OCR Text |
Show FOR TRADE WITH SOUTH AMERICA Roosevelt, in Special Message, Mes-sage, MaKes Plea for Ship Subsidy to Encourage Our Commerce Abroad. WASHINGTON. Jan. '24.- The Tresi dent todsy sent a message to "ongress urging the desirability of legislation to help American shipping and trade hv encouraging the building and running of lines of large and swift steamers to South America and the Orient The message in part follows I call vour attention to the great .le sirabilitv of enacting legislation to help Ameri. an shipping and tragic hv encouraging en-couraging the building and running -f lines of large and swift steamers to South America and the Orient. The facts set forth bv Mr. Roc are striking and cannot but nrr.-st th- at fention of our people. The great continent conti-nent to the south f us, which should be knit to us bv the closest commercial tieg. is hardlv in direct commercial con' munication with u at all, it romuier cial relations being almost exclusively with Europe. Between all the principal South American ports and Furope lines of swift and commodious steamers, s.ib-Mdized s.ib-Mdized by their home Governments, plv regularly. There is no such line of steamers between these ports and the 1'nitrd states. In consequence, our shipping in South American ports is almost n negligible quantity; for in st'ince. in the year -r.ding -lr.no 30, Ifioo, there entered the port of Rio .o .l.meiro . ver 3'i0 steamers and sailini; vessels from Europe, but from the Tnite.l States no steamers and nnlv seven sil-ing sil-ing vessels, two of which were m di tress ()ne prime reason tor this -t:ite of things is the fact that those win now do busi:.ess upon the sea l.usi ness in n worid not of natural cmpe tition. but ..f snhsidie.l . ir.pft it t-.n. tate aid to steamship 'ins is ;is n 1 1 1 1 1 a part of the rnrni:'.. r. mi svsteui of t'.day as state rmpl... inent of ( on suls to promote business, );,r c. miner cial competitors in Koiope j.av m tne aggregate .' "'"'. 1 : vea r t Iteir steamship lines. .Ip.-n pa . between three and four Millions Hv the pro. p..sed legislation the Tinted States will pav relatively less than anv "he . r" our competitors. Three years ago the Trans Mississippi congress formally set forth as axiomatic a statement that ox erv ship is a missionary of trndo; that steamship lines xv.rk fVr their ..wi countries .liist as railroad lints x..rk for their terminal points, and that i' is absurd for the I'nited States to depend upon foreign snips to distribute us pro ducts as it would be for a de-pa r t men t i store to depend upon xva us of .-. corn pet ing house to dolixcr its go fids. This statement is the literal truth. The proposed law which has heen in troiluced in 'or.gress is in no sense experimental. ex-perimental. It is based on the best an. I most successful precedents, as f j r in stance, upon the recent '"iinard con tract with the British Government. As far as South America is concerned, its aim is to provide from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts better American lines to the great ports of South America than the present Kuropean lines. The South American republics now see onlv our warships. I nder this bill our trade-friendship trade-friendship will be made exident to them. The bill proposes to build Urge sized steamers of sixteen knot speed There are nearly such steamships nl readv in the world's foreign trade and over three fourths of thern now draw, subsidies postal or admiralty -or both. ' The hill will encourage our shipvnrds, which are almost as necessary to the na tional defense as battleships, and the efficiency of which depends in large measure upon their steady employment in large construction. It is or import anee to our navy because it gives a considerable con-siderable fleet of auxiliarx- steamships, such as is now almost wholly lacking. |