The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-11-27

nave worked most lnuuSJlOuSly
against this legislation.
Most of their work has been very
insdious, for they pose as great friends
of American shipping, but they always
b find some objection to any bill of va
lue and are always proposing some
amendment or some other legislation
that, while it purports to be i'm the
interest of American shipping, in real
ity is either in the interest of foreign
ships or is SO eXtravagant and unrea-
sonable in its demands as to create
prejudice against any legislation of
that character The representatives
of organizations of this class appeared
before our committee with long and
plausible arguments, filled with much
patriotic sentiment but when the facts
were ascertained it was discovered
that everything proposed by them was
either absurd or was in the interest of
the foreign lines that they represented
III secret.
"On the floor of the senate, during
the discussion of the BILL letter was
read by a senator from a foreigner,
an agent of a foreign steamship line,
protesting against the proposed legis-
lation and arguing that the defeat of
the bill would be to the best interest
Of the American people.
"In no other country would such
insulting impudence be for a moment
tolerated. The influence of this for
eign lobby reaches throughout the
country in various ways They furnish
a large amount of advertising to diff
ferent newspapers, especially in New
York and Chicago, and they have
trained writer's TO publish arguments
against subsidy, and, it is stated, they
own an interest in many of the Ameri-
can newspapers. This opposition, not
withstanding the fact that today we
have to employ foreign ships to carry
| the local for our navy on its trip from
| the Atlantic to the Pacific, that we
! have no vessels to carry troops to the
! Philippines or our other island pos
! sessions in case of necessity, and that
some of our battleships are without
crews, has been able to cripple, or en-
tirely defeat, all legislation looking to
the upbuildng of the Amerinan mer-
nhant marine.
There is a deep prejudice against
| the word subsidy in tnis country;
prejudice that has been carefully fOs-
tered and skillfully used by the op-
ponents of the shipping industry. An
! impression has been created that
subsidy is simply a gift from the gov
eminent. while as a matter Of fact, in
| the case of the proposed subsidy to
shipping, valuable services must first
! be performed. A ship subsidy is not
! so speculative and uncertain in its re-
suits as are various other subsidies
paid by the government; for instance,
such as the improvement of our rivers
and harbors, the subsidy to farming,
! by the millions paid to the depart
ment of agriculture, or the subsidy OF
some $60,000000 year paid by the
| government to carry the second class
mail. A rose by any other name may
smell as sweet. but many public men
are willing to vote for almost any
subsidy if you will but call it by an
other name.
'fThen, of course, the Democratic
party, theoretically, has always oppos-
! 6u SONGllllltnl tllu W t'hN AAAN''SNi' -
and this party opposes government aid
to shipping. Many Democrats, how
ever, personally are decidedly in favor
of it. The Democratic party in its
opposition to ship subsidy however,
| is only consistent with what it preach
es, and not with what it practices, for
! the Democratic party has never op-
posed a subsidy that was local in its
application and that was applied to a
Democratic community.
For instance: Every session of con-
! gress. since | have been a member
the large majority of the Democrats
| have voted for direct subsidy to the
! Southern Railway Of $1500OO a year
/ to run fast mail train. The Demo"
cratic party favored subsidy for the
| jamestown exposition; for the purpose
! of destroying the cotton boil weeyil,
! for the improvement of their rivers
and harbOrs. and to protect their coun-
| try from overflow by the Mississippi.
These are all subsidies, but unlike the
ship subsidy, they are local in their
application and their benefits. Many
| Republicans of the middle West are
| opposed to it>for the same reason thatI
! the Democrats are opposed to 1t, be-
cause it is not applied to their section
of the country only
There are many Republicans in
congress from the middle West whose
political vision is so limited that they
have never been able to see how they
can be benefited by having a ship that
cannot sail through corn field These
Republicans are free traders upon any !
proposition that does not provide for |
the direct expenditure of the money in !
their own district, and these free trad |
ers of the corn field and the free trad |
eIs of the cotton field, have always |
joined hands to defeat any shipping |
legislation, and they have always join
ed hands to get anything for the Mis-
sissippi valley. You will see a strik-
ing illustration of this last point, in all |
probability when the matter of the |