Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-02-12
SHAW PLEADS FOR
MERCHANT MARINE
Former Secretary of the Treasury De-
cares Battleshipe Are Useless
Without Vessels to Supply
Them with Coal
BY Associated Press.


MARSHALL, Mich. Feb. 11.-EverS
available seat was taken tonight a
the annual banquet Of the Calhoun
County Lincoln club, at which former
Secretary of the Treasury Leslie NJ
Shaw and Second Assistant Postmaster
speakers. Mr.. McCleary. in speaking
on present Day Problems" devoted
considerable attention to the fact thai
the auxiliary fleet carrying coal ano
supplies for the battleship cruise to the
Pacific sailed under many foreign flags
ana he urged the building up Of mer-
chant marine.
Former Secretary Shaw was greeted
with a burst of applause when he was
introduced. Mr.. Shaw said in part:
"As soon as industrial activity is
restored, whether it be in the neal
future or at the end of the quadren-
mum, our transportation facilities VIII
be again INADEQUATE. Within decade
our railway tonnage has increased lit
per cent, while the capitalization of all
freight roads has Increased
only 80 per cent. This Sc per cent in
cludes, of course, all the water that has
been injected into the grand aggregate
of railroad capitalization in ten years.
There is no water, however, in the 1ld
per cent increase in tonnage. There
will be very soon as much need of dup
Heating the tracks of all our trans
continental and interstate railways,
as originally there was for single
tracks.
"Our waterways also must be i'm
proved and a ship canal built from
the lakes to the gulf. Natural re-
sources are of small value without
transportation facilities. Money is now
abundant and obtainable for CONNER
cial purposes at low rates of interest,
but Industrial and transportation enter
prises are unable to borrow at any
price. The restoration of confidence
both at home and abroad. i'll the sta
bility and security of property rights
is a primary essential to the equip
ment soon to become imperative.
Needs Merchant Marine
Agriculture has never been as prof
table as in the last few years. solely
because American labor has found
ready employment at relatively salts
factory wages. If agriculture shall be
equally profitable in the future, the
American artisan must find employ
ment, and that he may find employ
ment his product must be both trans
South Africa and the adjacent islands
consume 81, 0Oo, 200, 900 per annum of i'm
ports, largely manufactures. OF thi:
grand aggregate we furnish approx.
mately IL per cent. The Pacific ocear
washes ports which consume another
81 900, 900, 900 of imports, of which W.
furnish approximately 6 per cent. How
to obtain for the American artisan anc
the American farmer a fair proportion
of these markets are problems pressing
upon us with ever increasing intensity
England, Germany and France eacf
consume about seventy-ive per cent oil
the output of their shops and factories
and they each search the world witt
literally aided merchant marines tt
find markets for their twenty-five pei
cent of surplus. We manufacture al
much as Great Britain, France an6
Germany combined and consume nine
| ty-five per cent of the aggregate, ant
depend upon foreign ships to take oul
| five per cent of surplus and find mar
kets for 1t. We pay out as much II
wages as all the rest of the industrial
world, and a million emigrants from
| the congested centers of the old worlt
annually seek our shores to share thi,
wage. Naturally our factories arr
multiplying more rapidly than ou
farms. In the near future we mus
| find new markets for the products O
| American labor or face problems
which no man dare mention above hi
breath. 1t matters not the sky unde
which a man Is born, whether in Amer
lea, Europe, Asia or Africa, If he cal
secure neither work nor bread he Il
an unsafe citizen, whether armed will
ballot or with something else. ina
our people may find employment ant
| therein find contentment should be tn
first consideration of every patriot.
| 1--WE are spending hundreds of mil
lions for the construction of an 18th
milan canal and the great enterpris
| will be cheap at any cost, provided w
place ourselves in position to make us
| of it when completed, otherwise 1t wi
be dear at any price. II II were 1
operation now its use would be Unite
to foreign merchant ships, the Ameri
can navy and our coastwtse trade.
| I'VE have a navy of which the Amer
lean people are proud. 1t consists G
! battIeships, few torpedo boats, ord
nance, WELL trained and brave Officers
| peerless gunners and well-discipline
! and courageous marines. A peacefr
squadron has recently been sent to tn
Pacific ocean accompanied with TWEEN
lty-seven golfers of foreign construc
ton, floating alien flags.
| lII1ptIdllNc tillNu oSA w
will cost 81 ZOO, 900 every sixty day.
Had a declaration of war preceded tn
expedition, foreign vessels could nc
have been hired nor could they hav
been purchased. Battleships withou
coal are as worthless as without guns
| II all the powder mills in the Unite
states were to work twenty-fou
hours day for thirty days, the prod
uct would last our navy but tw
hours. I am told on the best of au
thority that at least one of our Euro
pean rivals can produce as much pow
der in one day as the United State
can produce in twelve months. Thes
/ facts are as well known to the navs
authorities of Europe and Asia as
the naval department OF the Unite
states, and concerning them both ar
! silent"