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Show Criticises the Ship Building Program of Government 1 Chicago. April 25. Importance ol the American merchant marine in the development of the export business of the country was discussed today by speakers at the sixth National For-eigir For-eigir Trade convention. Homer T. Ferguson, president of the Newport .News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock company, referred to the huge sum expended by ihe govt in-ment in-ment in shipbuilding during the war a a result of lack of preparedness Hp said the total already has reached $1,111111000.1100 The alue of the en tire sea-going shipping of the world, tH he said, does not exceed $2,000,000000. jH He expressed the view that the gov? vM ernment should Immediately abandon the policy of building ship ; at a coal tLfl of $200 a ton and selling them al $100 rH a ton. He criticized the war-wage schedules which the government iin- IH posed upon shipbuilders and said that. fH today there are negro workmen iu his jH plant drawing $175 a week wages. He iH a rj he did aol know what would hap- H pen when an effort was made to get tH labor down to earth again. He de-clared de-clared that the government's plan of plus cost contracts with guaranteed profits would ruin any business, it IH continued long enough. Competitive business, be said, was the life u.' in-dustry. in-dustry. John Walsh, former chief counsel yM I for the federal trade commission, said that the Webb law was the only legis-latlon legis-latlon enacted by congress during th" jH war with a view to fostering th; for- iH eign trade of the United States. WM oo rH |