The Alaska daily empire., 1915-11-02
sEcRETARY NcADoo's CHALLENGE


 In the fourth instaiaoent of his argument for the purchase by tine government Of ships suitable or naval auxliaries and their use by operating corporation and under private charted relieve our eongested for eign trade Secretary acAdoo throws down Che glove Go the paus opponents Let them take the constructive side wha, have they to express:
 The need Is acute. Am examination of the statis
 lies for the last fiscal gear chat only httle more than oneeighth ol our exports by sea moved In Aer can bottoms The other seveneishths were carried by foreign ships under foreign flags Englanda fleet alone carried more chan oueha of total exports by sea- Her ships carried almost exactly five times as much of our products as did our own And during the past year the rate on wheat to Liverpool cents In normal times has as Secretary McAdoo points out risen to 40 cents How far the war risk has fallen short Of making req sonabie rise o 1000 per cent in freight rates we need rot point out In Che face of Che extortion the Amer can shipper has been helpless for effective means of regulation of ocean rates by law has even been de- vised.
 This is the commercial side of the question Che piieht of nation Of 10oOO0o0o people isposing of sur plus products worth more than and half billion dollars twenty-five hundred milcns-a year. that car ries only oneeghth Of its commerce in it's own ships and is forced to pay the foreigner c times the normal ,ree for ocean carriage In me Of war But there is aeteualNt
 with navy second to none in efficiency. unit for unit in che world: yet che merchant marine of the nation ha. possesses ths navy is SO small that n every ship under the flag sutabue for auxiliary could by some miracle be made instantly in use in the case of war; the whole fleet would supply only 100000 tons out of the necessary 100000 leaving shortage Of 5o00O0 tons.
 In che face Of che situation the administration speaking through the Secretary of the Treasury aOpos es the creation or an auxie-s fleet of 5OOVVO tons thronrh rover,-ae-s purchase This would summagily ssooso , che defensive side of the merchant marine ,solem In addition 1t proposes the formation of an operating company to use these ships in regular service
 where American trade interests suffering It propos es SO to adjust rates as to protect shippers from extor on and to place American producers competitive basis in foreign markets with the shippers of nations possessing large merchant fleets This would form the nucleus of the future American merchant marine whose development can alone solve the commercial problem
 What have the administrators critics to offer?
 In lssS when our navy was much smaller than now the government procured auxiliary fleet by the wholesale purchase Of floating junk any figure the owners conscences permitted them to charge The ves sells he government afterward sold again average 20 per cent Of Che purchase price That is the nearest approach to an effort to solve the auxiliary fleet prob lem the country made in half century. The problem of rehabuiating the merchant marine for commercial purposes has not been faced There is not even ten tative draft plan reposng In the political serapheap
 f we except the old ship subsidy plan that has oeen SO frequently repudiaed by both Republicans and Demo crats.
 This is no time to palter with this question. It is no time to listen the chronic fautfnder or the doctrinare With ireights soaring to 1000 per cent above normal on such basic commodities as wheat with our coal trade actually declining in face of the greatest demand in commercial history with lumber rottng on our wharves for lack Of cargo room to ship 1t, and with merchant marine. which. N every ship were instantly available. would leave war fleet 5oo 900 short of Che necessary auxiliary eraf the ad- ministraton presents to the American people con- structive solution of our shipping difficulties.