The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-02
PRESIDENT THANKS
 INFERIOR CONCRESSMEN
DESERVE PRAISE FOR STANDING BY THE SHIP SUBSIDY
 MEASURE.

Defeat of the Bill Serious Blow to
 the COuntry-DeepIy Discreditable
 to Us That Our Shipping Should be
 Driven from the High Seas--Failure
 to Pass the Bill Particularly Re-
 srettable Because It Has Tended to
 Dnmpen Enthusiasm for Closer Re-
 lntIOns With South America.
 Omaha, Neb., April Congressman E. M. Pollard, of the First Nebraska district, has received the following let ter from President Roosevelt:
 Washington, D. C., March 19, 1907,
 My dear MT, Pollard: I feel that it is due, not only to you, but to the other western congressman, the congressman from the interior. who voted for the ship subsidy bill, that I should express to you, not only for you, but for all of them also, the reasons why think you have rendered a great and patriotic ser vice.
 At the outset let me emphasize the fact that the present proposed ship sub sidy bill has nothing whatever in com mon with previous measures of the same name. There were well founded objections to certain features of these previous measures; but in the present measure all these objectionable feat ures have been eliminated.
 I should heartily favor the present measure in any event, but the exper- fences of Secretary Root on his trip to South America and the course of events on the Pacific seem to be to render 1t of the utmost consequence to pass the proposed bill As a matter of fact, my only objection to it is that it does not go far enough, l personally, for in stance, would like to see a line to South America from one of our gulf ports.
 T feel that you men from the west who stood by the cause of American shipping in supporting the ship subsidy bill, deserve the same praise that should be accorded to those men of the sea coast regions who voted for, and by their votes succeeded In establish ing our present system of national ir- rigation in the states from Kansas, Me- braska and the Dakotas, westward to California, Oregon and Washington. At that time the argument was made to me by many men representing the country east of the Mississippi that 1t was not fair to ask their support of a measure purely to benefit the states of the great plains and the Rockies. My answer to them was that anything that benefited part of the country ulti- mately benefited all of it, and that we were in honor bound to support any such measure, even If our particular To- cality was not affected. Tho same arr gument applies now in reference to the shipping bill. It is deeply descredit- able to us as a nation that our ship ping should be driven from the high seas, and 1t has thus been driven part ly because of our steamship lines are quite unable to compete with foreign steamship lines, English, German, Jap anese, French, which are heavily sub sidized by their governments, and partly because the high standard of wages and of living which we exact for our sesmen puts our shipmasters and ship owners at a disadvantage when forced to com- pete ever with u2subsidized ships of foreign powers, This difference in standards, and the subsidization of our foreign competitors, taken together have created an obstacle to the develop ment of our shipping which is insur- mountable except by a subsidy, and this obstacle must be cleared away as we would clear away bar from the mouth of a river.
 q feel that the loss of the ship,sub- sidy bill at the last session of congress was a real blow to our country and that it was particularly to be regretted be- cause it has tended to dampen some of the enthusiasm for closer relations with this country which Secretary Roots visit aroused in South Ameri- ca"