Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-04-23
ALL ARE BENEFITED
ECONOMIC VIEW OF AMERICAS
NAVAL OUTLAY.
Money Wisely Expended by Republi-
can Party Flows Through All
Channels of Trade-Busness Un-
dertakings Built UP.

Senator Perkins OF California, in
speech before the senate, took vie"
concerning the benefits which the
country has derived since 1883 from
the building of the modern navy,
which, though somewhat unusual
one, is worthy of consideration. He
has figured up the cost of the vessels
of the new navy built building or au-
thorized, as 309,359 100, and the total
expenditure on account of the naval
establishment since 1883 as $l,244,-
651,029. But according to the theory
of the California senator, the country
has much more to show as an offset TO
the nearly one and quarter billion
dollars which has been paid during
the past 25 years for the conSsuction
and support of the naval outfit. He
points out that the building of the
navy has contributed greatly to the
fostering of the country's iron and
I,ts, ssv,is>Is y p Eliaa- 80 that from COM
of century ago the United States has
risen to first rank in iron and steel
manufactures. In 1880, as he shows,
there were only 100000 wage-earners
engaged in the various departments Of
iron and steel production, and to these
was paid during that year $55, 100000
while in 1905 there were S57, 900 work
ers employed in these same indus
tries, and these drew total wage dur
ing the last-named year of $4S2 ,000,-
900.
These figures cannot fail to be i'm
pressive, and while the building of the
new navy is only one of the factors
that contributed to this enormous in
dustrial expansion, there can be no
question that it was an important fac
tor. The principle involved is that
money expended in the realization of
one great enterprise gives a sustain
ing impetus to other enterprises,
which in their turn build up still other
business undertakings. The ancient
sneer concerning "the producing of
general prosperity by general taxa
ton" does not embody the concen-
trated wisdom which it's originator
doubtless believed he had packed into
the epigram. 1t is better that indus
trial activity should be inaugurated
and maintained by the output of a
government-collected revenue than
that there should be general indus
trial stagnation. In the navy the Uni
ted States has an outfit which few
thoughtful observers will regard as
being unnecessary, considering that
the building of nayies is being pushed
i'll every quarter of the globe AS Sec
retary Taft recently remarked, 1T fills
the measure of the eye" which may
be translated into the common slang
of the land as notifying foreign pow.
ers with trespassing proclivities to
keep off our grass plots.
But while the country has the direct
value that depends upon the owner
ship of a great navy, there has also
unquestionably been a highly impor-
tant indirect compensation in the fos-
tering of affiliated industries. Not
alone the thousands of workmen en-
ployed in building the warships and
guns and those other thousands who
dug the ores and who worked in the
plate mills have been benefited, but
the farmers who have found a better
market demand and the tradesmen
who have sold their various commodi-
ties to the shipworkers, the millmen
and the miners have shared in the
prosperity impulse derived from the
building of the navy. The money
which the government collects from
the people it again distributes among
the people,