Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-27
schwab Buys His ships Abroad.

the next move Will DE.
schwab Buys His Ships Abroad.
From the Brooklyn Eagle
Charles M. Schwab who recently
gained control of one of the great
ehipbuilding yards of the country
and announced that he expected to
compete with the world in the con-
struction of vessels, sailed for Eu-
rope SATURDAY.. He announced that
the chief object of his trip was to
arrange for the construction abroad
of a fleet of ten steamships to trans
port iron ore from Chile by way of
the Panama canal. The order will
be placed abroad. he said. because
foreigners can build so much cheaper
than we can. The new ships VIII ny
a foreign flag.
It may be safely assumed that an
other reason why Mr. Schwab will
not build his own vessels is that his
wards are already worked to capacity
to fill contracts. If it be true that
foreigners can make a profit on
vessel at a price less than the actual
cost to an American builder who
manufactures his own steel. condi-
tons are indeed bad. Tt may be that
Mr.. Schwab is taking into consider
alton the profits his yards would be
making on similar work for outside
buyers and is not basing his con-
clusion on absolute cost of produce
ton
For instance, a buyer can afford to
pay more for an Americana built ship.
with the protection afforded it by the
prohibition of the use of foreign ships
in the coastal trade and by the bene-
fit conferred through exemption from
canal tolls, than he could pay We're
the ship destined for the foreign trade.
The cost of vessel, in other words,
is made to depend to some extent on
the uses to which 1t il to he put. 1t
would be absurd for Mr.. Schwab to
build his own ships, which will be in
the foreign trade and enjoy no sub
sidy, when his plant can be used for
the building of ships that will be used
in the domestic trade and will enjoy
subsidies, however cleverly these sub
sides may be concealed under other
names. Builders cannot be blamed
for capitalizing the tolls exemption.
There has been SO much sentiment
tality legislated into our navigation
laws that the cost of operating Ameri-
can ships In competition with foreign
ships Is prohibitive. Even If the cost
of production were equal 1t would not
paw owners to navigate their vessels
under the American flag in the inter-
national trade. If the merchant ma
rine is to be rehabilitated-and it was
once the glory of the nation--it must
be put on a parity with the merchant
marines of other nations by COM
plete revision of the navigation laws,
No tariff or other legislation that pur-
poses merely to equalize the cost of
construction will solve the problem,
|
Current History Writing.
From the Magazine of American His
tory.
| History without regard to fact is
being written at the present time
| for temporary effects. Not that the
histories state absolute falsehoods in
tentionally, but partisan writers en-
large or diminish. omit or introduce
emphasize or ignore. Go to a good
library, take up the books recently
written. of all parts of the earth, BY
men who had no other motive than tC
report what they saw, or to deduct
4 from documents true conclusions, Il
such can be found. In the absence o.
| them q suspense account would
better be kept One read a paper
thoroughly partisan in its views, an
other a paper taking the opposite po
sition. They got into an argumen
| on history, ana enueu Dy breaking
friendship, each charging the othe
with gross ignorance or with lying. 4
listener who read both papers under
stood the source of the trouble. Eacl
had blindly accepted what he read
He attempted to make peace between
them; both turned upon him ant
called him a mugwump. The tern
"mugwump," like .copperheads," de
ponds entirely on the locality of tn
one to whom it is applied. In tn
Civil War in this country, Northern
sympathizers with the South, espe
cially all those who were noncom
initial publicly, but did what the.
could for the South, were called cop
perheads and in one or two Southern
States certain Union sympathizer
who had not been open and above
board, when detected were calle
copperheads, and that before tn
name came into use in the North.