The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-04-05

sionaI Record:
'1a state Street, Boston. Mass,
February 10. 1904.
of the Committee on the Philippines.
United States Senate, Washington,
D. c.
My Dear Senator: I am told that it
has been represented to the State De-
partment that Senate bill 2259, favor
ably reported by your Committee, and
reserying to American ships American
commerce with the Philippine Islands,
ltransgresses the principle of the open
door in the Orient.
This open door as I have under
stood and advocated it, means equal
treatment for the merchandise of all
nations in the matter of tariff dues.
So far as I am aware, neithera the
United States nor any other govern
ment interested in the open door has
attempted to regulate the matter OF
ocean transportation. Four years ago,
so declares the British Board of Trade
Report, Russia signified that she pro-
posed to treat as coastwise traffic the
trade between her European seacoasts
and the Asiatic ports in her control,
and it does not appear that any remon-s
| STRANGE against this course was ever
entered by the State Department, which
has so vigorously insisted upon equality
of tariff opportunity in the various
| Asiatic spheres Of European influence.
| Indeed, Russia had long before this
| taken. steps to bar foreign shipping out
lof ner Asiatic commerce. and, as a
matter Of fact, this same thing has been
done in a characteristic and effective
way by every one of the maritime pow
lers of Europe
There was time. not so remote but
that many men now living can recall
it, when the best traffic OF the Orient
| was conveyed in American ships. 1t
was the swift-keeled Yankee clippers
that brought the first of the seasons
tea and the choicest of Eastern spices
and silks to Hamburg. MarseilIe, and
London, as well as to Boston and New
York. These were the years when the
Stars and Stripes and the house flags
Of great American merchants Were a
familiar sight in every Oriental har-
Dor from the north gates Of the yell
low Sea to Singapore
THE best shipwrights and sailors of
Europe could not compete on even
terms with our fast and powerful clip
pers. And when steam began to come
| in the alert American merchants were
| quickest to recognize the change.
Years ago, even before our civil war,
| iron screw steamers of fine type were
launched on our Atlantic coast for East
Indian and China commerce. But clip
per and propeller alike encountered a
foe which they could not overcome. Tt
was the lavish and persistent European
subsidy.
Great Britain set the first example
by treasury grant creating the steam
H.
Peninsular and Oriental Company. She
was followed by France with the Mes
sageFies Maritimes. by Spain and Hol-
land. and by Germany. Steadily the
American ships were crowded out of
Eastern waters. They lost their share
of the European trade Presently they
were fighting with their subsidized
rivals for our own American trade with
the Orient, and they have now lost al
most al of this that comes to the ports
of tins Atlantic. The European govern
ments did not ordain in so many words
that our flag should be debarred from
the carrying trade of their Asiatic de-
Tendencies, but that was the actual, the
inevitable, and unquestionabIy the in
tended effect of enormous subventions
| like the 900 now given to the
Peninsular and Oriental, the equal
grants to the French line. and the ST.
$4,000 bestowed for fifteen years upon
the North German Lloyd Company
Not content with this huge payment,
the German authorities now transport
on the imperial railways at a merely
nominal rate goods intended for export
by German steamers. and one result is
that Hamburg and Bremen, which used
to be crowded with American ships do
not now see the Stars and Stripes from
one years end to another.
Nor does the effect upon our Arneri-
can shipping cease with the specific
European vessels that earn subsidy.
Around the subsidized lines as a
nucleus. fostered and supported by
them, have grown up allied companies
and large fleets of ordinary cargo craft
that profit Indirectly by, though not di- !
rect sharers in, these European subven- |
tfons- An American vessel clearing |
from the Orient for a port of the United /
Kingdom or the Continent would feel /
now the emotions Of the lonely and /
desolats Wandering Jew To all in /
tents and purposes the European pow
ers that hold colonial possessions in the
East have, by the adroit discrimination
of subsidy. aided by cheap wage rates,
banished the United States merchant
flag from a trade where it long flew
prominent
Having thus forced American ships
out of their colonial commerce, the Eu-
ropean powers are now moving TO force
them out of our own colonial commerce
also. Only two American steam lines
now cross the North Pacific to the ORR
the Pacific Mail, from San
Francisco; the other the Boston Steam
ship Company and Northern Pacific
Railway Service, from Puget Sound
''Paraleling the Pacific Mail the Jap
anese Government has established
steam line with a subsidy of half a mil
lion dollars a year. Paralleling the
course of the Boston and Northern Pa
cific ships the Japanese Government
has created another steam line. with a
subsidy of s3Sa, eco. OUT. of Vancouver,
a few miles north OF Seattle, the Brit
ish Government has in operation hTls