Our Achievements and Prospects: Nicaragua and Europe

The haulage and water transport of the immense volume of merchandise is a distinct problem, affecting very closely the welfare of the industrial and trading classes. There is a cry from all quarters for wise legislation to regulate railway rates, and put an end to what is claimed to be unjust discrimination in favor of the larger shippers against the smaller. When an equitable adjustment is effected, whatever it may be, it is sure to give a fresh impetus to national commerce. The demand for a system of ship subsidies has influential and indefatigable advocates. It is based, putting the case broadly, on the claim that without a sliding scale of government payments to owners, it will be impossible to secure a sufficient supply of American vessels to carry our merchandise to markets in foreign lands. We do not here enter into any details of fact or argument. The proposal that the United States should pay $9,000,000 a year for twenty years, in certain proportions among selected ships, was met by the objection that the great American steamers that now ply between Europe and America would receive more than the poorer ships which ought to be making regular trips to markets in South and Central Americas. Great Britain pays about seven million dollars a year in ship subsidies, thereby securing the regular carriage of the mails, the construction of passenger ships quickly transformable into men-of-war at need, and the frequent fixed sailing periods induce a large passenger patronage. In whatever direction the wise decrees of our law-makers may operate, it is not open to doubt that the new century will see the rise of a mercantile marine adequate to the carrying of our commerce to the new markets we are opening all over the globe, without our having to employ the vessels of any commercial competitor.

The whole question of commercial expansion is involved in the long-pending discussion upon the policy of constructing a canal at Nicaragua or Panama. Such a water-way would facilitate the transport of merchandise between the United States and the South American republics. It is stated that the proposed Nicaragua canal would have a traffic from the proposed Nicaragua canal would have a traffic from the start of three million tons a year. The commercial wants of South America are at present supplied by Europe. The only manufactures bought from us are those which Europe cannot make. The new route will save nearly ten thousand miles of sea journey between New York and San Francisco, and will save, it is said, $35,000,000 a year to the United States in trade. Great Britain's commercial interests are so seriously imperilled by the bare contemplation of the canal that diplomatic objections have been raised to the proposal to fortify the approaches, in our own interest, in case of future war. The matter will be disposed of as every grave question has been, that has closely touched the pride and the strength of a nation which has hitherto succeeded in managing its affairs from the standpoint of patriotism.

This rapid survey of the trend of American commerce bears out the claim, that, if we do not actually lead the world in the century's opening years, only a few years will elapse before we shall occupy that proud position. London, Paris, and Berlin are borrowing gold from New York; Europe, Asia, and Africa seek in American markets for food they cannot or do not themselves produce, and for the products of more highly skilled brains and muscles than those which find employment in their workshops. These simple facts contain the promise and potency of early and lasting supremacy.