OCR Text |
Show OBJECTIONS RAISED. (Jreut Britain and Kussia have joined France iu vr0 testing aaiDSt the plan of' the administration to purchase the German merchant steamers. The primary object of the government Tvas to relieve the conditions growing out of the ivar. Incidentally the purchase of the ships would tend to build up an American merchant marine which undoubtedly un-doubtedly will prove a strong com- petitor of the European nations when i the struggle now going on is brought to a close. We fancy this phase of the ; -ituation weighed heavily with Great j Britain, which enjoys the lion 's share i of the ocean-carrying trade. 1 There are other objections, of course. One urged by French Embas- j sador Jnsserand is that if the I'nited j States buys the Hamburg-American liners the millions paid for the vessels V.U1 find their way into the coffera of the German government, and thus provide pro-vide that country with more sinews of war. There is some merit iu the ob-jjectiun ob-jjectiun on this score, for it is said the i German steamship companies and the I Herman government are closely af-; af-; filiated. ' ! Xo object ion will be raised if the j United States will distribute its purchase pur-chase of ships equally among the belligerent bel-ligerent nations, although it is claimed ; considerable diiculty is likely to arise !;f the plan is curried out. The reason j why it. was proposed to buy German ?teuiiihips was owing to the fact that inanv of them are marooned in American Ameri-can ports, ami they could bc picked up ; at a bargain. j f we buy British, French am! Unssian ships we shall be j oinnellvd to pay full price, but per-j per-j hap-- i' would be just as well to invest the money, for a merchant marine is sorely uoeded in this country and the jopportuuitv for a start is offered. |