The Alaska daily empire., 1915-09-21
.LEAvE NIL ENoUaH ALoNE."

In am editorial by Henry Watterson The Louis ve CourerJournal advises the President to drop the shipping bin which was brought forward and defeated at the last session of Congress. MT. watterson be- neves lhat Che bn if passed win split the Democrat c party breed scandal in the Treasury and threaten to compromise the President himself He brands it as undemocratc at war with the principles of Jefferson redoent Of Federalism and corruption, slippery scr did money job and various other shocking things which
 were entirely unsuspected by the President the Secre tary of the Treasury. the Secretary of Commerce. nearly am the Democrats in Congress and the great mass or Democrats throughout the country at the time tho bin was up last winter. But The CourierJournol' sees an these things plainly and even goes so far as to intimate that Secretary McAdoo may be slippery, sordld money iobber. haHng from the financial jun ses Wall Street and bent leading the President O devious course
 But in studying The CourierJournal's ouburst we fail to find anything more than bare intmation of what ought to be done to grasp the magnificent OppOr tunities now presenting themselves in South America This iutmatou is contained the suggestion that the shipping bin will cause private capital to hesitate and that the sooner the shipping bm is dropped the sooner the shipping interests win begin to harken and organ ize for themselves 1T this is intended to mean any thing positive u means that the shipping question shall be left right where has always been It is the advice of Q donothng and that advice is repeated when Col Watterson says referring to the President "If he be a wise and true man he win his bark in the mid de of the stream doing his best with the foreign prob lens as they arise and as to home problems leaving well enough alone7
 But there are some things that are not well enough and win not be left alone. except by political towards One of these things the shipping question To cap ture the South American trade now lying wide open to American business men. ships needed that win establish routes and assure the merchants of the two continents or regular saiings The old system under which the cities of the United States way-ports for ships operating between South America and Europe has been attacked by the banking law, which pro vides an anAmerican banking system for all America American carriers serving American interests first will complete the assault upon European domination Of trade between the Americas We waited 50 years for the shipping interests to hearten and organize and will wait stin longer if The CourerJournals advice is ta- ken but the business interests and the thinking people are in no mood for continuance of that policy. In stead of waiting for che shipping interests they believe this country should go forward in it's own interest and there is a further good reason for doing so.
 The Navy Department has informed the Secretary of the Treasury that in order bring che to its maximum efficiency in time of war the government would require about 400 merchantmen having gross tonnage Of considerably more 100000 There is no such supply of ships available for by the navy at this time and these must be provided or the navy must take it's chances of being able to go into the market as was done at the time of the Spanish War, and buy ships at emergency prices.
 The shipping bill as it was formulated at the last session of Congress would meet this want at least in part