| OCR Text |
Show HE DEFENDS OUR 8HIPPING LAW. Perley Doe, writing to the Standard I from Arlington, Mass., declares there I Is a widespread misconception in re-I re-I gard to our merchant marine and the I LaFollette law, and he offers the fol-1 fol-1 lowing statistics in defense of the I measure: 8 Our merchant marine is today larg- er than it ever was before. It ex- ceeds that of Germany and France I combined. It is second only to that I of Great Britain. It consists of 27.000 vessels with a tonnage of 8,500,000. The LaFollette law is not hostile to U. S. shipping. All Its principal provisions pro-visions apply to every vesBol entering enter-ing a U. S. port. Cunard and Hamburg Ham-burg shlpB must comply with the La Follette law If they wish to do business busi-ness in New York or Boston. The La FolleUe law wont into effect ef-fect as regards U. S. vessels on November No-vember 4, last. Under it the U. S. I merchant marine continues to- grow tester than ever before. There are building In our shipyards 750,000 tons 'of vessels for the U. S. flag. Under the Ship Registration act of August 18, 1914, admitting foreign built vessels to U. S. registry, 600.000 tons of foreign vessels have changed to the U. S. flag In the last eighteen months. Of our total tonnage of 8,500,000, only about 1,500,000 tons are engaged in foreign trade; 3,000.000 tons aro on the Great Lakes, and 4.000,000 tons aro in coastwise traffic. So the United States has today perhaps per-haps only three-quarters as much chipping In foreign trade as Germany had when the war broke out; and only a quarter as much as England Foreign governments, out of taxation, taxa-tion, pay enormous subsidies to their shipping corporations. It is said to bo $50,000,000 a year. Shall the U. S. government enter into competition with England and Germany to see which can pay the largest subsidies out of the public treasury to their respective mercantile mercan-tile marine corporations? That is the question before Congress Con-gress and the American people. Doubtless Doubt-less the U. S. treasury can give England Eng-land and Germany a good run for their money if the people wish to enter on a policy of subsidizing private pri-vate corporations from the public purse. The alternative 16 for our government govern-ment to purchase and build a merchant mer-chant marine of Its own to stimulate tradp and to servo as naval auxiliaries in case of war. It is evident there are objections to either course. The fact Is wo are up against a choice of evils. Another Interesting question is will our U. S. shipping interests continue to hold their own whon the war i3 over? That would seem to be a matter mat-ter of speculation. Time alone will tell. nn |
