Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1920-04-05 | Page 4 | Big Fleet of U. S. Ships Planned

!BI FIEEHF American Merchant Marine of 12,000,000 Tons Is Aim of Shippers of the United States (International News Ssrvlce) Washington, April 5. An Amer-' Amer-' lean merchant ' marine of 12,000,000 i tons, or about 30 per cent of the world's commercial shipping, within j thre years. Is the aim towards whlen shipping authorities are striving, it is i indicated here. Under favorable clr-j cumstanccH this goal may bo rcachca, it lii said. Tho shipping would be all gooa bottoms, adaptable to modern tiaao and would not include the smaller coastwe shlps, The present shipping ship-ping board biMltilng program when completed will turn out 11.500.000 tons by 1921, John H. Rosscter, former for-mer director of operations for tho emergency fleet corporation, estimated. esti-mated. With this vast tonnage In slgnt, Senator Wesley Jones of "Washington, chairman of the senate commcico committe, with members of the committee, com-mittee, is seeking to frame constructive construc-tive legislation which will utilize this asset to the fullest extent under tiio American flag. The proposed program has In view the establishment of advantageous routes to South American ports, mc West Indies and the Caribbean, oc- sldes many new lines. Shipping authorities have rcveaici. to congress the extent to which tho Dig maritime interests of the urlu arc racing for supremacy In tho general gen-eral disturbed conditions due to mo var. At present, It Is said, with nearly near-ly the same tonnage on the seas as ;n 1913, the service Is only 50 per cent of what it was In pre-war days. Ino total shipping in tho world today js 10,000,000 deadweight tons, it is saia, and the world will need 55,000,000 tons when tho full after-thc-war trade boo'm sots in. At present, It Is admitted, tho shipping ship-ping of the world, and of tho Unucrt States in particular, is in a transi'.j.j stage. It is hoped to tide over this period until normal conditions return, which, experts predict, will bo auoii.