The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1907-05-04
NO SHIP SUBSIDY
OPINION OF ANTWERP CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE.
Cogent Reasons Advanced by Mer-
chants of Great Port Show Fall
lacy of Arguments Made
by Republicans.

The chamber OF or the
city of Antwerp, Belgium, has issued
q 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-
tons 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
rine." 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
it is shown that English ships, with 40
subsidy and with nc privileges in the
national coasting trade, succeeded in
sweeping from the sea first n and
then another Belgian subsidized serv-
inn onI fhnf thn xriafArr or oct 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 rem
edied the deficiency. Not denying
that it is grateful to the national pride
to see goods carried under the national
flag, it is found that the vessels coun-
try OF registry has no influence with
the foreign customer for goods. A ma
tional marine is declared to be as de-
sirable as any other industry, prOvid-
ing that it is a source of wealth in
itself and makes no demands on the
funds of those who do not use it.
Condemning state Interference in
the conflict of private rivalries, the
chamber voices its 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
even of imports. MOrdant comments
follow on those who would pay to
bring foreign produce by NEAR of a
sh~ip-subsidy and at the same time
would pay to keep out this produce by
means of a customs tariff. There is
throughout the report q running com
mentary on questions as they arise.
| These take the shape of timely re
minders that the object in business 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 c~onclave 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 foresee for more
and more money to prop up an arti-
fetal industry. England's greatest
shipping developments, they say, have
occurred since she threw away her
crutches. And NJ. CallauX, French
minister CT finance, is quoted to the
effect that bounties and subsidies, like
squirts Of mCrphia, 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 shiptsubsidies,
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 is not
singular why the protectionist faction
Of the Republicans in the United
States persists in urging congress to
grant a ship-subsidy to favored ship
owners. Protectionism has Sc in
creased the cost Of everything that our
merchant marine has been made un-
profitable and our ship-builders cannot
compete with foreign yards, SO to COM
plete the circle of protection the peo-
pie must be directly taxed to support
an Industry that cannot compete in |