Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-01-21
Monday, January 81, 1906.
Brighter Prospect for Our Shipping.

Hope has been revived of late that
the shipping bill which means SO much
= to Maine will pass Congress at its
present session. In many quarters the
announcement from Washington that
the bin is likely to pass is received
with skepticism which is pardonable in
view of the many times when hopes
have been raised in this matter only to
be suddenly dashed again. The bill is
by no means all that could be desired
but it is much better than nothing.
For a score of years one scheme after
another has been pending in Congress
to revive our Ocean-carrying trade
and lift American shipping to a place
: worthy Of our country and commen-
surate with our great and growing
foreign commerce. The disappearance
of the American flag from the high
In our national history, and the efforts
to restore it there have met with
persistent opposition from the middle
and western sections of the country.
Sometimes one branch of Congress
has passed subsidy measure and
sometimes the other, but In the end the
Indifference or active opposition of the
members from the interior states has
triumphed and the matter has again
20 he.
attitude of the West in this matter has
been the willingness Of the western
farmer TO see his grain and food stuffs
carried to Europe at cheap rates under
foreign flag in preference to spend
money out of the national treasury to
stimulate American ship-building and
equaliZe the conditions of competition
for the American Shipownar. Other
great nations have built up their
foreign shipping by a system of
subsidies out persistent opposition mas
met such attempts in this country In
recent years. however, the situation
has been changing. Our foreign trade
has doubled in a single decade until
the United States has become the fore
most export nation in the world. This
means that every section of the
country has vital interest in extend
ing our foreign trade, and consequent
~ the western prejudice against
national assistance in stimulating that
trade has become less pronounced.
The New York Tribune. always a
constant friend of American shipping.
points out another reason why this
country is awakening to its national
responsibilities and opportunities and
why ship subsidy bill has better
prospects Of success than ever before.
Says the Tribune:
I'VE are successfully cultivating
more intimate relations with our
American ncighbOrs. We want to be
friends commercially and politically
with the republics to the south of us
They are responding to our advances.
But the great bar to closer intercourse
is the lamentable lack of communica-
tons over sea. The sea is now and
must remain for a long time to come
the open highway of commerce for
these countries, and if we abandon .hi,
easy road to our European rivals we
surrender to them the first call in
every Central American and South
American market. We have also
acquired Hawaii and the Philippines
and are reaching out for Il greater
share of trade and influence in Eastern
Asia. But how can we hope to assert
ourselves in that region if we are con-
tent to depend for communication with
the Orient on steamship lines main
tanned by Japan and the Dominion of
Canada? National policy compels us
TO do our own carrying to South
America and across the Pacific, If we
can and we are shortsighted to
hesitate any longer about making the
experiment.
1.-THE subsidy. or subvention. bin
which the House will probably oe
asked to pass aims only at accomplish
ing results which are of national i'm
portance. 1t is not designed to give q
bounty to the freight carrier as such,
but by paying literally for mail service
. stS othti IattOnS 10 pro-
mote intercourse with those parts of
the world in which we have a speci Al
and vital interest. The purpose of the
act is to establish American steamship
lines to Brazil and Argentina, to Chilli
and the west coast of South America
and to the Philippines and Australia
These lines are to be maintained also
as a naval reserve and as a training
school for officers and seamen. From
military as we'll as from a CONNER
cial point Of view they are essential to
national progress and security. They
will subserve general rather than pri-
vate interests. and the money spent on
them will prove a sensible investment
We have talked long enough about i'm
proving our means of communication
. with South America and Eastern Asia.
1t is high time to quit talking and do
something"
The working Of Judge Lindsey's jul