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Show Ford's Offer for 400 Ships Time For U. S. to Take Stock 1 Periodically the managers of every successful business must check their assets and their liabilities to know where they stand. What is good for a business is good for government. The poeple of this nation are stockholders stock-holders in the greatest business in the world, namely the United States government. Two-thirds of the Shipping Board ships are laid up, about 800; and 400 of them are regarded as obsolete or too uneconomical, or badly constructed, construct-ed, or badly engined for sea service; they are only fit for scrapping, 'tis said. Any ship only fit for scrapping should be scrapped forthwith. And Henry Ford comes along and offer to purchase 400 for scrapping, planning, plan-ning, possibly, to save from ten to thirty for his own transportation business bu-siness purposes. But if ten to thirty are good enough for Henry Ford to use. If they are fit for use they should'nt be scrapped. Mr. Ford is quoted as saying that of those he reserves he will have them equipped as oil burners and reconditioned, re-conditioned, which cost a great deal more per ship than the ships themselves them-selves cost, if sold as junk. . There seems to be something uneconomical un-economical about this whole affair. Shipping Board Commission Tom-son, Tom-son, of Alabama, opposed the scrapping scrap-ping as yet. He says it only costs $500 a year to take care of them, and they might yet be used. What does that mean? Mr. Tomson says that of all the nations that built large numbers of ships during the war and immediately after it has never been i suggested that any of them be scrap- ped but ours. That's worth thinking think-ing about. Mr. Tomson says the foreign for-eign nations want to get rid of our surplus ships. Of course they do; then they could raise the price of ocean freight rates, which at pres-; ent are minimum because of the vast j fleet of idle American ships "hang- j ing over the market," With these ships hanging over the market ocean freight rates will remain at minimum for a long time. The taxpayers who are holding these ships over the market mar-ket are getting back, seemingly, the money they are paying for upkeep of these ships, and maybe a good deal more, in being able to send their products abroad at minimum freight rates, and in bringing back what they buy at minimum freight rates, what the nation loses through the spigot may be more than made good with what come in through the bung hole. Private business must constantly be on the alert to prevent bad accounts ac-counts accumulating on their books. Failure to do this has wrecked many otherwise promising institutions. The people of this country must be diligent dili-gent to keep bad accounts (ill-advised legislation, exhorbitant taxation, public officials and legislators with radical and visionary ideas) from ; clogging or destroying the machinery machin-ery of government. Just as bad debts will wreck a business, bu-siness, so will exhorbitant taxation radical legislation and unbalanced public officials wreck a government. It is well to take stock of ourselves oursel-ves six months after the last presiden tial election. Excitement of the po- litical campaign is passed and all the ' new public officials are in office. The nation has actually settled down to the first normal period of activity since the first guns in the World War eleven years ago. We have what every other nation in the world is striving to secure, namely sound domestic and financial conditions under un-der a stable form of government. Yet we have in this nation today public officials, teachers and professional profes-sional lecturers who would, if they counld, undermine the sound basis on which we are operating and substitute sub-stitute in its place obstructive and destructive ideas which have destroy ed the stability safety and progress of some of the world's leading nations. na-tions. That the people of this nation do j not wish, to see any experimental I problems adopted was made very I evident at the last election. But the work of the agitator never ceases. Hence, our public officials and private pri-vate citizens must be ever on their guard to prevent liabilities accumulating accumu-lating in the affairs of our government govern-ment just as the managers of private business are constantly on their guard to prevent liabilities creaping into the affairs of private enterprise. enter-prise. What a great thing it would if, when our national Congress reconvenes, recon-venes, it would devote itself more largely to the affairs of government and less to the affairs of private clitiz'ens and private business jthan it has during recent years. Never befors in the history of the United States was the labor situation sit-uation in such a healthy conditions. Hours are reasonable and wages are good. We have legislation covering practically every phase of business activity.. The workman is 'protected. 'protect-ed. The public is protected. Indus-. Indus-. tries are protected from unfair competition. com-petition. Labor and capital are act-. act-. ually working in closer harmony, and workmen, throuerh the nurrhasp nf The real reason has not yet been told: the reason these 800 shipping board ships are idle is because they cannot be operated at a profit: because be-cause they are not protected against foreign competition because shipowners ship-owners do not want the Tariff Protection Pro-tection that every other American product needing .Protection gets they do not want Tariff Protection because they pefer direct Protection: millions of dollars from the National Treasury when adequate Tariff Pro- tection could be made to pay millions of dollars into the treasury from the foreign ships and the goods they car-Ty car-Ty above what they now pay. Most people can see the difference here pointed out. Tariff Protection for American ships would mean that all our shipping ship-ping Board ships that are fit say 400 of them would find a ready sale at a: fair price to private owners, own-ers, because every idle Shipping Board Ship and every privately owned own-ed American shin would be put to I the stocks and securities of the industries in-dustries which employ them are now sharing in the profits or losses of such enterprises. work, because it would be profitable to run them. Instead of American ships carrying but one-third of our import and exports, as now, and foreign for-eign ships carrying two-thirds, our usable idle ships would enable us to carry two-thirds' of our imports and exports, leaving one-third for foreign Who is to be benefited by any program pro-gram which; will tend to unsettle such a satisfactory statue? The people of this nation, as a unit, must demand that government business be permitted to continue along safe, and normal lines without the distrubing influence of uncalled for experiments anl policies which tend to destroy the perfect balance which this country coun-try is maintaining today in, its domestic do-mestic relations. An inventory of our national affairs af-fairs will show that we are in a very sound condition and with proper management man-agement we should continue in the same situation for an indefinite period per-iod into the future. ships to carry. In that case 400 foreign for-eign ships would be idle, and held over the market, to keep freight rate at a minimum instead of 400 American ships as now. In short, however, much the Ship-v Ship-v ping Bpard may be losing by keep ing idle ships and it is a lot the nation probably gains several times the amount of that loss in the maintenance main-tenance of minimum ocean freight rates. Reversed: when the nation gets rid of its idle ships and freight rates are advanced, the Shipping Board may save all the money it now loses through caring for idle ships, but the nation may lose several times over, in higher ocean freight rates, what, it now save in minimum ocean freight rates.- As Henry Ford might very properly proper-ly say: ..there are two sides to every question." |
