The San Francisco call., 1904-07-08
OUR MERCHANT MARINE.

When Napoleon signed the title deeds in this
vast country west Of the Mississippi he turned
70 the American Commissioners and said
Now. I have given England a maritime
rival and so he had. until Unsuitable greed
starry banner OF the republic from the high
seas and abdicated the rich domain Of the
ocean In 1850 We had the second largest
merchant marine in the world our sails
Hhitened every harbor and our flag foated in
every breeze under the heavens. How sadly
al lnls has changed after thirty-five years Of
Republican misrulei Last year Of all the
merchantmen that went through the suez
canal. not a single vessel. great small. X
cept battleships. bore the American flag at
its masthead, and our flag is seen in foreign
waters only when flying over man Of war
Worse than this - more hurniliatine than
this-a few years ago when Congress appro-
priated a large sum OF money 10 buy corn and
wheat and meat 70 send to the famine
an American shin for The sIIsuffSciet . ~ N
that there was none TO send il in. but to our
gr~at humiliation. had TO hire a foreign ship
in which 10 send over charity to our starving
when an American goes abroad he must
sail under a foreign flag. on foreign ship,
under foreign officer.
Why have things come to this shameful.
thls Ditiiul complexion in a country that has
the rinest material for ships and sailors in the
world Because our eXhorbtant tariff system
has made IL impossible for an American to-
build, a ship in competition with the British
shipbsIlders on the river Clyde.
Yet the Republican gang has the infinite gall
20 pirate about its Datriotisml
Our boys rushing face death in search
OF gold in the Klondike region, when the
oceans OF the world contain a million KIon-
dikes II the Republican party would only permit
them 70 work the water main.
Republicans claim. in public to be the
great and only trUstbusters notwithstanding
thu fact that under Republican misrule trusts
have sprung up like mushrooms in a damp
cellar and have become plentiful berries in
June.
REPUBLICAN TRUST BUSTERS.
It is said that .'straws show which way the
wind blows. Here is straw which in
dicates that the trusts have nothing 10 fear
from Republican trust busters. II is the ap-
uointrnent of Attorney General PhflsDder q.
Knox. Republican trust buster par excellence
20 succeed the late Matthew Stanley Quay OF
Foennsvlyanfa in the senate Of the Intel
strange OF suspicious about that performance
vore II not for the Influences which secured The
appointment OF Mr.. Knox. There can be no
question about his intellectual qualifications for
the position. The same can be said Of some
other Pennsylvania Republicans-Congressna
John Dalzell and Joseph G Sibley, for
instance
and begin to inquire as TO the why and where
fore Of his appointment when they learn that
the transfer OF Mr. Knox from the Attorney
Generalship 10 the Senate was procured by
the earnest efforts of Mr.. Frick, Mr.. Cassatt
and Donald Cameron TO induce United States
Senator Boise Penrose. the Republican
boss Of Pennsylvania. TO permit Mr. Knox to
be Sanator. FOR Governor Pennypacker. who
nominally made the appointment, does not ap-
pear have been considered at all in the
premises The arazement Of the people viii
grow like Jonahs gOurd-vine when they learn
lthc steel trust. that Mr.. cassstt is president
OF the Pennsylvania Railroad Company which
is one OF thes defendants in the coal trust liti-
cation now pending and that Mr. Cameron
represented the Standard OIL trust and Wall
street interests in persuading Boss Penrose
70 let Mr. Knox 20 70 the Senate.
Here we have the strange spectacle-the rnve-
tifying anomaly OF three Of the chief trust
msgnstes IN the land securing the appointment
70 the Senate Of Attorney General Knox who
has been exploited far and wide as the great
est trust buster on terra hrma-
Folks who stfll dare think will be forced
70 one Of two conclusions-one. either that Mr.
Knox Is the only lawyer in America cana bic
Of conducting a suit against a trust-whfch IS
absolutely preposterous, for there are hundreds
OF lawyers as able as he is-and that the trusts
were anxious get him out Of the Attornev
Generals Office because they fear him more
than they do any other person: or second
that the Knox antitrust crusade has been
bunko game from the beginning and the
Messrs. Friclt. Cassatt and Cameron together
with those whom they represent. procured him
the Scnatorship a reward for favors already
rendered the trusts secretly while in the Cahi-
net and to be hereafter rendered in the Senate
SAYS ROOSEVELT STOOD BY.
According 10 the press reports President
Roosevelt stood by. consenting TO the transfer