The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-28
Not Ship Subsidy But Discrim-
 ination in Tariff
NO BURDEN ON PEOPLE
Argues for Upbuilding of Merchant Marine By Giving Dis- count on Duties on Goods Im-
 ported In American Ships


 party in the House of Representatives has been contented to merely oppose the
 subsidy legislation proposed by the
 republicans in favor of the merchaht marine.
 Today Representative Underwood or Alabama opened the way for an ar 1 hrmative position for the democratic party on this question in speech de- livered in the House when he read the pledge of the last democratic platform saying: We believe in the upbuilding of the American merchant marine without new or additional burdens upon the people and without bounties from the public treasury.
 He said in part:
 No question out-ranked in impor- tance the fostering care of our com merce in the first Congresses or the United States. The building of Ameri- can ships and the development of our foreign commerce for years has been discussed from many and varied stand points.
 Almost before the dawn of civiliza- tion. nations were fighting for traG> and it has always been recognized that a favarable balance of trade was vital factor in the commercial life of nations to be contended for by all. Afcountry may maintain the balance Of com merce in it's favor by it's export or commodities produced at home, either agricultural or manufacturing, or 1t Ia In itS favor hV reason of the work done by it for other nations.
 "The balance of commerce in it's trade relations with other countries IS largely the determining factor in the life of nation, that ascertafns wheth- CT it shall be rich or poor. weak or strong. dependent or independent. Ship less trading nations are constantly In foreign debt and often in financial straits.
 .sWhere two counties do an equal amount of the carrying trade between them. a balancing of the imports and exports may show the debtor and cred flor side of their trade conditions, but where one is doing a preponderance Ot the thuh iAiNHN " taken into the reckoning before true balance of the account can be ascer- tained.
 This is illustrated from the history of our own commercial transactions. The first favorable balance Of com merce of 66 cents per capita occurred in 1893, four years after the inaugura- ton of the government. Our trade bal ances, as shown by the imports and exports was adverse to the extent or s1.18 per capita, but transportation be- ing in our favor to the extent or slS4 per capita, left us on the credit slde of the national ledger.
 For the first half century of our government our shipping interest by it's earnings secured for us a balance of commerce in our favor, but after the decline of the American shipping interest had once begun, we have had a balance of commerce against us with very rare exceptions, notwithstanding the fact that In many years the bal anc of trade has been favorable by reason of the exports being in excess of our imports
 From 1882 to 1S96 we had 25 favor able balances of trade, but nine of these were converted to adverse bal ances after paying our transportation charges, reducing our favorable bal ances of commerce to 16 as against 2S for foreign benefit in spite of ample exports and a high protective tariff that restricted importations as far as possible. These adverse balances were largely paid in bullion.
 "The importance of merchant ma rine to our country was clearly ex- pressed by Thomas Jefferson, then Sec retary of State under George Wash ington in 17ef, when he said that The marketing of our production will be at the mercy of any nation which has possessed itself exclusively of the means of carrying them and our poli- tics may be influenced by those who command our commerce. This state ment made nearly 120 years ago Is prophetic of our present condition. Foreign governments are almost ex- clusively possessed of our foreign car rying trade and to large extent the arrangement of their shipping routes has excluded our commerce from the | markets of South America and will continue to do so as long as present conditions remain.
 Many of the men who were members of the constitutional convention were
 members of the first Congresses of the | United States: these Congresses were
 greatly interested in the development and
 building up of our merchant marine and l the control of our foreign trade No man understood better the limitations
 of the powers of Congress than the men who served in the Senate and House of Representatives in the early history of our government. and 1t is interesting | to note the policy they pursued and the course they followed to produce the de-
 sired results. The first bill enacted by
 the Congress after it assembled was the l tariff act of July 4, 17s9. Section of
 that act reads as follows:
 !" Section B. And be 1t further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That a dis | count of 10 per cent on all the duties
 imposed by this act shall be allowed on such goods, wares and merchandise as
 shall be imported in vessels built in the | United States. and which shall be wholly | the property of a citizen or citizens there of. or In vessels built in foreign coun- | tries, and on the 18th day of May last
 wholly the property of a citizen or cit
 izens of the United States. and so con.
 tinuing until the time of importation
 From this it will be seen that dis.
 criminating duty by way of discount of
 10 per cent was given on all goods i'm. ported into the United States In Amer | ican ships owned by American citizens l James Madison, the father of the consti- I tuition of the United States, was in charge
 of the bill and the logic and force of his l great intellect was in favor of the adop
 ton of the discriminating duty in favor of American ships.
 "The wisdom of their laws was dem I onstrated by the results obtained. Sucf l was the purpose and good effect of these I acts of Congress that from 17S9 to 1794 1 a period of seven years, the carrying oi | foreign imports in American ships ross
 from about 1T per cent to s4 per cent, ant
 the exports of all American goods ir