Show national affairs by P LITSCHERT alter after having had a tough struggle since the close of the world war the american M merchant erchant marine seems seema to be coming IZ into it its own bad and this tact fact may well be a cause lor for rejoicing on the part ot of the american nation the signs that our merchant marine la is coming back are beginning to multiply the expansion of the mall mali service la is one cause lor for felicitation this service announced with the presidents program of keeping business going as usual win will involve the construction st in the next few years of at least twenty nine american ships at B a cost 4 of f nearly four fast steamers will go into tb the north atlantic service and of the total to be constructed all but two will go on existing trade routes the other two will be required for ith the extension ot of the service into the mack blade sea according to the associated press construction contemplated la in the program approved includes one ship for service between new york and valparaiso one tor for the route from tacoma to valparaiso two between san francisco and british colum columbia im three between new york and ad limon two for the baltimore hamburg line three between new orleans and puerta columbia three for or san francesoo corinto three tor for new york puerto columbia two between new orleans and the east coast of south america and two between now new orleans and spanish ports porta 01 six of the new ships will bo be added to the merchant marine by the american export steamship corporation according to a contract entered into recently by the Post postoffice office department with that con cern cem which operates to mediterranean ports two ships chips are to be completed co plated in 1931 and two more the following following year one Is to bo be completed in 1939 1935 and the last one in 1938 1936 the ships are to have a speed of fourteen knots and to cost from two and a half to three millions each two ships of the lot are already under construction the signing of this contract Is the first tangible result of the new program and it will be hailed boiled with satisfaction by good americana Amil caru everywhere aw 10 0 evidently the move started a few years year ago to make the american people shipping minded la Is having its it effect that this Is true Is one of 0 the encouraging kigns of the times it means meana that the american people will not again be lulled into a false sense of security by the cry that we are not a shipping nation and that we cannot have a marine unless we are feeding some mythical and wicked shipping trust from the american treasury propaganda of this sort was used to defeat the revival of the american marine tor for a generation but with the coming of the world war we were brought to the sudden realization ot of what the lack of a merchant marine meant to us and we know too that a in merchant erchant marine la is almost as important to t 0 our welfare in time of peace as in time of war 40 10 aw in a recent address aired afred T haag director of the bureau of research of the united states shipping board declared that the future of the american at any time since the good old days of the yankee clipper ships he pointed out ithac that in the decade ending june 30 1928 american ships carried thirty six per cent ot of the nations foreign trade as against only ten per cent carried in the i i decade which ended with the outbreak of the world war mr haag further I 1 pointed out that in view of the fact i that the value of our total water borno foreign trade in the decade lust just concluded has been more than double that bof of the decade ended 1 in 1914 1114 it Is significant that the 26 per cent gain involved an advance from an annual aver ago of to an annual average 1 ot of an increase of more I 1 than 70 per cent in the value of our commerce carried in american ships a aw all of which Is highly encouraging to the man who is still old fashioned enough to believe that the welfare of his country should bo be dearer to him than that of any other nation these new ocean mall mail contracts acta will mean not alono alone the extension of our merchant marine they will serve notice to the world that we intend to develop our shipping till we have our just ut proportion of vessels on the high sees all subversive propaganda to the contrary notwithstanding |