Show uncle sam sain kicks in for shipping T friendly iv trade seen result of subsidies A T T due for another big probe by EARL GODWIN ASHIN TON D C the washington I 1 VV day of the american seaman is is at hand and the stars and stripes will again be seen fluttering in every port where there is friendly commerce to be had with foreign nations this statement is based on the beginning of the new government policy of helping american ships meet cheap foreign competition which at the same time requires that american sailors be american citizens now as to this second requirement few people realize that it was not long ago that nearly halt half our sailors were foreigners while we ve have cut that percentage down to 20 or 30 per cent there is still no reason that the united states of america should sail its fleet of merchant and passenger vessels with foreigners in the crews from I 1 among the foreign element come the trouble makers the reds red s t the h e communists and agitators 1 for many years there has been a strong feeling of resentment against the idea of subsidizing ship owners with f federal deral funds the american people have believed ship owners ought to take their chances like anyone else and go out and fight competition without any aid from the treasury but in more recent years we have come to see that foreign competition rests largely on the payment of extremely low wages and have concluded it would be all right after all to grant a little aid to our ship owners we have certainly granted enough aid to every town and county in the nation for schools and roads now comes the time when we will extend this principle to sailing vessels we administer this aid through the newly created maritime commission headed by an old seadog sea dog admiral H A wiley one method of granting financial aid is to lend the ship owner 75 per cent of the money necessary to build his ship then the commission determines how much cheaper it could be built in a foreign country where they pay such low wages having determined ter mined 1 for instance that the cost abroad would be a hundred thousand dollars less jess the commission knocks that amount off his loan in addition where ships of the merchant marine compete with foreign ships manned by crews with small wages the maritime commission will make a regular grant to help meet such a condition first however a survey is being made to determine which ch are the necessary and which are the unnecessary trade routes when we are all through with this survey and ready to act I 1 take it that american ships and shipping will once more hold a high place on the travel lanes of the globe SEEK HIDDEN PROFITS every state utility commission has tried to break into the innermost secrets of the american telephone and telegraph company the big bell system boss and has more or less failed now the federal government is probing away at the same set of secrets through the federal communications commission im conderi wondering ng how successful this probe will be the number one bell company has a magic ring around its vitals and there are facts the federal proberb will never find the head company provides all kinds of services for local companies such as engineering legal financial and public relations it spawns all the bell ideas finances them sugar coats them launches them and sells or rents the paraphernalia pher nalia to the local concern now this is OK for a nationwide nation wide service but the investigators want to find out whether there is too much hidden profit in the services A T and T renders the head concern charges a fee but so complex is the interrelationship inter relationship that you cant tell whether the fee is a c charitable hari table little percentage a gift a gyp a loan or what for instance the government experts say the parent company has been making a mountainous sum over the years by renting telephone sets to the local companies and then unloading the sets to the companies at a still further profit of and many other tricks of that sort there is no doubt about the efficiency ney of the service and the scientific value of A T and T services but is the public paying too much many a utility commission thinks so but few prove it this investigation does not find the bell systems system s head men asleep they have been building a defense against this almap armageddon reddon for years in the first place they are equipped with tha wea weapons rions of confusion they can throw expert after expert into the breach and knock the breath out of the ordinary unschooled investigator vesti gator these telephone men are the me sort who have the patience to put glass insulators out on a roof for fourteen years and watch the effects of the weather on various types any tug of war twixt them and uncle sam will be tough then they ley provide good service cheap friendly telephone service in which the wrong number gag is out long ago telephone employees today are all smoothies smoot hies the old time touch acting corporation agent has disappeared men who have been able to make people think the way the corporations want them to think as A T and T has done ought not to be scared of a washington dinv inv investigation e WORK FOR there is enough work in the national parks the national forests and other sections of the public domain to give plenty of work for several years to come to a permanently manent ly organized civilian conservation corps the camps which have done themselves so much credit since the first one was established now more t than h a n three years ago just now there are approximately boys and young men in these camps although congress provided for thinking there would be real need for the larger figure however the industrial du situation has so improved that it has become difficult to enlist and in order to keep in in camp it has been necessary to stretch the regulations for enlistment and service but that is a mere detail the government has decided to increase its national park and national forest holdings and has provided for this under the fulmer act the states have followed suit and are ra rapidly eidly increasing the number of state parks and forests there is an increased appreciation of the work of the on flood control projects on roads on soil erosion work and everything else that this amazing army of young americans accomplished complis hed without a single blot on their escutcheon anywhere congress is sold on the idea but it would be wise not to let congress run wild on the subject if every congressman had his way there would he be at least one camp in each congressional district but in my judgment the plans for these th esa camps should be laid with respect to the needs of natural resources and the growing population of young men there are times when it would be difficult to enlist an army large enough for all the work in sight and at that time tima I 1 recommend that older men be permitted to enlist in fact there might some day be justification for impressing pl jobless men into this type of work there is no reason for it now but sometime 3 we may find ourselves doing it 0 0 0 PERMANENT RELIEF this leads me to say something about a permanent relief program now that the almost un unendurable endurable political campaign is ended I 1 think we can safely say that relief now actually is out of politics there has been very much less abuse of relief for political purposes than anyone realized except those close to the job but the very fact that the relief organization was an emergency matter thrown together with all speed led its critics to attack it more severely than almost anything else in the roosevelt program I 1 know the men at the head of the relief organization and know them intimately n ti enough to say that any time any part of their organization was mixed up in politics it was without the knowledge of the bosses but be ba that as it may take my statement or leave it the thing now to do is to examine the relief problem and determine whether or not we are to accept the statement that we will have a permanently unemployed army from now on for many years personally I 1 think that due to the ever increasing use of machines instead of men we will have just such a load on our shoulders and either the federal government must provide a work program tor for the earners or the nation at large must feel its responsibility equally in every part of the nation we should never again let one state starve its unemployed and another state pet them there is enough public work on our national resources forests streams and what not to keep keap ke ap outdoor workers busy for years th this s program does not have to be finished at any set date there wi will be flush times when nearly every good man will have a job then will com come a the inevitable depression e assion and we will have another jobless army what I 1 am driving at is the necessity of a long term federal program as the solution of this relief program not merely an annual appropriation to take care of an emergency situation for tw twelve lve months skilled industrial workers are going to be busy for some time to come I 1 take it right ahead of us is the necessity for work or relief for men and women who have no particular skill but whose lives are just as precious to them as if they were the best of artisans another problem which will cause trouble eventually unless it is carefully handled and properly settled is the question of the standards of relief wages we pay I 1 think work relief wages far too low for our american standard of living and yet it is is higher than that of other countries in new york city where the wages were the highest in the country the standard was found to be disastrously low rood food allowances were inadequate so also were clothing and fuel these things cost vastly more in cities than in rural communities western cl cru union |