Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1912 — Protection and Shipping. [ARTICLE]

Protection and Shipping.

A representative of the Cramp Shipbuilding company objects that the granting of American registry to foreign-built ships would be the application of free trade to a single Industry. which strikes him as unjust. The fact is that the deep sea carrying trade is one to which the protective system cannot possibly be applied, either directly or through the protection of the shipyards.

Where both ends of a maritime route end in our own jurisdiction we can shut out foreign competition, and we do so; only ships of American registry can engage in the coastwise trade. Where one end is in our own and the other end in a foreign country we cannot apply the protective system, either by restricting the ships that may be employed, or by differential duties on the goods, or by flag duties, or differential port charges, on the vessls. It ought to be perfectly plain that any discrimination against foreign vessels will be retaliated against by foreign countries, and the logical result, and also the reductio ad absurdum, would be that all Imports would come in our own vessels and all exports would go out in foreign vessels, and both domestic and foreign vessels would cross the ocean in. one direction empty, and freight rates would have to be so high as to pay for the round trip with cargoes carried one way. The deep sea carrying trade is inherently competitive, and we cannot possibly change it. What good does It do the American shipbuilder to limit American registry to the products of his yard? Ships under foreign flags can bring eMods to and take goods from our ports, and this must be so until we are willing to have our shipping barred from foreign ports. American registry is not necessary to enable a vessel to do business in our ports or even to be the property of our citizens, and Americans own a large amount of shipping under foreign flags. If our yards are not now building vessels for the deep sea trade, how could their business 1 be affected If American registry were granted to foreign-built ships? Our yards cannot lose anything they have not got, and never can get. until they can compete with foreign shipyards.

Colonel Roosevelt announces that It will take more than 50 years to put all his ideas into effect. He must not worry; the country will be willing to wait a great deal longer than that for most of them. —Philadelphia Press.