WEBB'S STEAM LINE IN CONGRESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3249, 5 July 1872, Page 2

WEBB'S STEAM LINE IN CONGRESS.

Early in the present sossion of Congress a Bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, providing for a subsidy tt» a steam mail lino between San Francisco and New Zealand and Australia. By tho provisions of tho measure the PostmasterGeneral was authorised to contract witht Messrs Wm. H. Webb and Benjamin Holladay for thirteen round voyages per annum for ten years, at a cost not to exceed §500,000 per annum. This Bill, despite the exertions of a powerful Lobby, was defeated in tho House early in the session. It wan then determined to make a final struggle to secure tho desired result by means of an amend men t to tb« Post Office Appropriation Act. That Bill came up in the United States Senate on May 7th, when tho following debate (a. nummary of which we have already published by telegraph) occurred. It is slightly condensed from the Congressional Globe :—

Senator Cole of California moved to amend the House appropriation of 875,000 f°r a steam mail service between San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands, hy adding a paragraph appropriating at* additional sum of $42f>,000 per annum to extend the service to New Zealand and Australia. He hoped ihat thi» sum would not be refused to the Pacific Coast States, in order to continue the good work o£ extending American commerce in the Pacific. So far as he knew, the Stars and Stripes did not float over a single steamer that crossed tho Atlantic. The commerce of that ocean had been secured almost exclusively by our British rivals. Ho admitted it with regret, but the fact was only too apparent to bo denied. Whaft they had lost upon the Atlantic it was in. their power to partially regain in the Pacific. The Australian Colonies next to Tndia were England's best customers. The Colonies {(referred a connection with. this country, and were holding out tho right hand of fellowship, and asking us to "go over and help them. 5* They had an import and export trade amounting to $375,000,000 per annum. That was something worth looking after. Their list of imports contained many articles that were produced in the United States. On tho other hand, they could send us things that we required. Already wo had this year received from them large quantities of wool. This trade, with proper culture, was destined "to grow and llourish. Then who could say what such a connection might load to ? The colonists were desirous of a closer alliance with us. They desired to imbibe the spirit of our free institutions. On the grounds of future political contingencies* and in the interest of commerce, he claimed for tho Pacific Statea this small appropriation. Senators Corbett, of Oregon, and Casaerly, of California, warmly supported the amendment.

Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, expressed hia astonishment that this "job" should show itR head again. The uglything had, he thought, been long since killed ; but the thing wouldn't slay killed How often was it to be " resurrected," to waste their time and try their patience, and all to please a lobby to whom success meant, money 1 Tho thing had been so often exposed that it really hardly admitted of a, serious argument at this time of day. IF it had any bomi Jitlcs, and seriously meant a fostering of commerce, no one would ba more ready than ho to give it respectful attention. It was an absurdity to suppose that wo could compete with the cheap productions of Groat Britain. Our own markets were largely supplied from that country, and that, too, in spite off high tariffs. If tho facts were otherwise* it would cost three times aa much to send our goods across the Railroad to the Pacific as it did to transport freight in ships from London to Melbourne. Then, what; single article had the Colonies to supply us with that we could not better produceourselves ?

Senator Cole : Wool—it is coming here largely now. Senator Edmunds : Pahaw ! What am absurdity ! If my friend of California came from a manufacturing State he would well know that tho causes whic&, led to certain recent importations of wool were entirely exceptional, and have afc this very moment almost passed away. The dis urbing influences of the late war and other reasons brought about a sudden rifle in wool which made it profitable to* import wool from Australia. But that has already changed, and can hardly m. tho nature of things occur again. Besides, if we needed to go into the wool-buy-ing business, it is not Australia we should go to. Buenos Ayten with its immense: wool production is quite near to our Atlantic markets, and from there no expensive Pacific railway would have to be crossed.' Our Pacific States require no wool — they already produce ten times as much j« they need for their owrt use, and cmld, if it were required, produce ton times as much as theydo. This surprises me that the senators from tho Pacific bhould use this wool argument, seeing that if that product is largely to come in, it can only be to compete with thoir own States.. All thi* shows the hollowncfts of this whole business. If the parties knocking here bx> persistently ranst get rid of these old steamers, tiiiey had better do so in somes other way. To send such ships abroad was more likely to bring discredit upon, our commerce than anything else. Tlte senator from Michigan (Chandler), who, as the Chairman of their Committee on Commerce, was the hast authority on such .subjects, had told them on previous occasions about these steamers, and he had. never been answered. Thoy could not do better than be warned by tho Committee* specially charged with commercial atiaira. Senator Nye, of Kev&da, spoke at length. of the necessities of commerce to any nation that would be truly great. Ha ; read a list of the subsidies now paid hyr Great Britain, and hoped the Unite*!

States would profit by the example. He hoped the day would come when the Star Spangled Banner would sweep the Pacific Ocean aa the Union Jack now did the Atlantic. He supported the amendment. The Australian Colonies had imports of the value of $180,000,000 per annum. Thai Van a vast trade. Why could not the United Statea secure a large portion of it ?

Senator Morrill, of Vermont: Does the Senator really wish an answer ? It w nimply for the reason that we cannot manufacture ko cheaply. We do »ell the people of Australia a few hoes, shovels, and sewing machines, and if we had ever ko many steamships we could not probably sell them anything more than we do now, because it in undeniable that they can get thexe things cheaper from other places. lam very happy to mm that the indications arc not favourable to a large crop of jobs such as this is. It is a sheer pretence to say that we arc to revive commerce by such means. We do not want »ueh vessels at all. It is idle to say we want thorn for a postal Bervicc when we have no Htich service at all vibh such places as Australia and the other countries named. I move to lay the amendment on the table.

Senator Chandler, of Michigan, Chairman of the* Committee on Commerce, said : Mr President, 1 thought we had done with thin steam-ship job of a corrupt lobby. Once for all, let it be undor- : stood that we won't have thene old hulks .a*- any price Nothing that can bo said in favour of them will suffice to loot this 'Treasury of a single cent. When tin's subject whk first broached a year or two ago the lobbies were ablaze with statements of "a vast trade to be secured,'' and of "other advantages" to be g'tinodtoo wonderful to be named, The Senators from the Pacific States were quite enthusiastic. I thought, howevox*, before j we took this new step, I would look into \ this matter, and sec exactly what the ' truth was, and I found it a good deal as the nailor found his wife. lie was brought up for beating his wife, and the judge said, " Why, Jack, you married your wife for better, for worse ; you agreed to love and protect her, and support her. Now, you should deal with her kindly."' "Oh, yen," said he, "your Honour, I took her for better or for worse ; but I found her a damned wight worse than I tool: her for."—(Much laughter.) Just so I found this mail contract. Upon coining to examine it, I found it a great deal worse than I had supposed. The whole thing is a job—a gross job -not on the part of Senators, who know nothing about it, but believe what is told them. .1 found that the vessels to be subsidized were ships that had almost passed from my memory— rotten old hulkß that are not fit to run upon any piece of water upon God's earth and pay a profit. They were built for an -exceptional traflic up the tropics between Panama.uiid California, when crowds worn rushing to the new El Dorado, and willing to travel in any cockle-shell.' That traflic has long ceased to exirit, and these steamers have not earned a cent since. They are precisely in the position of those lines of steamers that used to run on Lake Michigan. The lino to Detroit alone cost one million dollars. After the completion of the railroad, they ran that line one year at a loss, and then tied up their ships, and never put a fire in "their furnaces afterwards. They lay there ■a year or two, and then/ they took ovit their boilers, and turned their hulls into lumber barges. But, sir, the persons who owned those steamers did not understand how to get out of a bad scrape. They ought to have come to Congress and proclaimed that commerce was suffering, and that in the interests of commerce, they must have a subsidy to run those ships. That is the way to do it.—(Laughter.) If was absurd in them to break up their ships, that could not run without a subsidy. They ought to have come here, and got a subsidy to run them where they were not wanted. They did not do so in Boston. They took a side-wheel ship in Boston some three years ago that cost over a million dollars, and broke her up because she could not be run profitably. Every other company in the world, when they found themselves possessed of stock that could not be run profitably, have abandoned it. But, Sir, this company adopts a more excellent way. Here is Uncle Sain'a Treasury—put your arm in there—dra<v out your millions. Five millions--that's the total sum. There is nothing like going for big licks while you are about it. —(Laughter.) Mr President —in the interests of commerce, I am ready and willing to pay reasonable subsidies wherever they can build up a commerce ; but to do that we must have commercial ships, and not these vessels, built for an exceptional traflic to meet an emergency, and for a day and generation that have gone by. These side wheel steamers, every five years or so, will have involved an expenditure in repairs equal to their first cost. Sir, there are things you can do, and things you cannot do. You cannot by any law, or by any subsidy, or by any- : thing you can do, restore the sickle in the place of the reaping machine. You cannot restore these old side-wheel wooden .steamer.-; as vessels of commerce so long as iron ships are used by all the rest of the world side by side with them. There has been a revolution in the commerce of the world within the past ten years, and we may as well look that fact squarely in the face. It is an.absolute revolution in commerce. Ten years ago every steamer that crossed the Atlantic was a side-wheel. Of all the one hundred and seventy-five steamships crossing the Atlantic to-day, only one side-wheeler is left, and she is running at a loss. An iron steamship the moment she is finished takes an AI register for 21 years. During those 2! years the only requisite expense is hiking her out of water once or twice a year, scraping her bottom, and painting ■ her; whereas a wooden steamer during | the first ten yeara will cost the whole of her j original price in repairs. Then a propeller with the latest empoundengines will make 12 knots per hour vipon a consumption of fuel one-tliirdof that which it takes to drive these old wooden ships ten knots per hour. If a line run with these steamers would i pay with a subsidy of $500,000, then a line of modern iron propellers, with compound engines, would pay with a subsidy of SIOO,OOO ; besides which, the service would be commensurate with the requirements of the times. Mr President, it is useless for us to run these old wooden hulks anywhere. They cannot be run at a profit. These ships on the Australian lino xr* re laid up for two years becaune they could not run on any known lino of commcim They could not run profitably anywhere, and they cannot run anywhere now, for they are going to abandon the line becauso it is unprofitable, unless wo pass this vote, and that too although they havo already subsidies raoro than sufficient to run a line of iron steamers. In the interests of commerce, I protest against taking a single one of these old hulks under the pay of this Government. If we were compelled to take them, then I should propose we should take them for just what they are worth, and you would find them exactly in the position of the Dutchman's dog. Ho

mied a man for killing his dog. " Well," said the Dutchman, "the dogwaaxiot worth a damn, bait inasmuch as thi» fellow has been mean, enough to kill him, he ought to pay hia full value."—(Laughter.) Now, if we are to be compelled to buy these old hulkß, I propose that we take them in that way—that we take them at their full value, and then I propose that they make ju«t one voyage—that we put ten pounds of nitro-glycerine in their hulls, tow them out to deep sea soundings, and let us hear no more ol? these rotten old hulks. L«it one voyage be their last.—(Laughter and cheers,)

There being loud cries for " the question," the amendment to table the proposition wiui then put and carried. The subsidy question to this line is thus shelved for this session.