New-York tribune., 1906-11-21


| trade We cannot repeal the protective tariff;
no political party dreams OF repeating 1t; we do
| not wish to lower the standaTa or american
| living or American wages. We should give
back to the shipowner what we take away
| from him for the purpose OF maintaining that
standard. and unless we do give 1t back we
shall continue to go without ships. How
the expenditure of public money fo- the i'm
! provement of rivers and harbors to promote
trade be justified upon any grounds which do
not also sustain this proposal? Would any
one reverse the policy that granted aid to tho
Pacific railroads. the pioneers of our enormous
internal commerce. the agencies that built up
the great traffic which has enabled half dozen
other roads to be built in later years without
assistance? Such subventions would not be
| gifts. They would be at once compensation for
injuries inflicted upon American shipping by
American laws and the consideration for bene-
| fits received by the whole American people
not the shippers or the shipbuilders or the
sailors alone, but by every manufacturer every
miner, every farmer every merchant whose
prosperity depends upon market for his prod
ucts
The provision for such just compensation
should be carefully shaped and directed so that
| 1t will go to Individual advantage only so far
as the individual is enabled by it to earn rea-
sonable profit by building up the business OF
the country
A bill is now pending In Congress which con-
tains such provisions; it has passed the Senate
and is now before the House Committee on Mer-
chant Marine and Fisheries; it is known as Sem
ate bill No. 529,. 59th Congress, first session.
1t provides specifically that the Postmaster Cen
eral may pay to American steamships. of speci-
fed rates of speed. carrying mails upon regular
Ing amounts: For line from an Atlantic port
to Brazil. monthly, S150.000 a year; for a line
from an Atlantic port to Uruguay and Argen-
tina, monthly s1S75O0 a year; for line from
a Gulf port to Brazil monthly. S137.500 year;
for line from each of two Gulf ports and from
New Orleans TO Central America and the 18TH
mus of Panama, weekly, $4,000 year; for q
line from Gulf port to Mexico, weekly. s5o.000
a year; for line from Pacific Coast port TO
Mexico. Central America and the Isthmus of
Panama fortnightly, $4,000 year For these
six regular lines total Of $720.OO0. The pay
/ a no MOI n O
the American ships fair living chance in the
competition.
In the bill relating to trade with the Orient, to
tramp steamers and to a Naval Reserve. but
to the south. The hope of such trade lies
chiefly in the passage Of that bill.
THE OCEAN MAIL SERVICE.
Postmaster General Cortelyou in his report
for 1905 said:
by the act of 1891, to contract with the OF
american steamships for ocean mail service and
suitable steamships in the interest OF the postal
be of size, class and Equipment which viii pro-
mote commerce and become available auxiliary
pensation allowed to such steamers is found to be
pae the 6 @ to &
nave failed to develop any bids for much needed
81 W TO %sH
sons shoud a1e rA and & Which for ans re
refer to Brazil and countries south of it Com
have become frequent and emphatic. leading to the
sugRestlon on the part of certain officials of the
satisfactory direct Communication can be sstab-
soufh Arerica saie b as mans sh4Id oe dlsPetcaed 70
Eurqpean steamers. which would not only involve
rates to foreign country for the dispatch OF it's
mails TO countries Of our own hemisphere but might
change OF important official and diplomatic
| The fact that the government claims exclusive
control of the transmission OF letter mail through
should secure and maintain the exclusive jurisdic
The unprecedented expansion of trade and foreign
commerce Jusifes prompt consideration OF an
| adequate foreign mail service.
1t is difficult to believe but II is true that ont
of this faulty ocean mail service the government
| of the United States is making a large profit.
Inc actual cost TO the government last year OF
the ocean mail service to foreign countries other
than Canada and Mexico was 81 965 624 81. while
| the proceeds realized by the government from
| postage between the United States and foreign
countries other than Canada and Mexico was
S60OS,SO7 53, leaving the profit to the United
States Of $3O431S3 80: that is to say. under
existing law the government Of the United
States having assumed the monopoly of carry
Ing the mails for the people of the country is
making a profit of three million dollars per
annum by rendering cheap and inefficient SER
vice. Every dollar of that three millions Is
made at the expense of the commerce of the
United States. What be palmer than that
the government ought to expend at least the
profits that 1t gets from the ocean mail service
quarter of those profits would establish all
these lines which I have described between the
United States and South and Central America
and give us, besides a good mail service en-
larged markets for the producers and merchants
of the United States who pay the postage from
which the profits come.
NEED OF MERCHANT MARINE.
In his last message to Congress. President
Roosevelt said
To the spresd of our trade in peace and the de-
fence of our f1ag, in war great and prosperous
ships of our own and seanen OF our own to convey
to re-enforce our battle line. IL cannot but be
Of regret and uncasness 10 that the lines
South America should be chiefly under foreign
troll 1t Is not a good thing { i9at american mer-
goods and letters TO South America via Europe if
cfc where our ships nave held their own better
than on the, Atlantic; our merchant flag is now
threatened through the liberal aid bestowed by
other governments on their own steam lines I ask
f6e Nercbnt Marine Commsson has fNloed % %iiT9 m
long and careful inquiry.
The bill now pending in the House is a bill
framed upon the report Of that Merchant Ma
rine Commission The question whether II shall
become law depends upon your Representatives
in the House. You have the judgment OF the
Postmaster General, you have the judgment of
the Senate. you have the Judgment OF the Presi-
dent if YOU agree with these judgments and
wish the bill which embodies them to become
law, say TO your Representatives Say il to
them individually and directly. for it is your
right to advise them, and it Will he their pleas
hear from you what Legislation the in
terests of their constituents demand.
The great body of Congressman are always
sincerely desirous TO meet the lust wishes of
their constituents and to do what is for the
public interest; bat in this great country they
are continually assailed by innumerahle ex-
pressons of private opinion and by innumerable
demands for the expenditure Of public money;
they to discriminate very clearly between
private opinion and public opinion. and between
real public opinion and the manufactured ap-
pearance of public opinion; they know that