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ings are held under shipping board auspices, it has become the custom for the chairman of the board to act as official ‘‘keynoter’’ by making a few introductory remarks. “Our first national conference was called in 1928, when the famous Jones-White act was in the making on Capitol hill. The board at that time wanted your views for submis- sion to congress in connection with certain provisions which we all thought should be written into the bill. Your views, put into concrete form at the first national conference, were duly transmitted to congress. The Jones-White act, the most im- portant piece of shipping legislation ever enacted in this country, became a law on May 22, 1928. You have reason to be proud of the part you played in helping congress to shape an act that was designed to keep our flag on the sea for all time. “Today the Jones-White act \is under attack, both here and abroad. Without mincing words, we can say that those who want to nullify its provisions are working to. scuttle the American merchant marine. The would-be scuttlers fall into two groups—those who know what they are doing, and those who are the in- nocent dupes of the master-minds who direct the attack. “The scuttlers have been very busy ever since the Jones-White measure was enacted into law. Whatever their alleged motives, they have the for- eign viewpoint. They are opposed to American shipping. They pre- fer to have our foreign trade car- ried in foreign bottoms, despite the vast freight and passenger revenues, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars annually, which under their plan would flow abroad to enricn our foreign competitors. They are not concerned with the further de- yelopment of American overseas mar- kets. They are content to leave the American navy without adequate aux- iliaries in time of war. The destruc- tion of the American shipbuilding industry means nothing to them. Rather than have the government aid the merchant marine by a modest outlay each year, they would prefer, in time of national peril, to see the country spend billions of dollars in an overnight effort to meet a vital emergency. Attempt to Justify Attacks “An attempt is made to justifv these attacks on the ground of economy. The persons making the attacks claim that the country could save $25,000,000 a year by abolishing the ocean mail contracts. In urging this claim they disregard the other side of the ledger. If they looked at the other side, they would see that hundreds of millions of dol- lars stand to the credit of the na- tion every year from the possession of a strong merchant marine. This sum is spread throughout our 48 states and benefits both labor and industry. “To abolish the ocean mail con- tracts is to abolish the merchant ma- rine. This conference can do noth- ing more constructive than to em- phasize the necessity of continuing the present federal aids. To con- tinue them is the only true economy. To abolish or curtail them would in the long run prove the rankest sort of extravagance. We must drive this truth home to the American taxpayer and to our lawmakers in congress. “TIT have sounded the keynote as I see it. We have with us a number of speakers who will go more fully into the matter.”’ Speakers at the Conference A roster of the speakers that fol- lowed during the course of the ses- sions of the conference emphasizes its significance as a powerful force in the continued development of an American merchant marine adequate to the needs of our commerce and to national defense. The speakers were: Roy D. Chapin, secretary of commerce; Henry L. Harriman, pres- ident of the chamber of commerce of the United States; Clay Stone Briggs, congressman from the state of Tex- as; Dr. Edmund A. Walsh, S. J., vice president of Georgetown university, and regent of the School of Foreign service; Roy S. Copeland, United States senator from New York; W. I. Glover, second assistant postmaster general of the United States; James EK. Emery, general consul, National Association of Manufacturers; Wil- lard F. Place, assistant vice presi- dent, New York Central lines; J. Howland Gardner, president, The Society of Naval Architects and Ma- H. G. SMITH President, Council of American Shipbuilders MARINE REVIEW—-February, 1933 rine Engineers; A. W. Robertson, chairman of the board, Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co.; Homer L. Fer- guson, president, Newport News Ship- building & Dry Dock Co.; red 1: Kent, vice president, Bankers Trust Co., New York; N. O. Pedrick, gen- eral manager, Mississippi Shipping Co.; Andrew Furuseth, Seamen’s union; Commissioner S. S. Sandberg, vice chairman of the United States shipping board; Charles’ Francis Adams, secretary of the navy (brief remarks); Will R. Wood, member of congress; General John J. Persh- ing (a letter read before the con- ference); Capt. Samuel W. Bryant, U. S. N.; J. Caldwell Jenkins, vice president, Black Diamond Steamship Co.; Malcolm M. Stewart, Middle West Foreign Trade committee; Capt. W. J. Petersen, Pacific American Steamship association; James C. Stone, chairman, Federal Farm board (speech read by F. B. Bomberger) ; Joseph P, Ryan, president, Interna- tional Longshoremen’s association: Cleveland A. Newton, general coun- sul, Mississippi Valley association; R. R. Massey, American Merchant Marine Library association. Official proceedings of the con- ference, including all speeches in full, were published in a special sup- plement to the United States Daily in its issue of Jan. 16. Outlook for Foreign Trade Mr. Chapin, the secretary of com- merce, spoke on the outlook for for- eign trade and pointed out that all the nations of the world were in the Same predicament with respect to foreign trade, and that, therefore, there must be some sort of inter- national co-operation. The national- istic character of the barriers to re- sumption of normal world trading, the secretary said, makes it im pos- sible to correct the situation quick- ly and it can only be done gradually by an elimination of the causes that made these emergency measures necessary. One thing that can be done, he said, is for the nations of the world to set their courses in the right direction and an opportunity for do- ing this will be offered by the forth- coming world conference on mone- tary and economic questions to be held next summer, though he warned against the fallacy of be- lieving that it will be a cure all for international trade. He expressed the hope that the difficult question of war debts which is intimately con- nected with trade revival, may be settled at the time the economic conference begins. “If this can be done,” he said, ‘“‘One very great step toward world recovery would have been taken and the economic con- ference will have a measurably greater prospect of solving the problems with which it is confronted.’’ 13.