Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1903-12-09
Hanna Still for Ship Bountic..

going to persist until he wins In the
effort to take money out of the public
treasury and put it into the pockets
of men and combines Of men who
want to build ships and sail them UNI
der the American flag-if they can see
millions in it"
There is nothing strange In that. Mr..
Hanna Is Republican, and every Re-
publican who Stands pat" religiously
believes in legislation which will force
all the people to contribute to the heap
ing up of hills ndmountains Of wealth
for the few.
Tariff legislation has done the trick
for him and such as he who can be
sheltered from outside competition by
u wall of duties on imports. 1t takes
another sort Of class legislation to do
the trick for men who sail ships in the
foreign trade. Here the tariff scheme
will not work.
The reason why is not far to seek.
The free highways of the seas are
great friends Of free trade and enc
mics Of monopoly. Britain has amass-
ed enormous wealth during tie last
sixty years by frankly accepting that
fact and ceasing to fight against free
dom and nature.
We can apply the tariff plan of mo-
nopoly to shipping by laying higher
duties on goods imported in foreign
ships than on like goods imported in
American ships, and we did that for
many years. But we found out that
others could play that game us well us
we. They could discriminate against
American products not brought in their
own ships or brought in American
ships.
They did that very thing, and we
found they were getting the best of the
game because American freights were
bulkier and heavier and consequently
portion to their value Therefore we
gradually abandoned that plan, and the
Republican party saw the necessity for
completing the abandonment and COM
pleted 1t, no one protesting.
The long-continued experiment dem
CNSiS olG Will " iiSaAu
large us flbert that it was not pos
sible to build up the fortunes of Amer
lean builders and owners of ships by
the tariff method. Therefore Repub-
licans like Mr.. Hanna have long tried
to induce Congress. and with OCCASION
nj success. to build up those fortunes
by paying bounties or subsidies in cash
from the public treasury.
But the people have always looked
with disfavor upon anything like that.
They do not take kindly to the enrich
ment of the few by act of Congress
when they cannot help seeing that
they contribute the money in taxes.
And that explains the fact mentioned
by Mr.. Hanna that the bounty beggars
can depend on the Senate, but cannot
depend on the House, which directly
represents the people.
Mr.. Hanna complains that the farm
ers are slow to see the beauties of the
bounty scheme, but says he never met
a man who did not come over to his
-sitte sswten his interest" In shipping
bounties was explained to him care
fully" He explains to farmers that
"if there should be war between
this and any other important maritime
country their grain would rot In their
granaries without an auxiliary to our
navy And that, he says, fetches
them.
Perhaps it does. Men who can be
Il H. - ~ ~
which raises the prices of the things
they have to buy and lowers the prices
of the things they have to sell pro-
notes their interests may, perhaps, be
made to believe in the genuineness of
any other gold brick.
Still it may occur to them that 1t
looks suspicious when men who have
been assuring them that protection
would give them home market for
NIL their produce come to them and tell
them they must be taxed to pay for
ships or, their surplus grain will rot lii
their granaries
1t may occur to them, too, that their
surplus has never rotted yet for lack
of market and that under laws of
war respected by all save jlngoes and
pirates the flags of nentrals are re-
spected and their produce would be
quite safe in transit under such flags.
The bounty beggars, like other pro-
tectionists, rely on the ignorance of
the American people, and especially of
farmers. But farmers have never vet
been made to believe that 1t is good
for them to take money from the pub
lie treasury and hand 1t over to the
steamship companies or any other COM
panies or individuals. There is rea-
son to hope. therefore, that they will
mot now be confidenced. - Chicago
Chronicle.