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Show THE PANAMA CANAL TOLLS. That we have any merchant marine at all ia due to the old law which forbids foreign-built -ships ! from hoisting the American Raff and trading be- ' Iween the porta of our country, aa for example, be-.,. be-.,. , , tweea Xow Yrlt-mt-Xw-Orloana. . In Ilia coast , trade we have a good many ahipa on both oceana. And now a question haa come up: "Will auch coaating vessela be obliged to pay toll to the Panama Pana-ma canal t" It ia a delicate question to doeide. Our country hat already declared that there ahall be no discriminations among the ahipa of 'all nations in the ua of the canal. Of eourae thia doeg not in-elude, in-elude, our own warshipa, for it would be a bur-leaque bur-leaque for our government to charge anil collect toll on ita own ahipa, and then' draw back tho amount aa aum owed by the canal to the government. gov-ernment. -But if an American built ahip under the American flan, owned by an American company, ' loada in New York for San Francisco, wants to paaa through the canal, ahould aueh ahip pay toll when it reachea or paxaea through the canal t It ia a delicate deli-cate question. Say it waa decided that the ahip, being all American, ahould pass through free, ' would not other nationa have a right to protest! Lt-t ns aee how it might work.' Japan haa many , - cotton faotoriea and ia building more.. Suppos? a 4000-toa Englmh ahip wag to load in New Orleans - with cotton for Yokohama, and waa to pass through the canal. Suppose, the toll $3 per ton. The ahip of course would be out $12,000. Suppose that at the same time an American ahip of tha same tonnage. were to take aboard a like cargo for San Franeiaco, ajid paaa the canal free of charge. But then suppose , that on reaching . San Francisco, the cargo waa to be transferred to another an-other steamer running between San Francisco and Yokohama; the $12,000 paid by the English ship would buy all the coal the American ahip : would burn on the voyage across the Pacific, and the cargo could be delivered cheaper than the Brit- . ish cargo, would nottEngland kickf There ia another point. V With no toll charged, ths ahipa of the United States would pretty nearly " have a monopoly of all the coast trade of Central America and Mexico, and great advantage on the : I'acifie aide of South America aa low down aa Callao. '..'-'. ' . One can aee at a glance that thia ia going to be a serious question and we snspect that the rule now in force on the Sue canal will have to' be followed, . though the conditions are not tha same. , The Sue canal ia the property of a corporation Bnd run. fur the benefit of tho atockholdera. Though Great Britain owna the control, that doea not matter. Does an English ahip loaded at Liverpool or , Southampton for India, pay the same toll that i Dutch ship loaded at Bremen for Java t . ' If our coast ahipa by virtue of a free canal are thereby able to monopolize the coast trade of Central Cen-tral America, a part of the coast trade of western South America, and both coasts of Mexieo, will not - - outside nationa be justified in proteatingt -, Our thought ia that aa the canal is being con-atructed con-atructed for the us of the ships of all nations, the rule ahould be the same for all nationa, including our own. |