Show PRESIDENT HARDINGS GREAT AMBITION DECLARED I 1 IR FD TO HE BE THE RESTORA TION 0 OP T THE AMERICAN FLAG OX N THE SEVEN REAS OF BY ATHERTON BROWNELL editors note atherton brownell the author of 0 the following article lg is a journalist and author of 0 wido wide reputation who has tor for many years made a study of foreign trade and merchant marine As editor ot of american industries lie he paid special attention to these subjects sub jocas chairman laskar of the united states slates shipping board revealed a near state secret perhaps in a recent pub i i lie address when he quoted president li I 1 larding arding as having said bald to him prior I 1 to election my aly great ambition Is ia to come coine into history as the president in whose administration the american merchant marine was wag pa put yack ack J on the seven yea seas all ot of mr air hardings predecessors of recent years haver have cherished a bluml lar ambition possibly with a lesser de da gree ot of earnestness and all ot of them have tailed failed of the accomplishment each and all ot of them have had bad to meet from a large part ot of the country and mostly from the inland section either general apathy towards the purpose or actual hostility to it supplemented ted in the seaboard states by a subtle propaganda against it that has undoubtedly been inspired and backed by our chief maritime rivals for it is not gallantry on the part ot of tho the bleat foreign nations that lal Ss them to be unwilling that the united states stales should go to market airving cair ying her heavy exports in her own mu basket ay iy nation that aspires to a aiom 11 I 1 aung influence in tho the markets ot of the world and a control of those mar bets in the interests of its own export ors or has 1113 found it to be good national policy to make inake the operation of ships under its own lags flags attractive to private operators through liberal goykin mont aids in the form of subsidies we alone ot of all the great trading nations with our eyes herto her foro turned to the interior development of our re sources and hitherto caras little for the rest ot of the world have resolutely and with fixed consistency of purpose in our legislation of more than litile bialt a century pursued a courso course so BO elac exactly t the opposite that we have virtually penalized the tha operation of american when engaged in overseas trade sh ider under n a protective tariff wo have hare pro our farms from foreign competition under prohibitive laws we have protected our coas coastwise twiss traffic from the same our great lakes ship ping has had the protection of natural barriers but when it comes to amor amer loan ican blimps on tho the broad oceans exposed to the full force of competition from the cheaper built cheaper operated and subsidized foreign ships we have not only left them unaided but have actually handicapped them by burdensome burden somo sowe and restrictive legislation the lesson of the world war it if president hardings s ambition is to be achieved it will be because ot of the world war it if the other follow will lesson wo we have learned through tho the tarry carry our freights cheaper than we can carry them tor for ourselves why nut not let him do it has been a stock argument tor for years against any government policy towards our own ships i i similar to that adopted by our successful rivals to which the answer icalla is that while this other fellow ellow call carry our freights cheaper tha than 11 we can do it profit profitably auly to ourselves lie does not and will not do so save eiva uon it suits his pleasure to kilt kill off i Vaie rican competition through a rate v ar the past year has seen great i a s q of american cereals going al oard flying foreign fla flags gs wh ue ile a great fleet of our own has tec bev i lying idle and piling up an onor mou g expense on all of the people the owners of these foreign ships have been in a position to underbid not 0 anly tho the united states shipping board coara as s rates but also those of private A joerica during the war 0 ying wing to conditions then existing th f foreign owner was quick to make a rate so BO high that american products I 1 found their way to market only wit h greatest dilu culy or not at I 1 all the w ir taught us all of us that it was nc t cheaper at any price to bo be de t upon our commercial rivals tor for a ac ress to tho the markets of the it taught us that it was not condit wed on en page eight continued f from rom pape page one PRESIDENT HARDINGS gibat AMBITION cheaper at any price to depend tor for our outlet upon the willingness or ability of those whose interests were not necessarily ours to give Us ocean occar transportation our exports rotted or rusted at the piers because ot of the lack ot of ships rates that would have been prohibitive under any other circumstances cum stances were grudgingly paid by us because we could do nothing else we were nere not independent we were in a vassalage ot of our own supine crea tion the cost of maritim i Vassa vassalage laxo I 1 this vassalage continuing through a full century ot of time has cost our people an unimaginable sum of 0 money I 1 which has been paid out ot of our own pockets into the pockets of for doing for us what we might well have done for or ourselves during this period we have paid to foreign ocean carriers for taking our goods to market a sum equivalent to more than 28 tor for every minute that has elapsed sinco since til tuo e beginning of the christian era it is money that wo we might well have kept within the national family to be used tor for the development of national family prosperity and welfare raid fald to others it has been tribute tributa that we have permitted to be levied upon ourselves because of our negligence and shortsightedness shortsighted neso the full realization of thil did not come to our people until the harsh alarm of war smote upon our ears and the spectacle of a world in arms opened our eyes to the tact fact that we could not live in a splendid isolation and still enjoy the benefits of trade with the world in addition to this awakening added to this new knowledge that has come to us president hardings great ambi lion will be furthered by the tact fact that as a previous president ono one on o e salt s nil it is a condition and not a theory that confronts us hastily and with characteristic and feverish energy at a great and excessive cost owing to the dire nature of the emergency we brought a great fleet of merchant ship into existence the total cost of that fleet was in the neighborhood of three and one halt half billich of dollars today a portion of that fleet Is in operation at a loss either by the united states shipping board or under private ownership or operation the rest is lying idle earning nothing growing older and deteriorating while we continue to pay this vast trl tri bute to foreign ships tor for performing the service our own ships were built to perform perform the monthly loss on oper aaion of that part of our fleet that is I 1 in use and tor for up upkeep keep of that larger part that is idle is about sixteen million dollars a mo month th or one hundred and ninety two millions ot of dollars annually by no legislative legerdemain can we ever recover the war cost of this fleet but its total loss is not a necessity nor is its continued Idle idleness hess inevitable under the pending legislation that embodies president preside nt hardings idea ot of the realization of this great ambition a salange of about 20 per cent or seven hundred millions pt dollars will be made possible through the sale of these ships to private owners at prices that will place them upon a parity as aa to first cost with their foreign competitors by io bo doing and by taking these ships from idleness and placing them in useful and profitable ablo service the monthly loss of sixteen million dollars will lio lie wiped out in place ot of which it is proposed to grant direct aids to thebe ships engaged in defending our commerce on the trade routes of tile the world that may amount to tio as much as th thirty t four million dollars a year in 1 lions eions the total cost per year tor for all aids is estimated at from thirty to eltty million dollars and cannot exceed the latter amount this in place of 0 a present annual loss of one hundred and ninety two million and a frozen credit of 0 seven hundred million the indirect aids will have their reflex directly upon every farm and industry in the united states |