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Show Published Every Saturday PUBLISHING CO., INC. A. W. RAYBOULD, Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: pottage in the United States, Canada and Mexico, $2.50 per year, BY GOODWINS WEEKLY luding ir six months. a $4.50 Subscriptions to all foreign countries, within the Postal per year. Single copies, 10 cents. Payments should be made by Check, Money Order or Registered Letter, payable to The Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. Entered as second-clas- s matter, June 21, 1919, at the Postoffice at Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 3 Phone Wasatch 5409. Ness Bldg. Salt Lake City, Utah. 311-12-1- AMERICA S PAINTED SHIPS SAILING A PAINTED OCEAN oner Lake Ul greatest ship building nation in the today. The exigencies of the worlds war brought this about e rate at which ocean going freight and passenger ships were The Ml United States is the the mammoth government controlled ship yards of tast and west, surprised both the nation and the world. The cbs of the building program of the shipping board was as commas it was startling. J'here is this mighty fleet of ships, constituting one of the marines ever contemplated by any nation and designed csry the manufactured products, the raw materials and the pres-M- f the richest land to the most remote parts of the world ? & every large port on both the eastern and western sea board y are packed in rows like sardines in cans. In Portland there are 2 ihips, owned by America, and controlled by the United States pping board. In San Francisco harbor there are fifty, and at the seaside of the country, over in Baltimore, there are five hundred. ired about among the various other ports of the country are )S nother thousand government owned ships, swinging idly Jthe ebb and flow of the tides and presenting a most pathetic i tore of innocuous desuteude. t Yes, and they will stay there silently lifting their protesting dictator'wstothe harbor winds, so long as the Gompers-Fureset- h ll p tvrites the laws and dictates the terms on which these ships, if ( yever move, may be operated. But we are a rich nation. Who ei? To make it pleasant for our masters we can do without psmd let England and Japan haul our foreign freight. Yes, we remain inactive and enjoy our sleep while the 5,000 ships built th the taxpayers money arc as lifeless as a fleet of painted pson a painted ocean. It cost billions to build these ships; it is sting $700,000,000 a year now to keep this mammoth fleet of ocean vders lying idle lapping the shores of inner harbors and flying out from great-mercha- nt tit sact- - tion, eets. to ras ined Bex- - . ll tress signals The for inot ll to a proud but indifferent people. ' shipping board cannot operate these ships at a profit and get anyone to buy them at less than half their original costs. another $125,000,000 merely for incidental expenses to help cPjthem floating in tin? harbor winds. Why not make a present Mks j f ships to the Gompers-Fureset- h terms o: handling crews, under which hons, hn e nd no trouble in jl shipping ? combination that dictates Japan and all other foreign taking cargoes away from Amcrican- "oiii'l be interesting to watch this combination operate these W under ihcir own labor laws, make all the profits, and, incidental ly, save the American taxpayer $700,000,000 a year it is now costing to keep them idle. But Senator Jones, of Washington, has a plan to encourage the American merchant marine. He has proposed a rider to the Fordncy tariff bill which has been presented to the senate. It is brief and to the point. It reads as follows : Hereafter all goods, wares, and merchandise imported in vessels other than vessels of the United States, shall be subject to a duty of 5 per centum ad valorem in excess of the duties herein imposed, and all goods, wares, and merchandise, excepting tea and coffee. so imported which are otherwise admitted free of duty under this act shall pay a duty of 2 per centum ad valorem : Provided, that the foregoing provisions shall not go into effect as to goods, wares, and merchandise if imported in the vessels of those nations with which we have treaties which said provisions contravene until the expiration of one year from the date when this act becomes a law, at which time said treaties are hereby declared to be duly abrogated unless the same are sooner abrogated by notice given by the president under the terms of such treaties. Under Section 34 of the present merchant marine act the president is authorized and directed to give such notice. It will be recalled that President Wilson refused to take any action under this in section, a refusal which prompted President Ilarding to declare his speech in Baltimore, September 27: It is useless to look for useful results if the president persists in his policy not to In his Omaha speech of October carry out the terms of that ac of the 15, Mr. Harding declared: T am in favor of the enforcement adTones act which was intended to make it possible to hold that the war. I vantage, that is, the advantage we had gained during have no hesitancy in giving full condemnation to the failure of an pre-electi- on J am for administration to put into effect the bidding of congress. it is the a growing American merchant marine. . . . because discrimination in shipping and beonly protection we have against cause it guarantees that America shall have one of the tnree great essentials to a vigorous, growing foreign trade. the tariff bill will give the needed If this Jones amendment firm relief to the, taxpayers and place the merchant marine upon a law is enacted, and Presifooting, it should be passed when the tariff dent Harding should be held to strict accountability in his expressed laws desire to enforce the act. Incidentally, it might be wise to make merchant marine which would governing sailing conditions on our tend to place it on a competitive basis with other nations. |