A Stream Subsidy Job

A bilí bas pasaed tho Senate, grantíng a subeidy of $150,000 per annum for building three steamera to be etnployed n aemi mcothly tripa between New Orleann aud Mexioo. Id the ten yeara tbe subaidy will amount to 81,500,000, and tho bilí a aimply a proposition lo take thia large amouot out of tbe pocketa of tbe people and bestow it as a gift upoD the compvoy owniog and aailÍDg the steamera. Thia dishoneat bonuí takei the guise of a compensation for oarryiog tbe maiis. The oorrespondenoe passing betwoen the United States and Mexioo ia very trifling, and there is no just reaaon wliy the government should annually pay for suoh a mail service two or three bundred times asmaoh as it will reoeive back in postage. Those who haro business oonoeotions with Mexioo ■hould pay for tbe conveyance of their own letters wbiob oan easily reach their destination through the agency of the expresa companies. There is regular oommuuioaüon betweeo our porta and Havana, aud al-o between Havana and Vera Cruz ; and the exprese companies convey letters, as they do niouoy and drafis, for a fair oompeniation. This subsidy has never been asked for by thoae having occasion tocorrespond with Mexico, but only by the graceless jobbers who hope to feathcr their nests by running the proposed line. The wholo bui-iness of subsidizing shipg reeks with favoritism and injustice. If it were proper to subsidize vessels at all, subsidies should be impartially bestowed on all vessals eiigagcd in foreign cominerce. It is a grosa iojury to the American owners who continue to run their ships to foreigo porta under present discouragemerits for the government to take rnoney from the people to fit out rivals to take away their business. The injustioe aod absurdity is more flagrant iu the case of our Mexican than of our European cominerce. Our whole commeroe with Mexico is at present oouducted in American ships, bo tbat American nnvigutlon will not be promoteci by subsidizing a Mexican line. The effect will be to ruin the American owners of wooden vessels whioh at present do all the freighting business between this oountry and the Mexioan ports. Tho small saiüng vessels are nuch better adapted to tbe business tbat) large iron steamers Our commeroe with Mexico is small, and goods enough are never offered at one time to freight a large ebip. The establishment of a Eub.-idized lino to tbe Mexican ports would bo a erushinj? deathblow to the American vessels which at present do all the buainesa between our own ports and Mexico. Tbis would be reviving American navigation with a vengeancc ! While this barefaoed job was under debato, Senator Fenton presented a remonstrance sigued, as he etated, by nne hundred and fifty or two hundred of tbe most rof-pectable and best-kfown ship pitiK and mercantile firma in New York against the granting of any subsidies. - The remonstrants were of course impelled by their interests ; bat they take a perfeotly just view of their ioterests. Why should tbe people be taxed to pay rival Unes to break down the li t tío tbat remaina of their business ? Suoh jobs as this Mexican subsidy are engineered by a lobby, whose expenses sre paid by parties intereeted in the jnb. If Con;resa never paricd a subsidy until the people petitioned for it, we ahould never bear any th ing more of tbat kiod of ïslatiou.-