The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-03-15
VERGE OF ROBBERY.
Senator Harris So Characterizes the
Ship Subsidy Bill.

washington, March 15.-Throughout
! the session of the senate FRIDAY the
| ship subsidy bill was under conSloera-
| ton. The measure was discussed py
| Mr.. Foraker of Ohio, Mr. McLaurin OF
| Mississippi and Mr.. Harris of Kansas
Both Mr.. McLaurin and Mr.. Harris OPP
| posed the measure on the ground tnat
| in their judgment it was not constltu-
tionaI They maintained that IT was
| class legislation, which amounted TO
little short of robbery of the people Tor
| Morris made the point that the United
States was paying more to the Ameri-
can line for the carrying OF ocean mails
than was paid to foreign ships Tor
greater service.
sto the relative cost of building
and operating ships under the American
flag Mr.. Foraker said the preponder-
ance of evidence was against the pro-
position that the vessel could be bullt
or operated in this country as eheaply
as they could be built and operated
abroad In proof of greater cost of ships
constructed in America, MI toraker
read a letter from President Baker of
the Atlantic Transportation line, snow
ing that the contract price for two
ships built for the company at Belfast,
ireland was 81, 460, 900, while the cost of
two ships identically the same in con-
struction built at Camden, N j., was
81, 100000.
Mr.. Foraker asserted that the Inter
national Navigation company - the
American line-had made no money by
CARRYING the mails under the postal
subsidy act and did not care for re-
newal of its contract. The proposed leg
islation, he said, was such as would en-
able the United States to build and OPP
crate ships and fly the flag of the mer-
chant marine in every part OF the world
Mr.. McLaurin of Mississippi followed
Mr.. Foraker He was opposed, he said,
not only to the bill, but to the prin-
ciples it represented. Whatever is given
by the government as a subsidy, Mr.
McI.aurin charged, would be simply a
contribution to the dividends OF those
engaged in shipping, instead of for the
nlIrpose of encoura ging ship building in
this country. He said there had been
no decadence in ship building in the
United States. He attacked the pro-
posed United States ship building COM
pany. and called it a combination
formed for the purpose of employing
la Dor as economically as possible.
Mr. Harris of Kansas took constitu-
tiona1 ground against the bill, main
tanning that it was a private measure
to bestow upon private individuals or
corporations large sums of money. He
said it was class legislation, such as
Justice Miller had denounced as on the
verge of robbery.
Discussing the subject of mail pay.
Mr. Harris declared that under the
pending bill there would be few bid
ders for the mail contracts, and that
the price paid by the United States for
CARRYING the mails on the ocean would
be at least twice as much as that paid
by Great Britain for similar services,
and twice as much as this country
would have to pay foreign vessels for
carrying the mails. This, he thought.
was one of the important features of
the measure that had been overlooked /
by the majority.
The principal objection he had to the
proposed mail subsidies, as well as the
present subsidies, was that they were