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Show AMERICAN SHIPPING. . To speak of American shipping is like speaking of a mythical thing. The causes which hare led to the disappearance of American ships are various, but the important thing now is to restore Ameri- j can commerce. The carrying trade is the great thing to be won, and this can only be done by offering the same rates for freight as are offered by the most sue-. cessful companies. England enjoys a mo-' nopoly of the greater part of the world's carrying trade, and she has it because she has offered greater inducements than any other nation. The building of ships is of minor importance as compared with the carrying trade. If the restrictions put upon ship-building are such as -to hamper it and cause capitalists to seek investments elsewhere, then these restrictions re-strictions should be removed, and freedom free-dom given to capitalists to buy ships in any country. The protection which has been extended to American ship-builders has been such as to drive the American flag from the seas, and the flag will be kept from the seas so long as the present policy is pursued. A remedy for this state of things will probably be found in a policy of free ships, and in this belief we are encouraged encour-aged by the report of United States Con-. sul-General Mueller, whose post is at Frankfort-on-the-Main. His report reviews re-views our commercial relations with Germany, Ger-many, and gives the causes for the de pressed state of trade in that country. He says that the new protective tariff system has proved a failure, "and this fact should be well heeded by protectionists protection-ists in this countoy. At the conclusion of his report, Consul Mueller says that the present strife of nations for industrial and commercial supremacy suggest an American Amer-ican ' policy of free ships, and of industries indus-tries untrammeled by burdensome taxes. If his report is fully studied by the nation's na-tion's lawmakers, perhaps American ships will be a reality once more. |