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Revival of Our Merchant Marine Depends on Private Initiative quarter of a century of con- tention and _ struggle and the expenditure of a mam- moth amount of energy and effort on the part of many citizens, business men’s associations, and politi- cal organizations, there has’ been passed a law that has for its purpose the building up of an American mer- chant marine. Whether those great leaders who gave so much of their time and ef- fort to this work, Senators Frey, Gallinger and Hanna in the senate, Congressmen Humphrey of Washing- ton, Fassett and Dwight of New York, Minor of Wisconsin, and Myron T. Herrick, all of whom with two ex- ceptions have passed away, would en- dorse and approve the measure that has just been adopted and the method of operation, is a question that could probably not be answered in the af- firmative. This is beside the question, how- ever, the fact is that we now have something and it will be for the his- torian of the future to determine whether judged by the cold, unim- passioned standards of the economist, the result will justify this particular method to bring about the desired end. The whole American merchant ma- rine proposition and the carrying out of the plans decided upon are appar- ently permanently placed under the control of the shipping board. If the board is able to administer wisely the enormous sum placed at its disposal by a congress, earnestly de- siring to build up our merchant ma- rine it will constitute another world of the greatest possible praise for having ably used the power of the govern- ment to erect and operate a _ public utility in a satisfactory and economi- eal manner. In 1905, 1906 and 1907, when the merchant marine proposition of those days, known as the Gallinger bill, aroused so much bitter feeling and contention between political parties, it was approved unanimously by a patriotic and far-seeing senate and defeated in a strongly Republican con- gress by a coterie of Republicans. This measure which simply author- By John A. Penton ized a modest amount of mail pay to American built and American operated ships for carrying American mails on the outgoing voyage, was as much as its proponents felt would be needed to accomplish a wonderful result. One of the most important organi- zations of that day working for this measure was the Merchant Marine league, of which the late Harvey D. Goulder was president, Myron T. Herrick, vice president, and Col. J. J. Sullivan, treasurer. This measure at that time provided that the small extra amount over and above the regular rate in exist- John A. Penton Chairman of The Penton Publishing Co. ence in the country derived by the postoffice from carrying foreign-go- ing mail matter should be given to the postmaster general for use in mak- ing contracts with American-built ships operated by Americans in for- eign trade, carrying American pas- sengers, American express and Amer- ican freight to those countries w:th which we were then in close mari- time contact. It was not contem- plated then to go into competition with the larger and faster boats that carried our mails to northern Euro- pean countries, but only to the Med- iterranean, South America, the Orient MARINE REVIEW—July, 1928 and to Pacific ports, and it is a trav- esty on the lack of vision of the con- gress of those days when this mod- est measure met with hysterical de- nunciation from many politicians and many publications that today are with- out unfavorable comment, approving without any criticism a measure gi- gantic in its proportions, as expen- Sive in its terms and as far-reach- ing in its influence as the measure just signed by President Coolidge. It was originally determined by a nonpartisan commission of the _ sen- ate and house that held meetings of a widely advertised character un- der the leadership of Senator Gallinger at principal ports on the Atlantic and Pacific as well as at a number of important centers in the interior that there was a widespread feeling. for restoring the historical policy of discriminating duties. This policy had been successful in the early days of the republic before numerous treaties of commerce had been established be- tween the United States and many foreign countries. At various times provisions of that character have been written into American law but have never been put into operation by the executive branch of the government because of reluctance to disturb existing treaty relations and the possible disastrous effect of reprisals of one kind or another. One of the reasons why a method of this character was impos- sible came through the discovery that 43 per cent in value and 60 per cent in bulk of our imports were on the free list in 1908. Consequently, a measure that depended for its suc- cess upon free importation or a re- duced tariff rate on imports in Ameri- can bottoms would not be workable under the circumstances with such a large volume of goods coming in entirely free. Therefore, the dis- criminating duty policy or program was eliminated and fell to the ground. Free registry of foreign-built ships was another plan, but this measur2 never had an extensive following as it meant the putting out of business of American shipyards, the utilizing of foreign labor, some of it from the Orient, and many other repugnant (Continued on Page 128) 87