CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (AMERICAN SHIPPING.) 



229 



we had the equivalent of 4,581,451 tons of sail- 

 ing-vessels engaged in the coastwise trade. 



" In 1881 we had on the same basis the 

 equivalent of 5,975,078 tons, showing a gain 

 in the actual carrying capacity of our coastwise 

 tonnage of 1,393,627 tons, or 30 per cent. It 

 is to be borne in mind also that this increase 

 has been in the face of the fact that the freight 

 capacity of competing railroads has increased 

 120 per cent, during the last decade. So far, 

 then, as the coastwise trade is concerned it is 

 in a prosperous condition, and while some bur- 

 dens have been pointed out which should be 

 removed, yet on the whole we may point to it 

 as having to-day more than three times the 

 tonnage of the United Kingdom of Great Brit- 

 ain engaged in similar coastwise trade. 



" But it is when we turn to our foreign car- 

 rying-trade that we find a humiliating story, 

 told by the statistics of the Treasury Depart- 

 ment. The salient facts of these statistics are 

 these : In 1840 82'9 per cent, of all the exports 

 and imports of the United States was carried 

 in American vessels, but in 1882 only 15*5 per 

 cent, was thus carried. Here in forty-two 

 years lias been a decline of 67*4 per cent, in 

 the foreign carrying-trade of the United States. 



"Looking still closer, as to the time when 

 this decline took place, we find that 16'4 per 

 cent, of it was before the civil war, and 12'2 

 por cent, since the war, and that the enormous 

 decline of 38*7 per cent, took place during the 

 four years of the conflict. It will thus be seen 

 that the decline of our carry ing- trade dates 

 from 1855, and that the decadence before the 

 war was as great as the decline which has 

 taken place since the war. 



" We also find, looking at this period, that 

 the decline in the construction of vessels for 

 employment in the foreign trade was as rapid 

 before the war as during any other period 

 since in the history of this country. In 1855 

 there were 507 vessels .built in the United 

 States for the foreign carrying-trade, the high- 

 est point reached in our history. In 1856 the 

 number declined to 463; in 1857 to 307; in 

 1858 to 108 ; and in 1859 to 107. 



"I allude to these facts, Mr. Speaker, in or- 

 der to remove the impression which has ob- 

 tained in many quarters, that the decline of 

 our foreign carrying : trade began with the war. 



" Now, Mr. Speaker, without going further 

 into the details of that decline, it is important 

 we should be enabled to -fix specifically the 

 cause or causes of this decline in order to pro- 

 vide a remedy for it. 



" And in the first place I wish to show that 

 the cause of this decadence was not, as my 

 friend from New York (Mr. Cox) alleges, be- 

 cause our commerce has declined. That gen- 

 tleman was pleased to say that the high tariff 

 of 1861 had caused a decline of our commerce, 

 and that a decline in our exports and imports 

 f .o be carried necessarily had resulted in giving 

 ocean-carriers less to do. 



" It is not true, Mr. Speaker, that there has 



been any decline in the foreign commerce of 

 this country since the war. At no period in 

 the history of this country has our foreign 

 commerce increased more rapidly than since 

 1865. From 1850 to 1880 the population of 

 this country increased 115 per cent., while our 

 foreign commerce increased during that same 

 period 400 per cent., showing that our exports 

 and imports have increased over our popula- 

 tion nearly 300 per cent. 



" The gentleman from New York was pleased 

 to intimate that the tariff of 1861 had repressed 

 our foreign commerce, which the tariff of 1846 

 had fostered, and to give this as a reason for 

 the decline of our foreign carrying-trade. But 

 the facts are against him. During the fifteen 

 years from 1846 to 1861, the foreign commerce 

 of this country increased $525,000,000 ; but 

 between 1865 and 1880 this commerce in- 

 creased $1,000,000,000. In 1855 the imports 

 and exports of the United States were $536,- 

 625,366, of which about $405,000,000 were 

 carried in American vessels, and only $131,- 

 000,000 in foreign vessels. In 1880 the exports 

 and imports of the United States were $1,613,- 

 770,633, of which American vessels carried 

 only about $280,000,000. If American vessels 

 had carried the same proportion of the imports 

 and exports of the United States in 1880 which 

 they did in 1855, there would have been $1,- 

 200,000,000 for American tonnage, but instead 

 of that our vessels actually carried less than 

 one fourth of that. 



" Looking more closely at the figures, we 

 find that neither the so-called revenue tariff of 

 1846, nor the modified revenue tariff of 1857, 

 nor the so-called protective tariff of 1861, has 

 exerted any influence over the rise and fall of 

 our foreign carrying-trade. Under the tariff 

 of 1842 our carrying-trade prospered; under 

 the tariff of 1846 it prospered for nine years, 

 and then steadily declined during the remain- 

 ing six years before the tariff of 1861 was 

 enacted. 



" So, Mr. Speaker, we must look for the 

 causes of the decline of our foreign carrying- 

 trade beyond the tariff. Our exports and im- 

 ports, which represent commerce, have been 

 spread out in every direction, and yet our 

 American carrying-trade has been constantly 

 declining, and consequently it is not any de- 

 cline of commerce which has caused the 'diffi- 

 culty. 



" But my friend from New York was pleased 

 to say that the tariff of 1861 prevented any 

 successful competition with the ship-builders 

 of the Clyde in the construction of iron vessels, 

 the inference being that if we had continued 

 the tariff of 1846 all would have been well. 



" Let us look at this claim. The duty on 

 iron imposed by the tariff of 1846 was 30 per 

 cent., and the duty on iron imposed by the tar- 

 iff of 1861 averaged about 40 per cent. .Now, 

 this difference of 10 per cent, in these tariffs 

 made a change in the cost of the iron used in 

 ship-building of only a little more than one 



