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Show SHIP SUBSIDIES. A good sized comic opera might be built up around one of the dissertations of a near contemporary contem-porary on the subject of ship subsidies. It tells how busy American ship yards are and ventures the opinion that the reason Americans do not more extensively engage In. running ships is because be-cause they can make moi interest on land than on the sea. Of course Americans do all the coast shipping ot our country because foreign ships are no permitted to ply for trade between Am- erlcan ports. But if the editor of our contem- H porary were to be made a present of a line of new u H steamships, each equal in size and completeness dl to the finest ship of the Atlantic, does he believe PH he could run those ships in any foreign trade and - iH pay expenses? A ship like the Deutchland con- IB sumes GOO tons of coal per day on a voyage. She 1 H carries a crew of one hundred and fifty men, and f M an expensive staff of navigating officers and en- M gineers. Her daily expenses when in port are quite two thousand dollars, when at sea those $4 expenses have an additional of probably $3,000 H per day for coal. The government of Germany - !fl backs her ships with great subsidies, and enables ' lM them to carry freight- and passengers choapor ' ir than any un-subsldized ship can. By this plan the ' commerce of Germany has, In twenty-five years, '1 grown to be next to that of Great Britain and M is still growing. H Between 1897 and 1900 our country drew from s: the outside world 2,000 millions of dollars as her M balance of trade. But the other day we pub- H lished the fact that the American foreign debt is ! M as great as it was in 189G. Why is this? The !' reasons are plain enough. One hundred thousand M Americans go abroad annually. As a rule they i H go and come in foreign ships, the passage money ! M being paid to foreign ship owners. The ship's ji M supplies are bought in home countries. The vast tonnage of American products sent M abroad go in foreign ships, the freight money go- tl M ing to foreign countries. As a sample we buy M of Brazil sugar, rubber, etc., amounting to $80,- M 000,000 per annum. To do that we pay the freight on the English merchandise sent to Brazil, which M is there exchanged for Brazilian goods, then pay M the freight on those goods to England, where they ' M are exchanged for American cotton or grain, which tM Americans paid the freight out on and then we I 'j pay the freight on the Brazilian goods from Liv- j ( M erpool to New York. The four freights paid L amount to more than the original cost of the jij M goods, and all that money goes to English banks. i H It is because of that kind of work that this coun- I H try cannot reduce its indebtedness to Europe. If 1 we could carry out and bring back our own pas- t ! H sengers and freight and have the money in our ' " H country rather than in Europe, it would amount SH annually to about as much as is now received for ' H our raw products; it would stop a mighty interest ( 'S payment which now has to be" a'nnually paid; it H would cause the building of many a great ship jH In our ship yards; it would make our nation fore- ! !H most on the sea as she now is on the land. Un-. H til that is done, until this country imitates the i H methods which Great Britain, Franco, and Gqr- H many long ago adopted to hold and Increase their ( j foreign commerce, ours will always be a depend- ( j H ent nation and will never be extricated from the j1 H load of debt which now weighs our country down. H |