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IIH INNA ANTAL IIMA IERIE TOUTE pl ge et NAMA IUD UVVOUVUOUOTAUGUUTUOUUEUTTTCT TUTTI IUALUULLAUAI ULLAL LUT LLU UT VOL. 46 CLEVELAND JANUARY, 1916 NEW YORK The President's Result in the Miraculous Construction of an American Merchant Marine Q Message Leads Us to Beliess Government Ownership Would Wilson’s Argument for Government Ownership “Tf other nations go to war or seek to hamper each other’s commerce, our merchants, it seems, are at their mercy, to do with as they please. We must use their ships, and use them as they determine. Such a situa- tion ts not to be endured. “The task of building up an adequate merchant ma- rine for America, private capital must ultimately under- take and achieve, as it has undertaken and achieved every other like task amongst us in the past, with admirable enterprise, intelligence, and vigor; and tt seems to me a manifest dictate of wisdom that we should promptly remove every legal obstacle that may stand in the wav of this much to be desired revival of our old independence and should facilitate in every possible way the building, purchase, and American registration of ships. “But capital cannot accomplish this great task of a sudden. It must embark upon it by degrees, as the opportunities of trade develop. Something must be done at once. “With a view of meeting these pressing necessities of our commerce and availing ourselves at the earlhest possible moment of the present unparalleled opportunity of linking the two Americas together in bonds of mutual interest and service, an opportunity which may never return again if we miss it now, proposals will be made to the present congress for the purchase or con- struction of ships to be owned and directed by the government, sinular to those made to the last congress, but modified in some essential particulars.’—From the President's Message to Congress. AYING aside for the moment any discussion of L the remarkable tenacity that causes the President to persist in advocating a government-owned merchant marine in the face of nation-wide opposition, we are led to a consideration of some of the practical features of this scheme as disclosed in the message delivered to congress on Dec. 7. “The task of build- ing up an adequate merchant marine for America,” the President declares, “private capital must ultimately undertake and achieve. But capital,’ he continues, “cannot accomplish this great task of a sudden,” and, “with a view of meeting these pressing necessities * * %* proposals will be made to the present con- gress for the purchase or construction of ships to be owned and directed by the government.” Right here the President displays his great weakness—an_ almost total lack of appreciation of the practical problems of commerce and industry. ; oo If private capital working at high pressure as It 1s, with over 90 sea-going merchant vessels under con- struction at Atlantic coast yards alone, is unable to furnish tonnage fast enough to meet the present emer- gency, how, it is pertinent to inquire, can the govern- ment hope to achieve any superior results? Has the administration some secret control of the supernatural that will enable it to transform the evanescent ether of interplanetary space into 10,000-ton steamers in the twinkling of an eye? Or has it some clandestine contract with the forge works of Tubal Cain calling for the delivery of double-bottom, turbine-driven liners at the rate of one a day? We agree with Mr. Wilson that the shipping emer- gency we are now facing cannot be relieved instantly —in fact we venture the opinion that in spite of the most strenuous efforts on the part of everyone con- cerned, the present shortage of vessels will last for many months to come. And in this connection we fail to see where government ownership would alter the physical facts a particle, except perhaps to intimi- (Concluded on page 26.)