The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, March 29, 1911, Page PAGE THREE, Image 3
WHAT AILS OUR MERCHANT MARINE?
From the Scientific American
What ails our merchant marine?
Why cannot American merchants
compete with British and German
merchants on the ocean?
Simply because our own laws will
not allow It. Our navigation acts have
destroyed the American merchant ma-'
?lae.
How?
By denying registry and the protec
tion of the flag to any ship not built
in one of our own shipyards. We are
not allowed to buy vessels of Eng
land. Scotland or Germany without
losing the protection of our govern
ment. We must build them at homo.
Our precious tariff increases the cost
of all shlp-bullding material, while in
Great Britian vessels are built under
fwee trade conditions. Hence it costs
ud more to build any sort of sea-going
vessel than it costs Great Britain. If
vje were allowed to buy ships abroad
we could get them on equal terms with
British merchants Consequently, we
dould compete with them for the car
rying of trade. We would get our
snare. The American merchnnt ma
rine would once more flourish as It
dM prior to the Civil War. The Tariff
compels the merchant to pay more for
ail American ship than the English
man pays for an English ship, and
our navigation laws compel the Amer
ican merchant to use the American
ship or none. m
P.'salt: The Englishman re's the
trade
It was jus-t this kind of legislation
which provoked the preliminary trou
bles between Great Britian and the
American Colonies. Our forefathers
hated th i British navigation acts; tin
sons copied them. Great Britain grew
wise, swung to free trade and took
the seas away from us. Our naviga
tion acts represent the most violent
fcyae of the Protective madness. To
deny the merchant the right to buy
his vessel where he can get it cheap
est is mere lunacy. The cheapest and
best ships will inevitably get the car
goes: and whore the law denies to the
American the chance to get the cheap
est and best vessel it simply puts him
out of the combat.
Our navigation acts have done that
identical thing.
What Is the remedy? Senator Hanna
wanted "ship subsidies." In other
words, the merchant was to be en
cearaged to go into the shipping busi
ness by the assurance that the govern
- mcnt would go down Into the pockets
of the tux-payers and pull out enough
money to make good the difference
' between the costly ships of the Amer
ican and tho cheaper, better ships of
flr^at Britain.
To escape tho effects of the bad
law, Senator Manna proposed that con
gress should pass another. The
Tariff, Which plunders the many to
enrich the few has killed tho mer
chant marine; therefore the merchant
marine must ho restored to life, not
Sit til" expense of the enriched few.
but of tho plundered many.
Tho merchant marine lias been de
stroyed by the system which is "the
mother of the trust." by the system
which sells to foreign consumers at a
lower price than to home consumers.
Why not encourage our merchant
marine by allowing our merchants to
buy their vessels in those foreign mar
kets where our protected manufac
turers sell their wares so much cheap
er than they sell them to us at home";
Would it not be the most shameless
kind of class legislation to take tho
tax money of the unprivileged masses
or our people (who pay practically all
the taxes), and build up fortunes for
another class of shipowners?
The benefldlarles of protection are
the few; its victims are the many.
Thus tho favored few get all the
benefits of protection and escape all
its evils; while the unprivileged many
hear all of its evils and reap none of
\?Hs benefits.
We are told that Great Britain and
Germany subsidize their merchant ma
rine and that therefore our govern
ment must do it. Tho argument would
lie contemptible, even if tho facts sup
*?>rt !t. but that is not the case. Great
Britain does not subsidize her mer
chant marine, nor does Germany do
?e. Croat Britain pays certain lines
for specific mnll service and colonial
service; nothing more. Germany does
likewise. Nclthor country hires mer
chants to go to sea about their own
haziness.
There is no more statesman-ship In
hiring a mariner t^i engage in private
business between New York and Liv
erpool than there would be in hiring
John Wanamnker to establish anoth
er branch of his mercantile business
in San Francisco or Terra Del Fuego.
S?Ch legislation as that is Priviltgo
run mad.
When Napoleon encouraged the beet
sti.ar industry in France by bounties
he may liavo done a wise thing.
France was under bis despotic con
trol; commerce with the world was
cut off; internal development became
the law of self-preservation.
But no Imperial sceptre rules the
ocean. There can be no monopoly of
the use of her myriad highways. Amid
her vast areas, natural law mocks
the puny contrivances of men. Com
pettion Is free. The ocean race is to
the swift; the battle is to the strong.
Whoever can do the work, do It quiek
est, cheapest, surest, best, will do it
?American bounties to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Take off the rusty fetters which bind
the limbs of the American seaman
and he will need no bounty. Give him
a fair start and he will outrun the
world. Keep tho chains on him?and
he will never win.
Suppose you give the bounties to
the shipper, then what? To the ex
tent of tho bounty he will do business
?no further. And you will soon find
that you have attracted mercenary
corporations who do business for the
whole bounty, and nothing but the
bounty.
We tiled this ship subsidy business
once before?from 18715 to IS77. What
was the result? Scandals and failure.
Congress took more than six and a
half million dollars of the people's
money, gave it to the greedy corpora
and got nothing in return save a lit
of disappointment and disgust which
lasted the country till the advent of
I lanna.
In 1856 a little more than three
fourths of all our exports ami imports
were carried in American bottoms. In
1881 seventy-two million bushels of
main was shipped from New York to
Europe and not one bushel of it went
in American ships.
Less than one-sixth of our marine
freight was handled by ourselves in
1881 and the amount has gone on
dwindling.
Great. Britain improved her meth
ods of building ships; built cheaper
and better vessels than ours. The law
did not permit us to buy from her, but
did permit her to bring her ships into
our waters and capture our trade;
and she has captured it.
We are the only people in the world
who are not allowed to buy ships]
wherever we can buy them cheapest.
We are the only serfs alive who are
Chained hand and foot to obsolete Na
vigation laws. And to escape the log
ical consequences of our folly we do
not propose to repeal the monstrous
laws which led us Into the difficulty,
but we do propose to compel the tax
payers to make good, by subsidies,
the difference between the costly
American ship and the cheaper, bet
ter Rhiropean ship!
When statesmanship gets down to
that low ebb its morality is gone.
A venal Congress might pass such
i nieaJ'.Ure, but we on net believe an
honest president would sign it.
.lohn W. Sickelsmlth, Greensboro,
Pit., has three children, and like most |
children they frequently take cold.
"Wo have tried several kinds of cough
medicine," he says, "but have never
found any yet that did them as much '
good as Chamberlain s Cough Reme
dy." Tor sale hy all dealers.
LAST LVCKUM XUMBEH.
Eureka Glee Club Bids Pair to be the
Best Attraction el' the ?hole Course
Tonight at the Graded School
building tho last attraction <>r Ihn 1 ?
ceum Course will be given, when the
Eureka Glee Club will give their per
formance. The advance notices of
this already popular collection of
young people, speak in the very high
est terms of them. The Club lias al
ready been on tlm road for eleven 1
years and of course are prepared to
given nil attractive entertainment.
Tile following criticism is given by
the Columbus. O., Educational Month
ly.
"The Eureka. Glee Club can sing,
sing in a way to make one forgot that
there is any SUCll thing as trouble in
the world. We have heard them more
than once, and would like to bear
them a hundred times more. Tholr
music is, high grade, and they never
faii to captivate their audience."
Kills n Murderer.
A moriless murdered is Appendicitis
with many victims, but Dr. King's
New Lifo Pills kill it by prevention.
They gently stimulate stomach. li\er
and bowels, preventing that clogging
that invites apendlcitis, curing constl
potion, headache, biliousness, chilis.!
25c at I.aureus Drug Co. and Palmetto |
Drug Co.
Notice.
This is to warn all persons not to;
hire or barber Grover Irby. If they;
do i will prosecute them to the full.
extent, of the law.
.1. O. Teagtie,
Waterloo, S. C,
33-tf It. F. I). No. 2.
We have the cheapest and largest
line of Wall Paper ever shown in Lntl
rens.
8. M. ft 10. II Wilkt
THEY DIDN'T DO IT.
Poplar Spring Squelches the Report
of Defeat by Brewerton.
Ware Shoals. S. C,
March 20, 3011.
Editor Laurens Advertiser:
Please allow uu* space to correct a
very misleading mistake published in
last week's Advertiser. An account
was published of a game of baseball
between Brewerton and Poplar Spring
Bchools, the preceding week, on the
Brewerton school grounds, and even
told the score and the so-said defeat
of the Poplar team. The above men
tioned game was never played. The
boys who compose the Poplar team
were in my school room, reciting their
lessons, when the game was said to
have been played. There was no found
ation for the report. The Poplar boys
have never been on the Brewerton
school grounds, for the purpose of
playing ball, but once and then they
didn't play a match game, owing to
Brewerton not having a suitable
pitcher. Poplar refused to play mar
ried men. Sometime afterwards they
played a match game in Mr. J. Y.
Pitt's pasture, then the score was 34
to 8 in favor of Poplar Spring.
Thanking you, I am,
Respectfully,
Alma Wallace,
Prin. of Poplar School.
The account of the ball game spoken 1
of above came to this office with a I
name signed thereto. We give the writ
er of the first account the liberty of ]
one reply, if he so desires to make one.
We do not vouch for the accuracy of;
the report The limitations placed
ui)on a county paper, do not allow us
to verify all articles sent to us.?The
Editor.
The most common cause of insomnia!
is disorders of the stomach. Chamber
lain's Stomach and Liver Tablets cor-|
rect these disorders and enable you
to sleep. For sale by all dealers.
$ You can get the very $
best
I Garden Seed
Irish Potatoes
and
Onion Sets
at
Dr. B. F. Posey's
-?
< >
These are fresh and the
kind that grows.
I Dr. Posey's Drug j
Store
"Purity at Posey's"
Laurens, S. C. t
? PHOTOGRAPHS j
? The McCord \
? Studio
i
? will copy any Photo, en- J
J large any picture and j
q make High Grade Pho- |
i tographs for you at the q
i very lowest prices. No i
I photographer can do
more nor ofFer any
more special inducement
than the
> ricCord Studio
I has always* flone.
i The HcCord f
Studio's ?
i
i
i motto is
J "Host Pictures, Lowest i
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? rprrift to set* us. ?
? 9
Children's Shoes
FORMED TO FIT
CORRECTLY
IF we do not understand how to Shoe Children correctly, we do not
know who does. We are considered experts in this branch of the Shoe
business. Bring the Children here for their Shoes and see what excellent
Shoes we have provided, at reasonable prices.
Boys' and Youth's
Shoes
Tans, Patent Calf and Gun
Metal Calf Leathers; Lace
or Blucher styles. Durable
shoes, but not clumsy. A
fine line, in .all sizes.
$2.00, $2.50
$3.00, $3.50
Girls' and Misses
Shoes
Patent Kid and Colt Skin and
and Gun Metal Calf. But
ton, Lace or Blucher style.
Medium or spring heels. A
corret size and width for
every foot.
$1.50, $2.00
$2.50, $3.50
There's nothing very different about these prices, we'll admit - but the
difference in our Children's Shoes you can see at a glance.
COPELAND
THE SHOE MAN
Going to Paint?
If it's the house, barn, fence, kitchen floor, walls
or anything else, we will gladly tell you what kind to
use, quantity required, the cost, and how it should be
applied. We have
ACME QUALITY
Paints, Enamels, Stains and Varnishes for refinishing
any shabby surface?indoors or outdoors.
Glad to show colors and ofTcr advice whether you
decide to paint or not.
NICHOLS & ROPES, Laarens, S. C