Sacramento Daily Record Union

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE SHIPPING INTEREST.

A number of San Francisco merchants recently addressed a letter to Mr. Page, asking him what he had done, or was prepared to do, for the revival of the shipping interest. To this letter Mr. Page has replied, and while what he says is certainly in no way encouraging, it does not lie in the mouths of those who support the Republican fiscal policy to find fault with his position. Of course he is obliged to admit that as yet nothing has been done for the restoration of the American shipping interest. Several bills proposing radical changes in the laws have been introduced, he says, and some of them have been reported on favorably in committee. It is to be noted that of the bills which he thus refers to not one is calculated to exercise an appreciable effect upon the situation, however; while he is careful not to say that the really important measures proposed, namely, those to admit free of duty the materials for ship-building, and to admit foreign-built ships free of duty, have been favorably considered. In fact Mr. Page is exceedingly cautious and non-committal on the whole question. Thus he observes that "The question of free ships, in my judgment, enters largely into the question to be considered. Many people believe that one of the causes which have driven our flag from the seas has been because the law places a heavy tax upon foreign-built ships, and that a repeal of that law should be had, that we might enjoy the blessings of free ships. Others claim that the material out of which ships are constructed should be admitted free of duty. These questions are very grave, and much too serious to be decided without careful consideration."

Further on Mr. Page assures his correspondents that "anything that can be done to restore the American flag to its once prominent place in the foreign trade will receive his very hearty co-operation and very best endeavor." So far this is a satisfactory assurance, but it is not a little surprising that the merchants who addressed the inquiries to Mr. Page, and who are for the most part presumably Republicans themselves, should have seen in his course on this question ground for complaint. We do not agree at all with the policy which the Republican party has for many years followed in this connection, but it seems to us quite clear that the party which has demanded, approved, and sustained that policy, cannot in justice or consistency find fault with its Representatives for doing the same thing. So far as the American shipping interests are concerned, the positions of Mr. Page are emphatically the dominant Republican positions. A few journals have differed from the majority of the party on this question, and, like the Chicago Tribune and the Record-Union, have condemned its fiscal attitude while supporting its general course. But such journals would not consider it fair to censure members of Congress who, elected by Republican majorities, have merely been carrying out the wishes of their constituents in upholding the long series of laws which are responsible in the main for the decline of our merchant marine.

The San Francisco merchants, however, do not appear to have an adequate conception of the issue they have undertaken to discuss. If we understand them, they are in favor of some scheme of subsidies to American lines of ships. This, however, is not and never can be a remedy for the decadence of the shipping interest. It is indeed of a piece with the policy which at present takes forty per cent. of all the earnings of our producers, wherewith to bolster up a comparatively insignificant cumber of manufacturers. But it cannot give us back our foreign trade, for easily demonstrated reasons. A prime cause of the loss of our foreign trade is the prohibitory operation of the tariff upon return cargoes from countries which can only pay for our goods with raw material. We have lost all the South American trade through this one difficulty, and, therefore, until the tariff is modified so as to permit of the importation of foreign raw material, no amount of subsidies can help the case.

Again, it must be realized that the days of wooden ships are over, and that if we are ever to become a great maritime power again we must build iron and steel ships. To do that successfully we must be able to do it as cheaply as England, and this also must be impossible so long as Protection is in full force.

David A. Wells, in his lately-published work entitled "Our Merchant Marine," has examined this subject with exhaustive minuteness, and has shown why and how the shipping trade of the world has been lost to us. In conclusion he recommends a series of measures which he proves to be necessary to the rehabilitation of this interest. These are, briefly, as follows: (1) The repeal of the navigation laws. (2) The removal of duties from the material for ship-building. (3) The enfranchisement of ships from local taxation. This is demanded to put them on a level with those of other countries. (4) The abolition of expenses connected with the hiring discharge of seamen, consular charges, and the like, to the level of those imposed by other nations. (5) Reform of the tariff, and with this regard, says Mr. Wells, "the natural resources of our country and the intelligence of our people are such, that, with the reduction of the burden of taxes and consequent low prices, we can become, within the last twenty, and the first maritime nation of the world."

These are practical suggestions, founded upon a very full knowledge of the subject. The question, however, is whether our friends, the San Francisco merchants, are willing to endorse them. Judging from what we know of their economic comprehension of the clam, and from the illustrations of mercantile breadth of view they have on various occasions displayed, we should say they would probably prove the conclusions of Mr. Wells in more they likely "that their idea of reviving the world and merchant service consists in some notable scheme for large subsidies to be paid by Congress for putting on lines of steamers to the Fiji Islands or elsewhere. A community which has without protest or remonstrance allowed San Francisco to become a byword and reproach all over the world for the extortionate character of its port charges, and its persistent disposition to plunder every foreign vessel that enters her, cannot be relied upon to formulate intelligent views concerning the shipping interest. If, however, they have fallacy so