of Germany, Belgium, Holland and Denmark. The bulk of the carrying trade is done by Great Britain and the German ports on the North Sea. Great Britain is substantially a free trade country. It is this fact that makes her the clearing-house of the world. Goods are brought to her ports from America, the continent of Europe, from Asia, the Indies, Africa, South America, and the islands of the seas, where they are re-assembled for distribution again to the places of ultimate purchase. For fifty years England has been mistress of the seas for the very simple reason that ships could come to her ports without the payment of customs taxes; they could there discharge their cargoes and find other cargoes awaiting them without delay. There were no obstacles, obstructions or tariff barriers of any kind to interfere with traffic. It is this that has built up Great Britain during the last fifty years. Her ports were counters, market-places, clearing houses for the making of a million transactions and the distribution of the most diversified products of every clime.
It is a recognized fact that water transportation will go hundreds of miles to escape tariff barriers. The protective tariff killed the Spanish trade; it destroyed the rich and prosperous cities of the Netherlands. The abolition of the Corn Laws by England opened up her ports when the ports of all the rest of the world were closed, and brought to her shores the carrying trade which had previously been distributed among many nations.
The free cities of Germany, Hamburg, Bremen and Luebeck, had enjoyed free trade for generations. Their wealth and power sprang from their over-seas commerce. And when they entered the German Empire, provision was made for the partial retention of these conditions by the building of free ports within the harbor. Copenhagen and Hong Kong have done substantially the same thing, while Antwerp—another great shipping point—enjoys substantially free trade.
And America can not hope to compete with these free-trade countries, she can not hope to be a clearing-house, or to have ready at hand cargoes for outgoing ships until natural conditions enable this country to compete with Great Britain and the continental ports which have substantially free trade. And these conditions can be secured without modification of our tariff laws by the extension of the warehousing system which now prevails, and the establishment of a series of free ports similar to those in Germany. I would suggest that congress provide three such ports upon the Atlantic sea-board; one on the Gulf of Mexico; one on the Panama Canal; and one or two upon the Pacific coast. These ports might be opened in cooperation with various cities which would agree to build and equip the harbors so that the clearance of goods would be facilitated; or the government itself might provide such ports, to be maintained by low harbor charges. Cooperation with the cities would stimulate them to acquire their own docks and harbors.
