The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-02
SHIP SUBSIDY BILL
 ID BE PASSED UPON Will Cause Hard Fight in
 Congress CUMMINGS IS OPPOSED May Present Substitute Bill of Ills Own and Recommend Government Build own Line of Freight
 CTS and General Ships

N1tN~-NN'/
 When Congress is reconvened next week.
 one of the most important pieces of leg
 islation that is to be immediately started
 will be the ship subsidy bill. It is to have
 the right-of-way on the Senate side of
 the capitol and under an agreement made
 fast spring 1t is expected a vote will be taken before the end of January. There is going to be hard fight over
 the measure notwithstanding that Pres
 ident Taft is with 1t and that South
 American mail subsidy is one of the
 things that he has upon his legislative programme. Still the leaders in the Sen
 ate are hopeful of passing it and leaving it to the House to defeat 1t if the House dares to do so.
 There is to be a new kind of opposi- | ton of the Senate side, however-opposi- | ton that will originate with Senator All bert B. Cummings of Iowa in the shape of substitute bill embodying his own ideas. The Iowan has another Iowa idea up his sleeve that he is ready to turn loose when he considers the proper mo-
 ment has arrived and which he at least hopes some of the other insurgent Sen ators will support, especially those from the middle west, where there is the great est opposition to the ship subsidy Dill Senator Cummins' new idea is this: That the government, instead of sub-
 sidizing private vessels, should build its
 own line of freighters and general ships'
 particularly for the South American
 trade. He would have the government
 begin a general career of government
 ownership by owing freighters to South
 American ports with general ownership
 of railroad and telegraph companies to
 come in.
 In order to build his government line
 of freighters for South American ports,
 Senator Cummins proposes to stop all
 increases in the navy and devote the
 money that would otherwise go to naval
 increases to the building of commercial
 ships The appropriations that are now
 made for increases in the navy average
 about $12OOO,O 900 yearly
 They are theoretically sufficient to add
 two dreadnoughts a year to the fleet,
 but under what is known as the Fitzger-
 ald law, which permits men working on
 government vessels to labor only eight
 hours a day, the actual cost of dread-
 nought is now figured to be S7,200,0O0 in-
 stead of $e,O00,000 each as they were es-
 timated in the appropriations. And as a
 matter of fact the navy department has
 stopped all work on the plans for the
 two ships authorized last year because of the Fitzgerald law and the inability tc build the ships within the appropriations made.
 But getting back to the Cummins idea. The Iowa senator has figured out that the navy Is as strong as i
 should be until it has colliers enough tc take care of those now in commission In a recent conversation he declared that in the event of war the best the battleships could do would be to gel few hundred miles from shore ant then become helpless for lack of fuel Therefore. he would build no more battleships but would take the $12,000,. 900 yearly and build freighters with il -freighters that could be turned into colliers in time of war and which would be merchantmen in time of peace do ing a general freight and passenger business and making a subsidy unneces sary to the restoration of the Amer
 ican flag to the high seas.
 Ships for the South American freigh and passenger trade, MT. Cummns de clares, can be built for $S00,000 each ol thereabouts. He does not say they would be floating palaces like the At lantic liners, but good serviceable yes sells would do very well for the trade and make satisfactory colliers In time of need Therefore, for the $12,000, ,O0t appropriated yearly for battleships, the government could build yearly 15 oi these freighters and in two years have a fleet of 30 of them, all earning money instead of requiring large sums fol their up-keep
 The Iowan says such thing woult be no new departure for the govern ment. as it already has in commis- sion four such ships--the four that ply between New York and Panama, carry | ing material for the canal in the first instance, but also accepting botf freight and passengers and. in fact doing a general business and showing a good profit under the management oi | the war department.
 | And in this way, he says. the govern ment could avoidN subsidies, could strengthen the navy in the way 1t most needs strengthening and also could make a start in government ownership | to which he believes it must surely come at last, and. therefore, the sooner the start is made the better. Gov ernment ownership of railroads. he then believes, will follow as a matter oi course.
 The Cummins' idea has not yet been put in the form of bill, but 1t will be. And, whether he is really sincere in his effort or Is only taking that means of opposing a subsidy bill, re-