Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1902 — NATIONAL SUBSIDY SCHEME. [ARTICLE]

NATIONAL SUBSIDY SCHEME.

its Denunciation by a Prominent Republican Organ. The ship subsidy bill is looked on by wise men in the republican party with grave misgivings. It is one of the most dangerous measures ever introduced in congress. While it has the support of the pachydermantous members of the majority-r-many of them new to public life —it has not the approval of the safest counselors of the republican party in the senate or out of it. Senator Allison called attention last week to the fact that the senate is unwilling to repose discretion in the heads of departments, even to hire their own clerks — to fix the number or compensation of their immediate assistants —but that in this instance it proposes to give them an indefinite power to draw upon the treasury for subsidies for an unknown number of ships for an indeterminate period of time. Senator Spooner scents danger from afar off, when he proposes to reserve to congress the authority to terminate the provisions of this bill at any time. That is a privilege now reserved by municipalities in many instances when granting franchises. Senator Allison points out the alarming nature of the bill when he proposes an amendment providing that no contracts shall be made under the postal subsidy provisions of it after 1910, and that no contract made under it shall extend beyond the year 1920. As the bill reads it authorizes the postmaster-general to enter into contracts for a term of not less than five nor more than fifteen years. The senator proposes that there shall be a definite period when the postal subsidy scheme shall end and congress have an opportunity to determine whether it shall be continued. Another proposed amendment—a most important one—limits the amount of mail pay to $5,000,000 a year until 1907 and thereafter to $8,000,000. There is no limitation in the bill. Senator Frye roughly estimates the cost of carrying the ocean mails at $4,700,000. In view of the high rate of compensation to be allowed that estimate, unless strictly limited by law, soon will be far exceeded.

Another amendment which Senator Allison is to offer provides that no vessel engaged in foreign trade shall be entitled to full subsidy unless it shall have cleared from an American port with at least 50 per cent, of the cargo capacity, and that the subsidy paid such vessels shall be reduced in proportion to the reduction of the cargo below 50 per cent, of capacity. As the bill stands it provides for the payment of a fixed sum for each gross registered ton for each 100 nautical miles sailed. Under this bill a ship may sail in ballast, or with next to no cargo, and yet draw as large a subsidy as if loaded down to the gunwales with American products. One of the professed objects of this bill is “to promote commerce.” It is really a bill to promote subsidy-grabbing and to keep afloat wretched old hulks which will be sailed “for subsidy only.” All these amendments constitute a severe and searching indictment of the subsidy scheme. Manifestly the bill is drawn vaguely but not carelessly. The vagueness is premeditated. It is part of the game. The authors and promoters of the bill wish to puncture the treasury and keep the whole wide open. They do not wish anybody to “stand by” with a plug or stopper for the leaks they propose to make and maintain for an indefinite period. The Tribune disrespectfully submits that the subsidy bill is a high price to pay for the support of the Pennsylvania railroad in national campaigns in states where it is not needed. The republican party can, unaided, carry Pensylvania if it can carry any state. When it can not honestly carry Ohio it cannot carry the country, and does not deserve to carry it. The effrontery of the subsidy proceedings is the amazing and discouraging feature of it. When any considerable number of re-' publican senators become so case-" hardened that they can introduce and insist upon the passage of a measure of this character they are evidently preparing the way for a serious public rebuke of their party. That party, when the money question is out of the way, does not stand before the country in an unassailable position. Its alliances with the money power in the East have given rise to much I popular discontent in the West. When a partnership of this kind is avowed, and is proclaimed to the whole country as being a recognized compact, it is an invitation to a popular uprising which cannot be overlooked. Such an '

invitation will be swiftly followed by an acceptance in quarters where it is least looked for or desired.—Chicago Tribune (repj