Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-05-02
NO SHIP SUBSIDY
OPINION OF ANTWERP CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE.
cogent Reasons Advanced by Mer
chants Of Great Port Show Fai.
lacy of Arguments Made
by Republicans.

OO9cuk ncdSOHb AuNdIlCCu w UtCf-
chants Of Great Port Show FaF.
lacy Of Arguments Made
by Republicans.
The chamber Of commerce of the
city 'of Antwerp, Belgium, has issued
a report on the subject of s~hip-subsidy.
Antwerp being one of the three great
seaports of the world, New York.
Hamburg and Liverpool all ranking
below her In the amount of shipping
that use their ports, the opinion of her
selected merchants and shipowners :
on the question of increasing a ma
tional mercantile marine by subven-
tions from the state is of international
importance. 1t appears that subsi-
died shipping has not been a success
at Antwerp, and a dispatch from Ant
werp to the New York Journal of Com
MERGE tells the reason why and points
to the ~"splendor of the English and
German fleets, created solely by pri-
vate enterprise, and the ~decadence OF
the French, Spanish and Italian, whose
governments have multiplied laws in
favor of the national merchant ma
rlne." Germany, it is observed, has
given subsidies as only a secondary
aid, and only to two companies run
ming million-dollar ships. Herr Bal
Inns dissatisfaction with the working
of subsidies upon two vessels of the
Hamburg-American line is cited. And
1t is shown that English ships, with no
subsidy and with no privileges in the
national coasting trade, succeeded in
sweeping from the sea first one and
then another Belgian subsidized serv-
ice, and that the victors at last in
herited both the trade and the official
favors.
AS to the necessity of a merchant
shipping industry to a country, the
Antwerpians declare that had there
been any real necessity, either native
or foreign capitalists would have EN-
edied the deficiency.
Condemning state interference in
the conflict of private rivalries, The
chamber voices it's belief that govern
ment can do something to facilitate
the development of shipping industry.
1t can remove the shackles from ship
builders and shipowners' arms, pro-
vide good general laws and educate
navigators and engineers. This forms
the substance Of one resolution passed
and another asserts that government
can only protect the maritime trade by
facilitating the movement of goods
follow on those who would pay to
bring foreign produce by means of a
s~hip-subsidy and at the same time
would pay to keep out this produce by
means of a customs tariff. There is
throughout the report a running COM
mentary on questions as they arise.
These take the shape of timely re-
minders that the object in bushes" is
to make money, that it is better to
buy than to manufacture what one
cannot make profitably, and that pro-
tectionism killed the shipping indus
try of America.
A warning is issued not to paralyze
the useful and powerful industries in
order to maintain the Less profitable,
and not to confuse with legitimate
commercial aspirations exaggerated
ideas of glory, of political expansion
and of fighting navies. Owners, bro
kers, manufacturers, exporters and
bankers in the Antwerp conclave have
decided that two courses only are
open: either a thorough-going ,protec-
ton assuring a monopoly, or liberty.
In electing for the latter they are
taking the experience Of neighbors
and are seeking to avoid the incessant
demands that they foresea for more
and more money to prop up an arti-
fetal industry. England's greatest
shipping developments, they say, lave
occurred since she threw away her
crutches. And M. Callaux, French
minister Of finance, is quoted to the
effect that bounties and subsidies, like
squirts Of morphia, are soothing
agents of which one must continually
| renew and enlarge the dose. What is
especially feared is that, once in
weighted into a grant of ship-subsidies,
Belgium may come to iMagine the ex-
istence of her merchant fleet in some
way allied intimately with the pros
perity of the nation. That illusion
the members have ~endeavored firstly
to combat.
In view of these unanswerable argu'
ments and conclusions of the mer.
chant princes of Belgium of the fall
lacy of subsidies and tariffs, it y not
singular why the protectionist faction
of the Republicans in the United
States persists in urging congress tc
grant a sh~ip-subsidy to favored ship
owners. Protectionism has so in
creased the cost of everything that oul
merchant marine has been made un
profitable and Jul ~ship-builders cannot
compete with foreign yards, SO to com
plete the circle Of protection the PEG
pie must be directly taxed to support
an industry that cannot compete II
the business world. The experience
of Belgium and other countries, which
have tried subsidies and failed, should
be a warning to us not to get caugh'
in the net, which our pro~tectionist:
have set for us.