Enemies of Ocean Commerce [pp. 78-81]

ENEMIES OF OCEAN COMMERCE
to 1886, a period of fifty years. True it
has not been quite so small any other year
latterly, but in making comparisons we must
bear in mind the startling fact that our
population, wealth, productions, and industries, have increased enormously, and that
the commerce of the world has been multiplied several times since 1801, when our
ship-building amounted to 125,744 tons as
compared with 111,602 tons in 1895; and
that, therefore, in this one great and important industry we have not kept pace with
the procession. We not only for many years
built sufficient ships to carry ninety per
cent of our exports and imports, but we
built ships to sell.
In 1862 we sold to foreigners, vessels of
111,756 tons, being more than the entire
output of 189a, while in 1863, in the midst
of our civil war, we sold 222,199 tons; in
1864 we sold 300,865 tons, and 133,832
tons in 1865, whille in 1895 we sold only
13,994 tons. The story to the effect that
our shipbuilding industry has not grown
with the development of the country seems
tolerably well authenticated by these figures,
and if it were not for the demands of our
coastwise and lake trade, we should have no
use for shipbuilding plants at all. "Our
friends, the enemy," could do it all and draw
on us for the cost.
Another interesting comparison will be
found in the American tonnage engaged in
foreign trade; that is the trade between
the United States and foreign countries.
This had increased steadily from 1789, under
a discriminating duty act, until in 1810 the
vessels thus engaged, registered 981,019 tons
while in 1896 this had been reduced to 829,833, although it had grown with the development of the country down to 1861, when it
reached the respectable proportions of
2,496,894 tons, or nearly three times what it
is at present.
This falling off is variously accounted for
by different people. Some charging it to
the civil war (1861-65), during which period
our shipbuilding industry was large and
thrifty, while others say it is caused by a
condition of general business depression,
although from 1865, when the war closed, to
1890 the growth and progress, the general
prosperity and the interior development, of
this country were the greatest in its history,
or in any twenty-five years of the history of
any nation. Still others explain that, "steel
ships are rapidly displacing wooden ones and
we cannot build steel ships in competition
with Great Britain because material is
cheaper in Europe." This ground I will
cover in a future article. It is untenable.
True, the influence of the war, while it
lasted, was hard on our foreign shipping,
but at the close of that war we had 1,518,350 tons thus engaged, and with the renewed
energy through which all other industries
thrived commerce would have done the
same had it been properly fostered and protected. But during these years, from 1865
to 1890, the American merchant marine engaged in foreign trade decreased steadily
and with very slight variations, uninterruptedly, although "the war was over,"
there being 3,067 vessels of 1,487,246 tons
capacity engaged in this trade in 1868,
three years after the close of the war,
which was more than we had in 1864, while
there were only 1451 vessels of 928,062
tons thus engaged in 1890, which was still
further reduced to 1193 vessels of 829,833
tons in 1896. The cheap labor world was
invited to compete for this business on
free trade lines and you have the result.
During all this time the tonnage of foreign vessels engaged in the business of
carrying the exports and imports of the
United States has constantly increased in
like proportions. Then again, and as a
clinching argument that protective legislation exerts a wonderful influence for good,
the number and particularly the capacity of
vessels engaged in our coastwise trade,
which by law must be American, has shown
an almost continuous increase all these
years, being larger now than ever before.
For instance, the tonnage thus engaged has
varied as follows: in 1789 there were 68,607 tons; in 1810 this had grown to 405,347; in 1838 it reached 1,041,105; in 1852
another million mark was passed, when it
amounted to 2,055,873 tons, while from
1852 to 1864, including the terrible war
period, still another million tons were added,
the total being then 3,245,265 tons. In 1874
we had 27,659 vessels of 3,293,439 tons,
which had increased in 1890 to 3,409,435
tons, and in 1896, to 3,790,296 tons engaged in carrying our own goods to our
own people, as compared with 829,833 used
to transport our goods to and purchases
from foreign people.
While our vessels engaged in foreign
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