An Awakened Continent 



69 



steamship lines by the payment of sub- 

 sidies. England is paying to her steam- 

 ship lines between six and seven million 

 dollars a year; it is estimated that since 

 1840 she has paid to them between two 

 hundred and fifty and three hundred 

 millions. The enormous development of 

 her commerce, her preponderant share of 

 the carrying trade of the world, and her 

 shipyards crowded with construction 

 orders from every part of the earth, indi- 

 cate the success of her policy. France is 

 paying about eight million dollars a year ; 

 Italy and Japan, between three and four 

 million each ; Germany, upon the initia- 

 tive of Bismarck, is building up her trade 

 with wonderful rapidity by heavy sub- 

 ventions to her steamship lines and by 

 giving special differential rates of car- 

 riage over her railroads for merchandise 

 shipped by those lines. Spain, Norway, 

 Austria-Hungary, Canada all subsidize 

 their own lines. It is estimated that about 

 $28,000,000 a year are paid by our com- 

 mercial competitors to their steamship 

 lines. 



Against these advantages to his com- 

 petitor the American ship owner has to 

 contend ; and it is manifest that the sub- 

 sidized ship can afford to carry freight at 

 cost for a long enough period to drive 

 him out of business. 



We are living in a world not of natural 

 competition, but of subsidized competi- 

 tion. State aid to steamship lines is as 

 much a part of the commercial system of 

 our day as state employment of consuls 

 to promote business. 



IT IS NOT A FAIR FIGHT 



It will be observed that both of these 

 disadvantages under which the American 

 ship owner labors are artificial ; they are 

 created by governmental action, one by 

 our own government in raising the stand- 

 ard of wages and living, by the protective 

 tariff, the other by foreign governments 

 in paying subsidies to their ships for the 

 promotion of their own trade. For the 

 American ship owner it is not a contest 

 of intelligence, skill, industry and thrift 

 against similar qualities in his com- 



petitor ; it is a contest against his com- 

 petitors and his competitors' govern- 

 ments and his own government also. 



Plainly these disadvantages created by 

 governmental action can be neutralized 

 only by governmental action, and shoidd 

 be neutralized by such action. 



What action ought our Government to 

 take for the accomplishment of this just 

 purpose? Three kinds of action have 

 been advocated. 



1. A law providing for free ships — that 

 is, permitting Americans to buy ships in 

 other countries and bring them under the 

 American flag. Plainly this would not at 

 all meet the difficulties which I have de- 

 scribed. The only thing it would ac- 

 complish would be to overcome the excess 

 in cost of building a ship in an American 

 shipyard over the cost of building it in 

 a foreign shipyard; but since all the 

 materials which enter into an American 

 ship are entirely relieved of duty, the dif- 

 ference in cost of construction is so slight 

 as to be practically a negligible quantity 

 and to afford no substantial obstacle to 

 the revival of American shipping. The 

 expedient of free ships, therefore, would 

 be merely to sacrifice our American ship- 

 building industry, which ought to be re- 

 vived and enlarged with American ship- 

 ping, and to sacrifice it without receiving 

 any substantial benefit. It is to be ob- 

 served that Germany, France, and Italy 

 all have attempted to build up their own 

 shipping by adopting the policy of free 

 ships, have failed in the experiment, have 

 abandoned it, and have adopted in its 

 place the policy of subsidy. 



2. It has been proposed to establish a 

 discriminating tariff duty in favor of 

 goods imported in American ships, that 

 is to say, to impose higher duties upon 

 goods imported in foreign ships than are 

 imposed on goods imported in American 

 ships. We tried that once many years 

 ago and have abandoned it. In its place 

 we have entered into treaties of commerce 

 and navigation with the principal coun- 

 tries of the world expressly agreeing that 

 no such discrimination shall be made 

 between their vessels and ours. To sweep 



