ENGLAND'S ALLEGED COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 66, 6 September 1884, Page 4

ENGLAND'S ALLEGED COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY.

It is no uncommon thing to sec in the columns of free-trade papers such comment as this, taken from a morning contemporary of a recent date :—: — We sec in the unfriendly legislaticm of Germany and France the evil effects of a high protective policy. We can trace to the same causes the ruinous decline of American commerce. The blighting eflects of war taxation arc visible in a thousand directions, and what is must continue to be imlcss Congress provides a remedy through revenue reform, aided by liberal commercial treaties and the legitimate extension of our trade by sea and land. Only in this way can the barriers to our prosperous growth and development be broken clown. It is not our intention to point out or emphasize the fact that the "unfriendly legislation " of Germany and France is not due to a desire to retaliate on the Americans for having adopted a protective policy. Those who have paid attention to the subject know that it is the result of the protective systems of the countries referred to, and might have been expected even if the United States were a free-trade nation. What we particularly desire to call attention to is the stress laid upon what is termed "the ruinous decline of American commerce. '' We assume this to refer solely to the fact that the ocean freighting business of the United States has not made the same growth as that of Great Britain and several other European Powers. In no other branch of American commerce has there been a decline. On the contrary, since the adoption of a high protective tariff American prosperity has been phenomenal. And we infer from this that if it were desirable or profitable to control the ocean carrying trade, American capital and energy would soon dispute supremacy with Great Britain in this as they have in many other fields. There was a time, perhaps, when the ocean carrying trade was a prize worth striving after. At that time Americans were found who were willing to build ships and competent to run them. But the work of developing the immense resources of the United States has opened up po many profitable fields for the employment of capital that the shrewd American can be pardoned for entering them and abandoning an industry which has been vastly overdone and has become more and more of a losing business year after year. In BradstreeCs of a recent date we find a Glasgow letter (May 23rd) which throws some light on the condition of the shipping business of Great Britain : — The Nowcastle scheme for improving freights by restricting the supply of competing tonnage has collapsed, for the good and sufficient reason that it has not received the necessary amount of support from the shipowners of the United Kingdom. According to the scheme, 25 per cent, of tonnaged steamships was to be withdrawn from competition and laid up in port, but the movement was not to assume a practical shape unless 1500 steamers were ontorcd on the books of the proposed Association. On the day fixed for the plan coming into operation, it was found that the requisite 1500 vessels had not boon entevod, and as was generally anticipated from the first, the scheme has ended in failure The impossibility of carrying out the arrangement was palpable from the beginning, and the result will not cause much surprise, . . . That tho presont state of matters is \msatisfactory is admitted on all hands, but shipowners must make up their minds to continue their trade on a sound basis and leave the depression to work out its own cure, as it is sure to do. Tho natural demand must ariso before froight can get higher. In the meantime much maybe dono to avoid losses and incroase dividends by a cheapening of the cost of ships and a rigid economy in steamship running. This state of affairs certainly does not hold out any extraordinary inducements to Americans to attempt to supplant the English in this particular business. Here is a plain proposition to retire 25 per cent, of the Bteamship- tonnage of the United Kingdom, because unwholesome competition has multiplied vessels of that class beyond the requirements of trade. It was only recently that the owners of sailing vessels succeeded in perfecting an agreement by which 33£ per cent, of the tonnage of that class will lay up until the freighting demand comes abreast with the supply. These facts demonstrate conclusively that the shipping business of the United Kingdom is not profitable according to American notions. It is true that much of the money invested by the English in ships might have found no other employment, but we have not yet arrived at that stage of development in America where it is preferable to put capital into enterprises that at

best only promise to pay nominal dividends, and which often eat up the investment. It is true that some remedy is proposed by which the shipowners' losses may be diminished and hopes of slight returns held out, but this remedy is worth attentive consideration. A part of it is rigid economy in the running of ships. It is notorious that British economy has succeeded in reducing the wages of seamen so far below those paid to American seamen that stringent regulations are necessary to prevent desertions from English ships on entering American ports. It is equally well known that the rigid economy at present practiced by English shipowners is responsible for the undermanning of English ships, and that the result of this is the loss of human life. So notorious is this that a bill is now pending in Parliament, the object of which i? to place some restraint on the cupidity of the British shipowner. The debate on the bill has brought out the interesting fact that the loss of life on Italian ships is 1 in every 454 who go to sea, in Norway 1 in 277, and in England lin 66. The bill is opposed by the shipowners on the ground that any regulation would be an interference with vested rights, but Labouchere truthfully remarks that the vested rights in this case are to make money by drowning sailors by sending them to sea in undermanned and rotten ships. The policy of England has been to extend her commerce by fair means or foul. The immense national debt of Great Britain was largely piled up in the effort to control the commerce of the world. The blood of hundreds of thousands of Englishmen has been shed for the same purpose, and now, according to English editors and lawmakers, they are drowning their sailors with the same object in view. The policy of the United States has not been commercial. With the exception of the war forced on the country by the lust of the slaveholders for all our wars have been for the maintenance of principles. The true policy of the country has been to develop the magnificent resources of the States and Territories, and this has been steadily adhered to by the Republicans. It was in pursuance of this policy that the protective tariff was retained, and by its aid the country has made phenomenal strides and attained a position which has filled with amazement the observant men of the Old World. How puerile seems the free-traders' assertion, quoted in the beginning of this article, that "the blighting effects of war taxation are visible in a thousand directions," when placed by the side of Gladstone's comments on the growth of the United States. In his article in the North American Review, published in October, 1878, entitled "Kin Beyond the Sea," he said : "While we [Great Britain] have been advancing with this portentous rapidity, the United States is passing us by in a canter. . . . There can hardly be a doubt as between the America and the England of the future that the daughter »t some no very distant time will, whether fairer or less fair, be unquestionably yet stronger than the mother." And the assertion that the United States is suffering a blight sounds strange by the side of Prince Bismarck's opinion expressed in the Reichstag on the 14th of May, 1882, when he said, " The success of the United States in material development is the most illustrious of modern times." And he added: "In my judgment the prosperity of America is mainly clue to her system ot protective laws." And he urged that Germany imitate the tariff system of the United States. His advice was acted upon, and Germany has entered upon a career of prosperity such as the country has not heretofore experienced. The condition of all classes has been vastly improved and the revenues of the State are highly satisfactory. There is a curious ignorance manifested by the free-traders, who are dazzled by the proportions of Great Britain's ocean tonnage, concerning certain matters, as indicative of commercial greatness as the ocean carrying trade can possibly be. We refer to the internal shipping tonnage of the United States. By the census of 1880 the merchant tonnage of the United States, including ocean steam and sail craft, river steamers, etc., was 6,487,309 tons. In 1883 the merchant tonnage of Great Britain did not exceed the total merchant tonnage of the United States. It was only 6,956,856 tons in ISS2, and since that year several hundred thousand tons of rotten ship tonnage have been stricken from the register. In the meantime the United States has gone on steadily constructing its coastwise, river, and lake steamers and sailing vessels. Ton for ton, the American merchant tonnage probably cost as much as that of the English ocean tonnage, and that it has done a greater amount of and a more profitable business is indisputable, for while much of England's tonnage is engaged in long-haul cheap work, the bulk of American tonnage is pushing the more lucrative business of short-hauls, which corresponds somewhat to the " quick sales and small profits of the tradesman." While in the shipping business we have more than kept abreast with Great Britain, only abandoning to it the unprofitable ocean carrying trade, we have outstripped that nation in railroading enormously. In 1882 the railway operations of the two countries compared as follows :—: —

Our free-trade contemporary will probably regard these figures as indicative of the blighting effects of competition, and he may also see in Mulhault's statement that the product of the manufacturing industry of the United States was greater by nearly 1,500,000,000d015. than that of the United Kingdom in 18S0 — evidence that the country is going to the dogs — but his alarm is not likely to be shared by sensible people and patriotic Americans, who can only see in these facts that a safe public policy must have been followed to bring about such magnificent results.

If there is anything in choosing a short and easily-spoken title for a new paper, I cannot commend the choice of the proprietors of the new trade organ lately started to promote the interests of the carving and gilding fraternity. It will indead require more than ordinary enthusiasm on the part of a would-be subscriber to go into his newsagent in this age of high pressure and ask for a copy of The Carver and Gilder, Moulding Manufacturers' Gazette and Journal of Trades connected loith Decorations and the Fine Arts ! Jackets made of corduroy are popular with young ladies; they are straight and loose in front, and fastened with a single row of buttons, and very short and nearly tight-fitting at the back. They are finished off round the edge with an inch-wide hem. and below this is a second bascjue of the same width as the hem. This kind of jacket, either in corduroy or in beige cloth, is worn with costumes of thick cloth as a rule, but is occasionally seen as an accompaniment to a lace skirt. Clover-red is a fashionable colour for dresses in New York; it is brighter than crushed strawberry, and shows off white lace and white shoulders to advantage,

Nation. a n O P< Sf o o 2 1 5 United States United Kngdm IU,U2 18,457 $0,339,699,785 3,830,497,850 §770,356,'?60 346,885,6 1 20