. once the policy is inaugurated. The expert ence of France and Italy so frequent ly held up by Mir. Smith and his friends as shining examples of the benefieence of the bounty system, furnishes us with abundant material with which to construct a forecast of the future. Depending upon govern ment aid. ship owners will engage in unprOfitable ventures and then com plain that they are being ruined by the competition of French ships They will rant about the penurious- ness of our government in refusing to make good the losses of pat riotie citizens who unselfishly engage in trading ventures that any idiot knows will yield nothing but big deficit. They will demand that the United States be not less liberal than other nations in giving aid and com fort to these unselfish patriots. who lose money in carrying our flag on the seas, in the expectation that the government will pay them 50 per cent. dividends; and they will end with a solemn warning that unless the United States wishes to take a back seat among the great nations, unless we wish to hire other people Cat half the cost) to carry our prod nets, we must pay as big subsidies as the French.-ROYAL MEEkER