In dire distress
President William McKinley, former Senator George F. Edmunds, and McKinley’s advisor Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna are on board a grounded ship labeled “Shipping Subsidy Bill” in rough seas labeled “Press Attacks.” The ship rests on rocks labeled “Opposition.”
comments and context
Comments and Context
The 1901 Ship Subsidy Bill never was passed. There was a complicated set of objections and opponents to a bill that, in its day, ought to have sailed through the United States Senate. It was Republican-backed, favored by Steel and other trusts, and it was a time of expanding trade and military interests. McKinley and Hanna were from Ohio, where Cleveland was a ship-building center. Edmunds since his retirement from the Senate had represented ship-building interests, particularly in Philadelphia. But some farmers, many Democrats, and other interests were opposed to massive federal subsidies to corporations building ships. J. P. Morgan was behind a syndicate that pushed for government handouts; when they did not come from the United States, he decided to buy Great Britain’s White Star Line, work with Bruce Ismay, and threaten to buy the Cunard Line. Overcoming many obstacles of tradition and finance, Morgan managed, in the end, to create new trusts and international corporations, navigate the ownership aspects (and definitions) of United States-British vessels, and secure subsidies from London. The delicate negotiations had an effect of accelerating the American public’s enmity toward trusts, and provided a backdrop to subsequent events like the sinking of Titanic.
