CONGRESS. (SHIPBUILDING.) 



191 



.". irt ease of disagreement, xhull nelect u tliinl, 

 tin u \winl t' any two of the three HO chosen to bo 



tilllil Ullil fiillclUMVC. 



The measure passed the Senate May 9. Mr. 

 l'i \. , of Maine, put the case for the act as fol- 



This bill admits two ships to an American 

 ter, ;md demands not an expenditure of 

 three I'cmrtlis of the value in the American ship- 

 \.inl. but the expenditure of the full value, and 

 U -ides that $500,000 more. 



I have a right to say that a ship will be 



built, if this bill becomes a law, not of 10,000 



but of over 12,000, with a speed not of 20 



kimts. but of 23 knots. The Cuuard Line now 



is building on the Clyde two vessels for the 



main purpose of surpassing these two, and the 



purpose of this company is to make one of these 



* a vessel that will be superior in every re- 



spect to the two Cunarders, so that one of these 



.-Jiips will be over 12,000 tons. 



1 have a right to say further I believe it 

 fully that another line of three of these great 

 ships will be provided for, if this bill becomes a 

 law, between New York and Antwerp, and with 

 those the Government of the United States will 

 have 7 of the finest war cruisers in the whole 

 world. These two ships to-day are capable in 

 two hours' time of taking on board 16 rifled 

 cannon and going to sea and answering a neces- 

 sity which war may force upon us. 



"Besides, we shall have built in American 

 shipyards five of these enormous ships, and we 

 shall have the privilege hereafter, when wo de- 

 sire to go to Europe, to go under our own flag 

 in>tead of under a foreign flag. 



" I have been a persistent and a somewhat ag- 

 gressive I presume the Senate would say too 

 persistent and too aggressive friend of the 

 American ship and the American shipyard, and 

 in giving my adhesion to this bill I do not 

 drop out one jot or one tittle of that devo- 

 tion to those interests. It is no impulse of mine 

 that leads me to vote for this bill. It is the re- 

 sult of careful, long-continued consideration. In 

 the last Congress my hopes were exceedingly 

 brilliant. The Senate passed two bills, one the 

 tonnage bill and the other the postal sub- 

 sidy bill, and I felt that I knew that if these 

 two bills became laws we should be restored to 

 our proper and rightful position upon the ocean ; 

 but, unfortunately, I say. the House of Repre- 

 sentatives defeated the tonnage bill and crip- 

 pled the postal subsidy bill, so that there was no 

 inducement left for capital to build these first- 

 class ships and put them on to these lines. 

 Shortly after I spent a week in Philadelphia and 

 New York, using all the powers of persuasion 

 I was possessed of to induce capital to put tin -e 

 lines on, and it was a complete failure. 



"Some six months ago a proposition was 

 made, and I was asked if I would not assent to 

 it. admitting these two ships, and these only, 

 t American register, providing the company 

 would build two equally good and equally f.i-t 

 ve^els here in American shipyards, and thus 

 establish an American line from New York to 

 Liverpool. I declined to give answer. I told 

 the gentleman who came to me that I must take 

 that into careful consideration before I could 

 answer. I did take it into careful consideration ; 



I communicated with the leading friends of the 

 American ship and shipyard all over the I'nited 

 States, and 1 finally came to a conclusion that it 

 was in the interest of American ships and Ameri- 

 can shipyards to enact this proposed bill into a 

 law." 



Mr. Mills, of Texas, made a protest against 

 the passage of the bill : 



"It seems to me the question presented by 

 this bill is, Shall the owners of these vessels 

 draw their subsidies from the treasury of Great 

 Britain, or shall the Treasury of the people of 

 the United States contribute to themt This 

 measure means that we shall give out of the 

 money placed in our Treasury by the taxpayers 

 of the L T nited States this subsidy, and jjcrinit 

 the owners of these vessels to pay it back in sub- 

 sidy into the coffers of Great Britain. 



l% I am as much in favor of free ships as any 

 gentleman on the other side of the Chamber or 

 any gentleman on this side of the Chamber, but 

 I want free ships to come upon a question of 

 principle, and I want anybody, in the exercise of 

 his natural right as a free man, to be permitted 

 to go anywhere in the markets of the world to 

 buy anything, from a ship to a pin, and bring it 

 to this country, and to display over the masts of 

 your vessels the ensign of the republic and 

 navigate the waters of the earth with it. I do 

 not want to vote to permit a given company, as 

 a favorite of the Government, to go to a foreign 

 country and buy one or two vessels, not to en- 

 large the commercial marine of the United 

 States, but to put their hands into the public 

 Treasury and extort the revenues taken by un- 

 just principles of taxation and placed there by 

 the hard earnings of the people of the United 

 States. 



" Let your ship measures stand upon a prin- 

 ciple ; and if you want to enlarge the commercial 

 marine of the'United States, and you want to see 

 the flag of the republic riding upon all the 

 waters of the earth, then make laws that will 

 permit all the citizens of the United States to 



go into foreign markets and have their ships 

 uilt at foreign navy yards and bring them to 

 the United States free of duty. If we can make 

 ships in the United States cheaper and better 

 than the people of other countries, there will U> 

 no necessity for the adoption of this or any 

 other measure of this kind. 



"If there is anything upon our statute books 

 that forbids AmeYican shipbuilders from build- 

 ing vessels as cheap and as good here as \ 

 are built in foreign shipyards, then let us repeal 

 the law and permit trie American people to 

 build their own vessels in their own shipyards. 

 and build them without bounty contributed 

 from the pockets of the people of the United 



States. 



"I do not like this measure. I am sorry that 

 the Senator has presented it so hastily, and that 

 he demands for it such hasty and rapid con- 

 sideration. There is a great question involved 

 in this measure, which ought to receive the 

 calm and deliberate consideration of this very 

 deliberate body, but, instead of that, a bill is 

 brought forward in this body without even a re- 

 port, and it is demanded that it shall be ruslu d 

 through, and it has nothing behind it to recom- 

 mend it except the patriotic desire of the 



