Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-05-24

require ten years of constant employ |
ment and involve an expenditure of fully |
$500. 0O0.O0o Each year thereafter fully
$50, 600. 600 additional would be expended
in our shipYards IN keeping up the sup
ply of shipping required by OUR foreign
commerce. The earnings of the ships now
engaged In our foreign carrying amount
annually to more than 5000 10000. This takes
no account of the insurance, brokerage.
banking and innumerablc other businesses
allied with shipping. our foreign COM
mcrce is valued at almost $1,000, 10000
annually. and its volume in freight, no
doubt, approximates closely to 40,0c0,o0
ed upon our ships upon the seas and l0O,-
900 men would be employed in our ship
yards more than are now employed, If
we built the ships required for our for
cgn carrying So much for the material
interests, of wholly economic character,
at stake in the fight for an American
doepsea shipping.
Apart from the economic advantages of
giving employment to 100000 Of our people
in the shipyards and on board Of our
ships. and the additions to our national
wealth arising from the retention of the
81, Oo0. C00, 600 in the United States that are
now paid to foreign ships and taken from
the country each five years for the car
riugc of our foreign commerce, other
priceless advantages would follow. We
would give stability instead of existing
uncertainty to our growing foreign COM
merce. in our dependence upon our own
instead Of foreign ships for its carriage.
At any moment the foreign shipping now
engaged in our carrying, through foreign
wars, or for other reasons, might be
Withdrawn from our carrying, and our
exports would be left to perish upon our
hands, causing cessation of employment
in all avenues of trade and hard times
in all parts of the United states. With
a shipping of our own VIC would be inn
mune from such a danger We would
have the ships and the men they employ
time of war. Thus three great national
advantages would arise from the possess
sion of an effective and prosperous mer-
chant marine of our own in the foreign
! trade. to wit I. An essential resource of
ships and men at all times available for
the national defense. ?. Assured stability
! for an even more rapid increase of our
foreign trade. l. Tho incalculabc adj
vantage arising from the expenditure and
retention in the United States of the
5000 600 oo0 annually paid to foreign ships
| for doing our foreign carrying.
Tho greatest mistake for people to
make is for them To assume that the
benefits of an American merchant marine
would accrue wholly to our seaboard
States. The interior would be just as
much benefited. and IS quite as much in
| terested as is the seaboard. The raw ma
terials needed for shipbuildng come from
the mines and forests of the interior,
like Minnesota, Michigan. Tennessee,
| West Virginia, Ilinois--in fact there is
no, a State or a Territory that would
not contribute its quota of materials and
give to its people their quota Of employ
ment in the supplying of materials for
the building of ships In the production
of the farms, the fields, the mines, the
forests and the fisheries necessary for
the housing, feeding, clothing and COM
fort of our people, each section of the
country would be benefited.