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Show J The Tariff and Our Shipping THE NATION of New York reviews a book, "Ocean Life in the Old Sail Ship Days," which is the simple story of an old Boston sea captain, who followed the sea until 1870. The (Nation copies approvingly one paragraph from the book, as follows: "With the ending of the war all hoped that the tariff, especially on shipping, would be reduced, re-duced, to enable our shipyards to again resume building, and enter into competition for the world's carrying trade, whore we had lost prestige; pres-tige; but it was not to be. The tariff was still kept on, the same as during the war, and no one, under these conditions, was Insane enough to build. The carrying trade of the world that should have been in American bottoms was al-I al-I lowod to slip from us, and with it one of our finest New England industries shipbuilding." I The Nation endorses that as true and filled with good sense. The captain was doubtless sincere sin-cere when he wrote that, but what of the sincerity of the Nation in endorsing it? In 1870 the carrying trade of tho ocean, for all valuable freights had passed to steam ships and wooden ships had, in great part, given way to iron and later to steel. In 1870 Great Britain had regular lines of steamers running to all the important im-portant ports of the world, except, perhaps, San Francisco. She kept them going by subsidizing them, and her merchants had trading stations in all lands. How could the New England sail ship compete with that system, save in carrying coarse and heavy freights on routes where time was not a supreme object? If sail-ships could not compete with steamers in the coast trade of our own country, what chance was there for them to cross the seas against the competition of England, Eng-land, with her steel ships, compound engines and the all-protecting subsidy. Our steamers had to be withdrawn from the Atlantic because the Buchanan Bu-chanan administration refused to renew the payment pay-ment of the little subsidy that had been given them, while at the same time England increased the subsidy to the Cunarders. That was when our country was on a free trade basis, almost as strict as that of Great Britain. Germany and France are both tariff-protected, but they are able to keep their regular lines of steamers traversing the oceans. Our country cannot simply because our wise legislators refuse to accept and adopt the methods that other maritime nat'ons have adopted. A subsidy is scouted in cuu , though the fares and freights paid to foreif. ip-owners annually drain our country of $250,000,000, which at even four per cent would, could it be retained here, produce in interest $10,000,000, Is that real good business? It is not the tariff that has driven our ships from the sea. Germany has her tariff, but her ships and her foreign trade through her ships has made her since 1875 the richest country of Europe. The reason is she keeps her money at home and draws, annually, from the outside world a mighty reserve to add to her stock of money. In the .meantime we charter English ships to keep our battleship fleet supplied with coal. |