Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-15

building up OF the merchant marine,
was embodied in the pending bill.
In response to an inquiry by Teller.
3Colo. Foraker replied that he believed
ma iority of the Republican senator's
were opposed to the policy of discri nj
mating duties.
Foraker replied that he had been the
chairman Of the platform committee of
| 1896 He was so constituted, he 81: id,
that he had to have views of his own.
He was particularly cautious in 1896
about his views as 10 discriminating
duties; but what he wanted most was
In restoration of the American merchant
marine. If he could not get a majo, ity
iof Congress to join in his views he was
tvilling, to achieve the great result. to
ladopt the views of the ma jority.
Referring to the proposed purchase of
fforeign steamship lines, Foraker said
Iby some it had been mentioned as if it
were a crime. The fact was that If nv
offence detrimental to the country had
been committed it had been commit ed
by the Senate itself.
Morgan, he said, had purchased the
I.eyland Line in May, 1901, after Con-
gress had under consideration for two
years, the subsidy bill, which failed of
passage in the last Congress. After
that bill had failed the last hope of
Morgan and his associates had fallen
to the ground. The inaction of the
Senate had forced them to look else
where for the ships which>t they need ed.
They had gone abroad to spend their
millions for ships instead of spending
them in the shipyards and among the
labOring men of their country.
AS to the relative cost of building
and operating ships under the Amcri-
can flag, Foraker said the preponder-
ance of the evidence was against the
proposition that the vessels could be
built or operated in this country as
cheaply as they could be built and op-
Grated abroad. In proof of the greater
cost of ships constructed in America
Foraker read letter from President
Baker of the Atlantic Transportation
Line, showing that the contract price
for two ships built for the company at
Belfast. Ireland, was 9292, 900, while
the cost of two ships identically the
same in construction built at Camden,
N. j.. was G3S0,000.
Foraker asserted that the Interna-
tional Navigation Co.-the American
Line-had made no money by carrying
the mails under the postal subsidy act
and did not care for a renewal of it's
contract.
The proposed legislation, he said, was
such as would enable the United States
to build and operate ships and fly the
flag of the merchant marine in every
port of the world.
McLaurin, Miss, followed Foraker.
He was opposed, he said, not only to
the bill, but to the principles it repre-
sents. Whatever is given by the gov
eminent as subsidy, McLaurin
charged, would be simply contribu-
ton to the dividends of those engaged
in shipping. instead of for the purpose
of encouraging shipbuilding in this
country. He said there had been no
decadence in shipbuilding in the United
States, all reports tending to show that
that industry is now experiencing
boom such as it has not had in so years.
He attacked the proposed United
States Shipbuilding Co.. and called it a
combination formed for the purpose of
employing labor as economically as
possible.
McLaurin said he was as anxious as
any Republican senator to rehabilitate
the American merchant marine, but he
would rather not see the American flag
flow over our American merchant ves-
sells than to see one stained with the
faint of money, which did not legiti-
mately belong to it's owner.
! Harris. Kansas, took constitutional
ground against the bill, maintaining
that it was a private measure to be-
stow upon private individuals or COR
poratiOns large sums of money.
At the conclusion of Harris remarks
the Senate at 4.3O p. NJ. went into
executive session and at $50 adjourned.