Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1902-04-18
THE SHIP SUBSIDY SCHEME.
Interests of the NIuItimillionairs
Treasury Raiders Being Care.
fully Looked After.


Treasury Raiders Being Care.
fully Looked After.
The reconstructed Hanna Payne
trick-mule shipping bounty bill hes
been reported favorably from the
senate commerce committee. This
will not surprise anybody. It has
been understood as a matter Of
course that the committee would re-
port the bill with as little amend
ment and with as much haste as was
compatible with tolerable show Of
dignity.
Senators Hanna and Frye profess
to entertain no doubt that thu hi1
will pass. But that contamination
undoubtedly would surprise SONS
statesmen even on the republican
side of the chamber-men who are
afraid for some inscrutable reason
to face a record vote. but who are
opposed to the grab and who thinA
they know how to prevent the htA
from being brought to vote. !,
The above-named senatorial ettor-
neys for Standard Oil and the rest
Of the allied poor beggars make be-
lieve they have nothing to fear ex-
cept from the democratic side OF the
chamber. Accordingly they do not
hesitate to let It be known that their
plan is to repeat their last winters
tactics get their grab on the calen-
dar as unfinished business 60 that It
may be kept before the senate 10 the
exclusion of everything else until the
democrats have talked themselves out
and yield from sheer exhaustion.
This plan OF operation goes on the
theory that republican senators who
are opposed to the outrageous steal.
lack the courage Of their convictions
and will not dare to vote against the
bill if they are forced to face the is
sue, much less to fight it openly, AZ
they ought.
The prospect is, therefore, that .
great deal of time will be wasted
which might as well be saved il the
republicans who are opposed 10 the
bill would assist in bringing it to a
vote after denouncing it as It de-
serves, and stand up like men and be
counted against 1t.
It is difficult to discuss the details
of the measure with any degree Of
patience. 1t was reported after GER
tain conferences Of the multimillion-
aire treasury raiders that they had
SO changed their bill that it would
be somewhat less source Of un-
earned wealth to the Standard Oil
and allied interests. The report OF
the committee, however, shows that
those interests have been carefully
provided for. It shows that the Amer
lean line will get the snug sum of
$4,7oo,00o a year for carrying mail
matter across the Atlantic, or at
least 100000 more than it would
have received for the same service
under the bill in it's old form.
This one fact is sufficiently sharp
commentary upon the claim of Sem
ator Frye that the bill will estab-
lish the maritime supremacy of the
United States in trade" It gives the
lions share of the shameless grab
to lines already in existence and lines
which will get the money not for.
carrying freight but for carrying the
! mails.
This fact calls TO mind Commits
sioner Chamberlain's admission that
the mail steamers will draw most
subsidy and carry least bulk Of car
go. 1t also calls 10 mind his oom-
ment that to complain of that was
about as pertinent as to complain
that a general gets more pay than
a captain, but does less fighting"
Finally it recalls the remark in a cir
eular OF the Reform club that Mr..
Chamberlain's comment implies that
"the InternationaPe great passenger
steamers, carrying tourists both
ways, immigrants this way and p1ae-
tiealfy no exports at all except a
few protected manufactures to be
sold abroad at lower prices than
charged here, are generals IN COM
mand of the export trade, which is
actually carried on by the freightess
who are cut off with pittanee."
This line of argument against 4he
,nonstrous grab Is tolerable only as
showing how superlatiyely bad the
pending bill is and as exposing the
false pretenses under which it sails.
While opposing the entire grab in
whatever form or guise 1t may ap-
pear, we may turn aside to show how
its promoters seek to conceal thatr
real purpose, provided we do not for
get that it is the steal itself and not
any particular manner in which it
may be accomplished, or the parties
who may get the swag, to which the
American people should offer all the
resistance they can.
The only argument in support of
this grab which has the semblance
of reason consists in the fact that
European governments have paid, and
to some extent are still paying, ship
ping bounties. That fact proves moth
ing. II other countries are foolish
enough to pay shipping bounties or
sugar bounties or any other bounties
out of money contributed by their
taxpayers with the result that the
people Of other countries get cheap
service at their expense 1t does not
by any means follow that we ought
to be as foolishly generous, as waste
full and as unjust to our taxpayers as
they are to theirs Chicago Chron-
{oja