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Show DEMOCRATIC PRETENSE. Democrats who have adopted the idea of government-owned ships flatter themselves them-selves that they have kept faith with the ancient preachments of the party against subsidies. This is sheerest hypocrisy. hy-pocrisy. It is conceded that the government-owned ships must loso money while they are developing trade, and as long as they lose money the people are paying the price, i Whether it be called a tax or a subsidy is immaterial. There never was any really solid argument ar-gument against the ship subsidy. The. theory that the money of the people would be used to enrich a special interest inter-est was apparently sound. At all events it proved convincing to the vast majority major-ity of the American people who thus permitted their merchant marine to sink far below the needs of the country. But that the theory was not sound can be demonstrated by the argument for government-owned ships. It is justly argued that even if the government loses a few millions each year on these ships tho entire country will benefit if at the same time trade worth hundreds hun-dreds of millions is developed. The same argument can be made quite as justly iu favor of ship subsidies. The subsidy merely helps a ship-owner to pay his way and his ship develops trade. The American people see the necessity of going into all the markets of the world with their products and they are demanding that the ship shortage shall be removed in one way or another. A few millions paid in subsidies would develop hundreds of times the amount in trade, and developed trade means growing industries, new industries, more employment and greater per capita wealth. The Democratic plan is a veiled subsidy. sub-sidy. The objection to it is that the government in business is about the costliest enterprise of which we have knowledge. Our experience with reclamation rec-lamation projects demonstrates this up to the hilt. It would be cheaper in the long run to pay subsidies and make private shipping companies "going concerns." con-cerns." Even the Democrats do not insist that the government shall remain in the business forever. They foresee the time when the ships can be turned over to private companies. At all events the Democratic hypocrisy hypoc-risy about subsidies should not be permitted per-mitted to deceive the public. Any way vou look at it the operation of steamship steam-ship lines at a loss is a subsidy, for the people pay the tax. |