The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1906-12-04

the government therefore ought tc
step in and pay subsidies out oi
the treasury, in addition to the freight
money now charged against the goods.
This is precisely what all the argu-
ments for ship subsidy come to.
1t is complained that American chip;
can make no money in carrying the
products of our country to foreign
markets because foreign ships carry
them at so low rate. Hence ouI
subsidy advocates are actually con.
tending that freight rates on our pro-
ducts to foreign countries ought to be
raised, by taking money in large sums
directly ont of the treasury, and turn
ing it over to shipowners.
We are in continual fight with our
railroad managers to get lower rail
rates, and are reducing the rail rates
by law, all along the line; yet we are
told that ship rates are too low, and
must De increased by direct paymen Is
out of the public treasury. The miser-
able foreigner is doing our ocean serv-
ice, or much of it, for us too cheap,
and we are oppressed thereby.
1t is the shallowest argument ever
made for loot of the public treasury.
The object is enrichment of new syn
dicates, formed for plunder. Every
thing on land having been appropri-
ated, attention turns toward the sea
but since the sea is the free highway
of nations, monopoly in the carriage
of our products over it can be had
only through the subsidy method.
1t is protection" gone mad. A
proposition of this nature is, however,
notice, acknowledgement or proof that
the essence of the so-called principle is
enrichment of few among us at the
expense of the many. Since foreign
ships can and do carry our products at
rates admittedly 1ow--too low for our
own competition-why not permit
them to continue it? Why pay sub
sides and build up new set of mil
lionaire monopolists and plutocratic
syndicates at home, at the expense of
the people on either side of the game; !;
who are to be charged on the one
hand higher rates for transportation
of their products, and then are to Ee
robbed on the other hand by taking
money they have paid in the form of
taxes into the treasury and putting it
as freight money into the pockets Of
the ship subsidy exploitation?
Secretary Root, in his speech at
Kansas City, seemed to think that the
argument for subsidy was complete,
when he remarked that England was
paying to steamship lines several mil
lion dollars year, which makes com
petition by us costly and difficult.
But Great Britain is an island en-
pire ;her chief thought always must be
of the sea; her political situation and
her vast colonial interests require her
to pursue policy not necessary for
us; ana, after all, the few millions
she pays fer assistance of steamship
lines is but bagatelle in proportion
to her vast commercial, shipping and
naval interests. With her colonies
and dependencies she must maintain
connections; aud incidentally she is in
position to do much of our ocean
at lower rates than we
can ever do 1t for ourselves.
Strange to say. we have people
who are dissatisfied because England
and some other countries are in posi-
tion to work for us so cheap. Yet the
whole agitation tor the ship subsidy
bill now before congress has its origin
in the designs of body of franchise
grabbers and subsidy -mongers on the
treasury of the United States. Ex-
haustion of other schemes has con-
centrated their efforts upon this one.
--Portl and OIegonian.