The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-24
THE HEART OF THE
SHIPPING QUESTION.


From the New York Journal of Com
merce.
At the hearing of the subcommittee
of the Congressional Merchant Marine
Commission at Brunswick. Ca, a
prominent citizen of that town. mere
lawyer who had no direct personal in
terest in ships or in foreign trade. made
this Illuminating statement: 1.-The
American people have found the ave-
nues of agriculture. commerce and
manufactures so much more profta Bile
than to engage in shipbuilding and
operation that they have hitherto
chosen to send their exports in foreign
bottoms, and this condition will con-
tinue until either bounty in some of
the forms named is given or shipping
is made free. or the system which
makes the manufacture of ships so
much more costly in the United States
than in foreign countries is wiped off
our statute books" The report of
the address of this Mr.. Kay of Bruins
wick. Ca, does not indicate which al
tentative he advocated, but the few
words quoted revealed 1.-The heart of
people do not build ships and engage
in the foreign carrying trade. It is
simply because they are more profit
ably employed in other ways and can
better afford to pay foreigners to do
their ocean carrying than to do it
themselves. This is the whole secret
at the bottom of all the labored ex-
plantations of why this is thus. the
cost of building, the cost of navigating
under the American flag, the reluct-
ance of Americans to go to sea. and
all the rest of it. Capital and labor
can do better by bestowing their eff
forts upon our internal resources, in
dustries and trade than by entering
into the competition of carrying COM
modities on the ocean. and they make
and save more by hiring others to do
the carrying that they need to have
done. The explanation is simple and
it is sufficient.
The question then is whether for
ether reasons than business profit or
advantage, for other than economic
and commercial reasons, the nation
should have large merchant marine
of its own and is willing to pay the
price for it would have to be paid
for and the cost would come out of
the productive industries of the coun-
try. If, apart from the clog of tariff
and navigation laws, it costs more to
build ships in this country and oper-
ate them on the ocean than it costs
in other countries, it is because capital
can get more profit and labor better
wages in other employments in this
country than they can get in other
countries. They have no inducement
for going from the better paying to
the worse paying, While in other coun-
Tries there is no occasion for that
since shipping pays as well as other
things that capital and labor engage
in. If we must have a merchant ma
rne, more than we can have by mere
ly removing distractions and restric-
tons and If we must build the ships
as well as operate them, this differ
ence in cost and profit must be made
NJ in order to turn capital and labor
into that business, and it must be
made up at the expense of capital and
labor that are otherwise and more
proftably employed. 1t makes no diff
ference whether this is done by pay
ing bounties or subsidies, by burdens
on foreign shipping that compel our
people to pay higher freights, or by
any other device. there must be ex-
traCted from the fruits of our produc-
tive energy on land sufficient to di
vert a part of It TO the sea and MAIN
tain il there. and the cost will be de-
cidedly greater than all we pay to the
foreigners for fetching and carrying
for US.
If there are other than economic
and commercial reasons for building
up American shipping. let that be ac-
knowledged and attention devoted to
the best method of securing 1t. Let
the real reasons be admitted and in
sisted upon, the real cost recognized
and counted, and let us drop the pre-
tense that it is for the benefit of for
eign trade or to the advantage of
American capital and labor. 1t is
really a question of how much we are
willing to pay for a large merchant
marine. and whether reasons for hav-
ing it are sufficient to justify the tax
upon everything else.