Year: 1878

The Subsidy Convention at Chicago.
Under the pretence Of urging an enlarged
commercial intercourse among the various
countries which make up the map Of the
Western Hemisphere the subsidy cormo-
rants who were baffied in Congress last
winter have been holding convention in
Chicago to start new campaign against
the Treasury--that is to say, against the
taxpayers of the United States. The real
design of the schemers who have instigated
this movement is to organize n grand
combination of all the subsidy seekers
in the hope Of better success at Washington.
They are arttully masking their project in
the hope OF gaining. reinforcements. The
extension. Of commerce among the nations
Of this continent is design which appeals
SO strongly to the Imagination and to the
sense Of interest Of the American people
that it cannot fail to enlist popular favor
when it is honestly presented. But when SO
benefcent purpose is proclaimed merely
as cloak for reviving the subsidy schemes
which Congress condemned at the last
session, it is the duty of the press to ex-





men have been inveigled into this Conven-
tion they must have had their eyes opened
yesterday.


This Convention at Chicago has evil
IDENTIFY been planned by the cunning and
assembled by the diligence Of the pro-
moters Of the Southern tactic Railroad.
who are the soul OF the movement. Every
~<1, IS ,t.n oith thnr
| seeking subsidy or would be will
ing to accept one are expected to assist,
in order that the Treasury may be depleted
by system of log rolling, in which votes
are to be sought for each scheme in turn by
promises to make snch support reciprocal.
A subsidy to the Texas Pacific Railroad a
subsidy to the Northern Pacific, o
subsidy for q line Of steamships to Brazil,
subsidy for another line between San
Francisco and Peru, an appropriation for
improving the navigation and strengthen
ing the embankments Of the Mississippi
River, similar appropriations for other
Western rivers are among the projects
which are to be harnessed together in one
gigantic team for carrying such measures
through Congress at the coming session.


We strongly disapprove of all attempts to
mix up questions relating to our foreign
commerce with questions relating to inter-
nal transportation. The subjects are dis
tinct from each other and should be kept
separate in legislation. We shall stoutly
oppose every cunning stratagem for buying
Pacific Railroad subsidies through Congress
g. ,1cs
dies, however useful the steamship lines
might be to the foreign commerce
of the country. Every measure should
stand on its own merits, but there
is not one Of these subsidy measures that
could stand alone. The most powerfully
supported of them all, the Texas Pacific
Railroad, will again encounter the same
discontinue which it met last winter if it
renews the battle without allies. When
|. of halt dozen different projects every one
deserves separate condemnation it is an out
rage on justice to carry them by log rolling.
The reciprocal trade with other American
countries, in the name of which this Con-
vention has been called, is the one thing
about which its instigators and abettors
care least.


We strongly favor the cultivation by this
country of trade with its American neigh
bors, but W doubt whether the subsidizing
of steamship lines is the best method of
promoting it. A much simpler means of
encouraging such lines is by permitting
our citizens to buy ships in the cheapest
markets and sail them wherever they


a
Unlike subsidies, free trade in ships would
not be burden to the Treasury. But,
besides cheapening transportation; We
must offer the other nations of this conti-
nent advantages in our markets in exchange
for equivalent advantages in theirs. There
is no other rational way of enlarging our
trade with those rising communities.