Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-05-11
NO SHIP. SUBSIDY
THE OREGONIAN CALLS DOWN
THE P..I.'S ARGUMENT.
A Sample # TIE Style Of Reasoning Adopted
BY the Post.lntslIisencer. Either INSULT.
Gent knowledge in Its Editorial Rooms,
or An Abiding Confidence in the lsnor'
ance OF Its Readers.

The Seattle Post-Inteligencer is very
much distressed over the fact that there
are over dozen disengaged American
vessels on PUGET Sound and in San Fran
cisco. 1t lugubriouslv calls the attention
OF the Oregonian to the fact, and says:
Every one OF these disengaged vessels
is an American square rigger, six OF them
being ships and one bark. They the are
ships Great Admiral and Henry Failing,
lying at Hadlock; the ship Ruece,
at Eagle Han Dor; and the ships st.
james, St. David and S. ID. Charleton.
and the bark Sea King, lying at Port
Angeles. In San Francisco Bay there
are living idle the big American ships
Henry B. HYDE, Abner Coburn. Alexan-
der Gibson, Charmer, j. b. Brown,
Elwel, Rufus +. Wood and the baik
Pactolus. In New York the fine old clip
per ship Governor Robe has been tied
up at IA pier yer since she arrived from
Cape Town, on June "a, 1902.
The opening sentence Of the Post-ln
telligencers editorial dscloses the fact
that the editors knowledge OF shipping
is insufficient to enable him to distin-
guish bark from square rgger. This
bears out the contention that The Orc
gonian has always made, to-wit, that
ignorance alone was responsible for tie
grotesque utterances which from time
to time lend humor to the editorial page
OF the Seattle paper. Corioborative evil
dence Of the resence OF large stock OF
transformation around the Post. lntelll-
gencer Office is found in this additional
comment:
Ye. here We have the spectacle OF l6
OF the largest and best Of the American
suuaIe-rigged vessels ever engaged in the
deep-wster trade lying idle merely be-
cause to accept charters at the rates cur
rent aow, rates established by the COM
petition Of cheaply manned and subsidi.
zed foreign ships, would result in more
loss to the owners than comes from PEI
hitting the vessels to lie idle, deteriora-
ting in value from day to day, and piling
up expense bills instead Of earning
profits.
Here are some particulars regarding
these vessels: Every one OF them is an
old.style wooden craft Of small carrying
capacity. but requiring big crew to
|
Great Admiral, was built in 1869, and
registers but l4O2 tons, and can carry
but 1000 tons. The average age OF the
entire sixteen mentioned is Il fraction
over TWENTY-FIVE years, and many Of them
are from twenty-five to thirty years old.
They are vessels OF an obsolete type, and
are accordingly the first to 60 into retire.
ment in periods of low freights. 1rcn
and steel sailing ships displaced the
wooden sailing vessels over dozen years
ago, and it is only in times of great scare
ity Of ships that they have been enabled
to sail at profit since. And yet today,
in spite Of the world wide depression in
freights which has sent into retirement
vessels OF all nations in every port OH the
face of the earth, every modern built
iron or steel sailing vessels flying the
American flag is at work on the high
seas.
Old, worn.out hulks, like the Great
Admiral, Elwell, Rufus +. Wood, J. B.
Brown and others OF small carrying ca.
pacity, should not be classed with such
American ships az the 5000.ton carriers
w. 2. Frye, Acme. Astral, Atlas, Dirigo,
Edward Sewall and Erskine NJ. Phelps.
Are the ancient lumber and coal dlogh-
ers suffering any more than the alleged
".heaply subsidized foreign ships"
While the Post intellgence- mentio' 5
eight of the ancient wooden craft idle in
San Francisco. it overlooks the fact that
there are forty-one British and German
vessels on the disengaged list in San
Francisco, many of which were laid up
as far back rs last August aud Septem-
Der. Ali Of these foreigners are mo ern-
built metal vessels, and il there were
such an enormous advantage in their
favor as the Seattle paper would have us
believe, they would De taking the place
OF the American ships Of similar class
on the ocean.
The present stagnation in freights is
no argument in favor OF a ship subsidy.
There haye been similar eras of low
freights since the shipping business
began, and there will be others as long
as tho earth lasts. Another point at
issue has an important bearing on the
commercial aspect OF the situation. Are
the thousands and tens of thousands of
Washington producers protesting against
the present era Of low freights, which
has added 10 cents per bushe! to the
price of their wheat? Are they willing
to be taxed to create subsi /, which
will 90 into the pockets Of few wealthy
shipowners: Six out Of seven idle YES.
sells mentioned on Puget Sound are owned
by the California Shipping Company.
The Oregolian is not yet convinced tina
it is COOL business policy to tax n thons-