Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-03-23
AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE
Great Britain will Resist its Develop
mont Even With Force.

Great Britain will Resist its Develop
mont Even With Force.
| Winthrop l. Marvin, author Of "A
History Of American Merchant Ma
rine," in the Philadelphia Public
Ledger.
Those Americans who voice surprise
at the attitude Of the British govern
ment toward the transfer Of foreign
built ships to American registry and
our genuine efforts to improvise an
ocean shipping, nave left unread the
history Of the United States. No other
1 course could have been anticipated
from the British government. 1t has
been the British determination since
Cromwell, for almost 300 years, to
rule the seas in war and commerce.
Whatever international law or usage
| gives a shadow Of sanction to this de-
termination we may be very sure that
it will be enforced. British states
men are intent upon the war and after
ward. They propose to break the
commercial and naval power Of Ger
many, and they do not propose to
magnify the commercial power Of the
United States.
Every American effort to increase
our mercantile marine will be scruti-
nized by the British government and
resisted II there Is a pretext and an
opportunity. There unquestionably is
a pretext in the Dacia's case, rs in the
case of other interned ships Of bellig-
erent nations. But there a be no
pretext or occasion for heat and quar-
relling II our merchant shipping Is
increased by newly built ships from
American yards.
This safe and obvious fact was COM
pletely missed at the opening Of the
war by statesmen Of the majority par
ty in Washington. In the shock Of
disrupted m they saw but one
relief-the purchase Of foreign ships
from belligerent owners That course
was fraught with doubt and danger.
II the Dacia were an American
built vessel or Of ecu American
ownership before the war, the sight
Of her steaming for Bremen with
American cotton might have vexed the
British admiralty, but there would
have been no pretext for interference
with the ship herself. Other ships Of
American construction have gone safe
ly through. Even If there had not
been a century Of warning, from the
days Of impressment and orders In
council. Of the certain attitude of the
British government toward an Ameri-
a mercantile marine, we might have
been absolutely sure that every I'M
certainty or irregularity such as the
case of the Dacia affords, would have
led to seizure and detention.
But because Of the blindness Of
many Of its lawmakers, the United
States was forced to walk right up
and into this war crisis without
enough American merchant ships Of
unquestioned nationality. The trouble
is in large part Of our own making.
We should blame Great Britain less
and some Of our Statesmen" and ed
itors more.
Fol many years before the present
war an earnest effort had been made
in the United States to secure an ade-
quate merchant shipping by means
which other nations had tried and
found effective. That effort vas saw
agely resisted by ignorance. ridicule
and hate. It required unusual courage
for public men to stand up in the
American congress and advocate
American shipping legislation. They
were bounded by the yellow press;
their mail was filled with anonymous,
abusive missives. Subsidy g%rabbers."
subsidy thieves" yer some Of the
epithets that were employed, and when
on one occasion a conservative ship
ping bill that had passed both houses
flibuster before agreement OF details
could be attained, the result was
hailed with exultation by a consider
able part Of the organs Of supposed
public opinion in the United States.
Now exactly what those brave public
men predicted when they sought an
American merchant fleet has come to
pass. Foreign governments that
were allowed to monopolize our cea
carrying are at war. Our trade Is
suffering, and frantic attempts to ex-
temporize an American fleet out Of
belligerent craft threaten to involve us
also in the conflict.
Time and events have seldom
brought a more striking vindication
than this Of those public men who, In
the twenty years past. sought unsuc-
| cessfully in the face Of vituperation
and derision the upbuilding Of a strong
American merchant marine. Every
thing that happens from day to day
clinches the truth that their way was
the right one, that they were states
men. patriots and prophets, and that
the politicians and the newspapers
that cried out against them were the
blindest Of the blind.
"NEvER TOUCHED Me-"