162 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February 1, 1911. 



about 1890 appeared upon the horizon two challengers to her 

 anticipated sway, the United States and Germany. 



The L'nited States confined her interest in this lield to the 

 building of a navy. Such navy as we had before that time was 

 the joke of other nations, and public sentiment was slow in 

 supporting any proposal toward modernizing it, but the work 

 continued until there is a new navy of which every .American 

 is proud. 



When wi- iii-i ^i.uiiii ihis new navy we couldn't m.nkc the forging 

 for a crank shaft or a gun; \vc couldn't make the cast steel for the 

 machinery; we couldn't make the metal plates of which her hull was 

 built; we couldn't make the manganese bronze and other combination 

 castings which were required under the drastic conditions at that 

 time. But today the metal arts of the United States lead the world — 

 due to the salutary etTects of the navy. 



The speaker told how the United States once had a flourishing 

 merchant marine. When the thirteen British colonies in America 

 achieved their independence it was soon found to be impractic- 

 able, on account of the v;.rious methods that they had to regulate 

 commerce between this and the rest of the world. The con- 

 trolling cause of the union of our States, and of our present 

 government, was the absolute necessity of some central power to 

 regulate commerce with foreign nations. This being the case, 

 we had the men who had achieved our independence, and the 

 great leaders in public thought at that time, to bring about and 

 mold a constitution. The very first act of these men, when they 

 were called together in the first Congress, was to pass laws for 

 the regulation of cotnmerce, and when we speak of regulating 

 commerce we mean to so regulate it that it shall not disappear 

 from the seas. 



At that time we had no merchant inarine in the foreign trade | 

 We were repeatedly going into debt to Great Britain and to other 

 nations of Europe. We were helpless upon the seas. So the 

 first Congress passed laws levying discriminating duties upon 

 imports carried in foreign bottoms, and discriminating tonnage 

 dues, and providing that only home built ships should fly the 

 American flag. In less than five years, under this initial legisla- 

 tion, our ocean shipping had increased 385 per cent., and by 

 1826 American ships were carrying 93 per cent, of our com- 

 merce upon the ocean. In time, however, the operation of some 

 of the American laws already inentioned was suspended, with 

 the result of discouraging the .American shipping trade and aiding 

 the foreigner. 



Let us sec what it means to the United States to have our 



own cotnmerce carried in our own ships. One trouble with our 

 statistics of foreign trade is that they give only a statement of 

 the itnports and of the exports. But there is somewhere a steady 

 drain upon our resources which does not appear in the national 

 trial balance — a drain of the earnings of the foreign ships which 

 carry our ocean trade. It amounts to about $300,000,000 a year, 

 and during the last 25 years it has amounted to more than 

 $6,000,000,000 in gold of the United States paid to foreign ship- 

 owners. 



Our statesmen, at the birth of this nation, considered that 

 its greatness would depend upon three pillars — connnerce, agri- 

 culture and manufactures. We have neglected one of these, in 

 consequence of which the national structure is becoming lopsided. 

 It will not be trued up, and we shall have alternate periods of 

 depression and prosperity, until we reclaim this great Ir.idc 

 factor of the commercial earnings of our fleet. 



Every ship that carries a cargo abroad, that you pay for carrying 

 it, reduces your credit abroad. If you jiay freight to foreigners on 

 the imports that you bring in here, you increase your duty here; and 

 so, no matter how you put it, or how you place it. every cent paid to 

 foreign ships, and wliich might be paid to American ships, is a draft 

 upon the resources of this country, and is shown in the exchanges 

 of the world over, and that is the theory propoiuidcd by all those who 

 took this great control of this factor of prospertiy of the United 

 States. 



We hear a great deal nowadays about the revision of the 

 tariff. Before the war we had two strings to our bow — the 

 tariff tax and the earnings of our merchant ships. Today we 

 have only one, and if we absolutely throw down all the barriers 

 of the other string to our bow — the taritif — what a fine condition 

 we should be in. The only way in which we can bring about that 

 tariff revision which is necessary and essential in our industrial 

 life, that we may send our products abroad, and cease to be 

 merely producers and consumers, is to say to the rest of the 

 world : "You can no longer do our carrying, and insure our 

 goods, and do all the middleman's work and take all the middle- 

 man's profit, because the .Americans propose henceforth to do that 

 for themselves;." 



.As to means that have been suggested for re-establishing 

 American shipping, the speaker referred to free ships. The pur- 

 chase of enough ships abroad to carry our share of international 

 commerce, he said, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. 

 to be drawn from the resources of the country. And then, with 

 these ships owned here, there would remain conditions, described 

 by tlie speaker, which wmilcl hamlicap America in the cnmpeti- 



HoN. James Gustavus Whiteixv. 



[In the uniform of Consul General of the Congo 

 Free Slate.] 



Henry C. Pearson. 



H. E. Ravmonp. 



