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Show otIerge CONGRESS SHOULD GIVE THEM PREFERENCE IN APPRO-PRIATIONS. APPRO-PRIATIONS. By Peter Radford. This nation i9 now entering upon an era of marine development. The wreckage of European commerce haa drifted to our shores and the world war is making unprecedented demands de-mands for the products of farm and factory. In transportation facilities on land we lead the world but our port facilities are inadequate, and our nag is seldom seen in foreign ports. If our government would only divert the energy we have displayed in conquering conquer-ing the railroads to mastering the commerce of the sea, a foreign bottom bot-tom would be unknown on the ocean's highways. This article will be confined to a discussion of our ports for the products pro-ducts of the farm must pass over our wharfs before reaching the water. We have in this nation 51 ports, of which 41 are on the Atlantic and 10 are on the Pacific Coast. The Sixty-second Congress appropriated over $51,000,-000 $51,000,-000 for improving our RiverB and Harbors and private enterprise levies a toll of approximately $50,000,000 annually in wharfage and charges for 1 which no tangible service is rendered. The latter item should be lifted off the backs of the farmer of this nation na-tion and this can be done by Congress directing its appropriations to ports that are free where vessels can tie up to a wharf and discharge her cargo free of any fee or charge. A free port is progress. It takes out the unnecessary link in the chain of transactions in commerce which has for centuries laid a heavy hand upon commerce. No movement is so heavily laden with results or will more widely and equally distribute its benefits as that of a free port and none can be more easily and effectively ef-fectively secured. |