The great British steam lines which are running to and from our ports so frequently, bring their coal from England and take little back from this country. Think of the coal-mines that would be worked to supply our great ocean steam lines should we ever establish such as are necessary to the country. Sit down and reckon the different industries that would be benefited by the establishment of great steamship lines, and you will be surprised at the amount that would be thrown into the hands of the laboring people of this country.
What is the object of a government if it is not to build up the industries of a country, as opposed to those of other countries? A republican government should be the best in the world. Its legislators should advance all its industries. It should be more paternal in its organizations than any other, for those who are elected to office are put there by the people to promote their interests. We have gone on for the past twenty-five years, showing no more ability to cope with the matters to which I have referred than the minor republics of South America, which scarcely hold any place in the estimation of the world. Instead of being a government for the people, ours seems to be a government made for the advantage of a select clique.
I almost despair, although not naturally of a despairing nature. I thought when our civil war was over and there was no longer a question which could seriously divide the country, that we would put our household in order and unite to become the great nation of the world, which we are fully capable of doing; but, with thousands of others who helped to fight for the country and put it on its legs again, I have been wofully disappointed, particularly in the decadence of that ocean commerce which was once second only to Great Britain.
Even Spain, that has been for years behind all other nations, and for more than sixty years has been considered the most effete government in Europe—Bourbon all over—has now taken the lead of us, has voted millions in a lump to build up her navy, and is about to establish those very steam lines which should have been American. If this country does not take proper steps to resurrect our commerce and place a number of steamship lines on a footing with those of European countries, foreigners may well say that the resources of the country have been developed faster than the education of the people has progressed, and that the Americans are not sufficiently advanced in intelligence to understand that no nation can be a first-class power that allows another to do its carrying. For my part, I expect to step out soon without witnessing the fulfilment of any of my cherished ideas. As for the "naval reserve" they are talking about at present, it ought to have been established in the days of the Revolution.
Every steamship that we build for ocean service should be able to carry guns, and the Government should condemn her for national use whenever it is considered necessary—in fact, exercise greater power over the mercantile marine than over the militia. An organization of this kind, however, can only be established by stringent acts of Congress, without which no action of the Secretary of the Navy or a board of officers would enable the Government to use merchant vessels.
Nothing, however, in this direction can be done the present session, and we can only hope that a more enlightened feeling in regard to these matters will be shown in the future than has prevailed in the past.
The people who make this outcry against "subsidies" apparently do not reflect that no nation in the world has gone so far in this direction as the United States. For instance, the grants to the great railroads which connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, by which millions of dollars and millions upon millions of the public lands were given, enough to have built up our mercantile marine and navy twenty times over; yet few people have objected to these donations on the part of the Government, as it was felt to be the only means by which we could open the country for settlement and obtain control of the great commerce of the East.
That was the great cry at the time, but unfortunately we only half did the work we started to accomplish, and failed to continue the road to China by not appropriating money to put upon the Pacific a sufficient number of steamships to entirely control the China trade, and give us a large number of fast and powerful vessels that could, when necessary, be transformed into heavily armed men-of-war for the protection of our northwest coast.
At the present time a single powerful vessel of an enemy could devastate the whole of that coast. I remain, very truly yours, DAVID D. POUTER, Admiral.
In a letter to the New York Tribune, published in May, 1887, Mr. H. K. Thurber, Pres't of the N. Y. & Brazil S. S. Co., among other strong language, used the following: