Show SHIP SUBSIDY BILL WHY OUR MERCHANT MARINE NEEDS government AID it in bot the cot of tint the cot of due to the iante that somo sort of ehla subsidy bill will undoubtedly be passed cither by the fafty congress at its last or the ritty seventh at Us first session it may not be that now before the houses vastly improved as that measure has out of its original speed premium shape warned by the experience 0 tho st louis convention in declaring for the alluring and logical but impracticable revival of discriminating navigation laws the body which met at philadelphia committed itself only to legislation which will enable us to recover our former place among the trade carrying fleets of the world such place would not have been regained merely by the building of ocean fliers as in abo farst uanna bill nor Is that it will be even now by the inclusion of vessels down to tho 12 knot capacity tho bulk of tho worlds commerce la carried at nine knots and not until some quite unforeseen economics in tho fueling and manning of ships are devised will it bo carried faster A great many nine knot ships could be put out with the subsidy of a very few 21 and 19 and 17 knot ships and when they were our agricultural exports ten months of 1000 would travel in american bottoms rome such law as that outlined will be it will not be because the philadelphia platform declares for it this legislation Is matter of party policy and not necessarily essa rily party principle and party faith would not be broken by a failure to enact it it will be passed because there Is no other possible way of reviving our shipping end it Is wasteful and extravagant to allow our to languish further this truth Is nowhere so plainly demonstrated as in an examination 0 the arguments against such a measure not one so far as we have been able to observe fits existing conditions each the point Is aimed in tho air for instance the new york times stretching its limbs and rubbing its eyes after a nap in alie catskills mumbles drowsily the old formula of freo ships let the american who wants to freight goods be to buy his freighter abroad is its time honored recommendation but if the bought his ship abroad he would have to have a subsidy to man it at home it Is not the cost of building that keeps american vessels out of the foreign trade thanks to protection and domestic competition uie price of an american ship is u longer so largely in excess of that of foreign ship as to make the between profit and loss in the shipping trade the in investment owing to the employment of american yards by ship owners will not to meet its interests charge call for an appreciable portion of the subsidy it Is not the cost of making but the cost of running a ship at the american wage rate that counts it Is that which gives a foreigner the advantage of at ecat one atlantic voyage a year the free ship lath Is a anachronistic a survival of good old colony times economically as was god save king georgel Pl of good old colony times politically so the smug self contained observation of the poston evening record as to the lime and period of our lead in the abundance and cheapness of fuel and steel being the least logical of all occasions for the passage of a ship subsidy bill la for the same reason merely inane wo arc not to subsidize shipbuilders ship builders but ship owners it Is wages and not material which supply the prohibitive obstacle to their pursuit of foreign trade which th subsidy would overcome tho great increase in shipbuilding la taken by other journals notably the evening post as an argument the bill hut tills not merely misses the mark it rebounds in boomerang fashion there is no increase worthy of mention as we have before demonstrated from the commissioners report s vo in abo protected shipping trade cuyahoga Cuya hoga creek not the delaware Is the clyde of america the fresh water town of ha 2 taken abo palm from generations of philadelphia shipwrights ship wrights our great steel tonnage la being laid down miles from the ocean it Is there and in the increased coasting trade to hawaii and porto keco that nine tenths of our dozed increase of shipping Is found alip other one tenth la due to the expectation pec tation of the subsidy the big pa ci s wen ordered as soon aa lliel 12 knot went into ohp bill no one we fancy today gives much hied to tin parrot cries of steal nt this of public money every aiu in the subject knows by this hiir that no nations commerce has awn developed except by n steal this Is the single industry vi universal lias indicated as the proper recipient of a bounty germany may subsidize act sugar japan cotton manufactures canada knef cattle but all countries except the united states subsidize ships in consequence international commerce lias grown in the last century per cent while international population has grown per cent if one cannot indict a people how can one indict a world A policy against which every shaft aimed falls with such foolish futility to the ground Is certain of adoption through alie intrinsic of Us merits new york press |