The attitude of American capitalists, however, will depend very largely on the maritime policy adopted by the United States. That policy should unquestionably be as liberal as the policy adopted by our rivals in commerce. Whatever differences of opinion may rightly exist as regards specific measures for the restoration of the American marine to the high seas, all parties should agree as touching the justice and necessity of treating our maritime interests as generously as Great Britain deals with the owners of her mighty marine.
Our domestic marine, being free from foreign competition, has had a prosperity as great as the adversity of our foreign marine. The present tonnage of domestic shipping is nearly 4,000,000 tons, our growth during the period since the Civil War having been nearly a million tons. The traffic on our northern lakes now employs 3256 vessels, canal boats, and barges, with a total tonnage of 1,437,500 tons; and two thirds of this tonnage consists of steamships. In 1888 our lake tonnage was only 874,102 tons; the growth during a decade having been nearly 80 per cent.
It is hardly necessary to remark that the increase or decrease in the efficiency of a marine during the last few decades is not measured by the growth or decline in the tonnage statistics. The modern steamship, aided by the many commercial auxiliaries that facilitate it in receiving and discharging its cargo, is a much more efficient transportation agent than was its smaller predecessor propelled by sails, and loaded and unloaded mainly by human labor. Our present domestic marine of 4,000,000 tons is at least twice as effective as was the domestic shipping of 3,000,000 by which we were served a generation ago.
VII. AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING.
One great aid to the achievement of maritime greatness is a strong shipbuilding industry, and every nation with commercial aspirations endeavors to establish the business upon a sure foundation. For some countries, as in the case of the United Kingdom, that is much easier than for others; and that is one reason why Great Britain has so easily succeeded in maintaining her place as mistress of the seas.
The business of building ships in the United States, to be used in foreign trade, has passed through a golden age of triumphs, followed by a period of decline and discouragement, and it is now entering upon an epoch of revival. The golden age came in the days of wooden vessels. It began in early colonial times and lasted until the middle of this century, when the world began to buy iron ships of the United Kingdom. The magnitude of our shipbuilding industry at the middle of the nineteenth century is indicated by the fact that during the decade beginning with 1850 the tonnage built in our yards equaled 3,988,372 tons, an annual average of nearly 400,000 tons. During the three years 1854–56 we constructed over a million and a half tons.
STEAMER CAMPANIA OF THE CUNARD LINE.
The decline in American shipbuilding set in sharply after the Civil War, and, in spite of the continued growth of our domestic marine, the tonnage constructed by American builders steadily declined until 1886, when only 95,453 tons were built. The causes of this decline have been stated in what has been said regarding the substitution of iron and steel vessels for wooden. The period of decline seems now to be safely passed, for we are annually building over 200,000 tons on an average, and every indication points to rapid progress in the near future.