The only trade in which it has ever been supposed that steamers of any description whatever could carry freight is that between Europe and the United States, where there are large quantities of rich, costly goods, in small and valuable packages, which pay an extra rate of freight, as express goods; but, even here, the steam freighting system without governmental aid has proved a failure. There have been one or two cases where a steamer could make money in carrying freight and passengers alone, as between this country and California during the early part of the gold crisis, and owing to the great distance around the Horn, as well as an unnaturally large passenger trade. This, however, was a state of commerce wholly abnormal and of short duration, and such as is not likely to occur once in a century, or last very long; or prove more than an infinitesimal exception to the great general laws of freighting and commercial transport.
Great Britain has learned this doctrine from experience, and is profiting by it. Her wise merchants and statesmen know that commerce can be accommodated only by rapid steam mails, which have regular and reliable periods for arrival and departure; and that, although these mails cost the Government and the people something more than those slow and uncertain communications which depend on sailing vessels and overland transit, yet they are enabled, by the facilities which they afford, to monopolize and control the commerce of the world, and divert it from even the most natural channels into the lap of British wealth. It is in this view of the subject that our merchants so justly complain that our Government, by refusing to give them the facilities commensurate with the demands of the age, deprives them of the power or privilege of competing with foreign nations, and palsies their hands, simply because they are not able, individually and by their associated capital, to do that which the Government only can do. The reason why our mail steamers require the aid of our Government is that foreign Governments subsidize their lines; hence our individual enterprise can not compete with their individual enterprise and that of their Government combined. The reason why foreign Governments thus subsidize their mail lines is, that those lines can not depend upon their own receipts for support, or run without Governmental aid. This is also the prime reason for Governmental aid in running our lines. These facts are undisputed by steamshipmen and merchants, and are verified by the practice of the whole world, and the great number of failures in attempting to sustain steamers, from year to year, on regular lines, by their receipts alone.
Being thus unable to compete with other countries under our present limited steam arrangements, and considering the startling expenses which attend the running of steamers, such as their fuel, their extra prime cost, their large repairs, their depreciation, their wages, their insurance, their dock charges and light dues, their shore establishments, and the long list which comes under the head of items and accidents, it is unquestionably the duty of the Government to meet this question in a frank and resolute manner, and afford to the people all those necessary facilities which they can get in no other way.
SECTION VIII.
HOW SHALL THE GOVERNMENT DISCHARGE THIS DUTY?
WE NEED A STEAM MAIL SYSTEM: HOW OUR LINES HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED: AMERICAN AND BRITISH POLICY CONTRASTED: SPASMODIC AND ENDURING LEGISLATION: MR. POLK'S ADMINISTRATION ENDEAVORED TO INAUGURATE A POLICY: GEN. RUSK ENDEAVORED TO EXTEND IT: THE TERM OF SERVICE TOO SHORT: COMPANIES SHOULD HAVE LONGER PERIODS: A LEGISLATION OF EXPEDIENTS: MUST SUBSIDIZE PRIVATE COMPANIES FOR A LONG TERM OF YEARS: SHOULD WE GIVE TO OUR POSTAL VESSELS THE NAVAL FEATURE: OUR MAIL LINES GAVE AN IMPULSE TO SHIP-BUILDING: LET US HAVE STEAM MAILS ON THEIR MERITS: NO NAVAL FEATURE SUBTERFUGES: THESE VESSELS HIGHLY USEFUL IN WAR: THEY LIBERALLY SUPPLY THE NAVY WITH EXPERIENCED ENGINEERS WHEN NECESSARY: THE BRITISH MAIL PACKETS GENERALLY FIT FOR WAR SERVICE: LORD CANNING'S REPORT: EXPEDIENTS PROPOSED FOR CARRYING THE MAILS: BY FOREIGN INSTEAD OF AMERICAN VESSELS: DEGRADING EXPEDIENCY AND SUBSERVIENCY: WE CAN NOT SECURE MAIL SERVICE BY GIVING THE GROSS RECEIPTS: THE GENERAL TREASURY SHOULD PAY FOR THE TRANSMARINE POST: REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW CONTRACTS: METHOD OF MAKING CONTRACTS: THE LOWEST BIDDER AND THE LAND SERVICE: THE OCEAN SERVICE VERY DIFFERENT: BUT LITTLE UNDERSTOOD: LOWEST-BIDDER SYSTEM FAILURES: SENATOR RUSK'S OPINION: INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF LOWEST BIDDER: INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS AND RIGHTS.
As it will scarcely be denied that the Government should furnish ample and liberal mail facilities, as well foreign as domestic, to its people, in view of the well-established fact that these facilities can not be attained in any other way, the question naturally arises, how shall the Government discharge this clear and unquestionable duty to the citizen? I trust that it will be admitted that we can not rely on the Sailing-ship mail, or the Naval steam mail, or the Private Enterprise mail; while it is equally evident that we can not depend on the Foreigner's mail, or should not if we could.
A first step toward this important end, and one which every interest of the country demands, is the establishment of a governmental steam mail system, a fixed steam policy, based upon common-sense, and guided by the dictates of justice to the enterprising citizen, at the same time that it is productive of certain efficiency toward the people. It can not be denied that our legislation on this subject has hitherto been that of expedients, and merely temporary arrangement. We have had no wise, immutable purpose, no great fixed rule of action. We have laid no broad foundations for a system which should extend itself wherever our trade extended, and work equitably with all of the large interests of the American people. When, by a spasmodic effort, we opened communication in one direction, and found that we had a few steamers running, we became self-complacently satisfied with our action, shut our ears to all other equally urgent claims and appeals, forgot that we had simply commenced instead of having finished, and contented ourselves with the appearance of a mail system rather than its realization. When we established the two lines to Europe, which were positively necessary to commerce, it was not so much because those were the only necessary lines, but because they were urged by parties who stood ready to build the ships, and run them in the service. The California lines were established because the people would not longer tolerate the neglect of our large and important interests in the Pacific. But there were several other lines which were of the greatest importance to our commerce and manufactures, extending to fields where we could have established the richest trade, but which never enlisted the attention of Congress, simply because there was no one who made it his special business to press them. This of itself manifested great want of a matured steam mail system, which should operate equally on all of the great interests of the country, and extend its facilities wherever American industry and enterprise could find a footing.
We need not only a steam system, but a fixed steam policy that shall extend from generation to generation, and operate equally, as well at all times and in all fields of American enterprise, as upon all classes. No such system can be built up in one year or in ten years; much less by one spasmodic steam effort, even in the right direction, followed by an eternal sleep, or a total indifference. It is the work of ages. It is not a system which, if set in motion, will work on perpetually of itself, without assistance. It needs constant care and fostering; and its results prove it worthy of all the care and attention that can be expended on it. The mature system of Great Britain has not grown up in a day. It has been constantly before the British public during twenty-four years, and has never been neglected for an hour. There has been no hiatus in it; for this would have disrupted the system, broken the chain, and resulted in disastrous failure. Neither has the one great purpose been changed every few years to suit the caprice of some new cabinet. It was a great cardinal idea, founded in reason and justice, that has gone on maturing from year to year; and none had the hardihood to touch it, or trifle with the people's purpose in establishing it; not even so far as to make it a passing text for demagoguery. It composed and yet composes a part of the far-reaching and controlling policy of the British crown; a purpose limited not to the visions of to-day, or the financial crises and panics of to-morrow, or to some new field of British effort, to be developed in a year or two; but limited to that time only, when men shall cease the strife of commerce, abandon the pursuit of wealth, yield the palm of enterprise, and unlearn the love of money and its power. There has been nothing spasmodic in this; nothing fitful, alluring, and evanescent; nothing that held out a hope to the enterprising man, and deceived him in all the essential conditions of its fulfillment in the end. It was founded in reason, founded in necessity; and it was well determined that it should endure.