New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-10-17
Mr.. McAdoo's Sophistry.


Most simpler minded persons have i'm
agined that national defence was an end
in itself. But according To the logic OF
the ingenious Mr.. McAdoo. the true end
of a national defence programme seems
10 be 10 give the Federal government an
excuse for spending S50,000.O00 for the
purpose Of acquiring and operating big
feet Of merchant vessels.
Mr.. McAdoo must put very con-
temptuous valuation on the intelligence
Of the fresh water voters 10 whom he IS
trying 10 impart some notion of the
merits Of his government ship purchase
scheme Otherwise he would have avoided
the boomerang arguments which he used
the other evening at indianapolis. In
his speech in that city he tried 70 make
his hearers think that the governments
intervention as a ship owner and builder
is absolutely indispensable if the navy IS
ever 10 get the fleet Of auxiliaries which
would be needed in case Of war. That Is
a begging Of the question which can de-
ceiye only the most ignorant
The Secretary of the Treasury says
that Admiral Benson told him last winter
that auxilaries Of 1,172,000 tonnage would
be needed in case of war. But tonnage
Of 100000 is already available, according
10 the admiral's statement. Only 472,OOO
tons would be required TO make up all de-
fciencies, and common sense would prompt
any intelligent person to ask why the extra
472,OOO tons could not be secured by
slight acceleration of the economic forces
which have produced the existing 100000.
Our laws provide now for an auxiliary
navy composed Of merchant ships TO which
the government pays mail subventions. If
Congress had been willing TO grant little
larger subventons and open new mail
routes 10 South America, Asia and Aus
tralia we should now have more than the
l.I72.00 tons Of auxiliaries needed by the
navy. What is the use Of investing
$50 1000 900 in a government-operated mer-
chant marine when an expenditure Of one
tenth of that sum in subventions would
induce private capital to build all the
auxiliaries desired and pledge their use to
the nation in war time?
How have the other great naval powers
obtained their auxiliary fleets? Every one
Of them has followed the simple, econom-
ical method of substituting private lines
and making private capital do the lions
share Of the work of preparation for war
contingencies No nation which wanted to
create a merchant marine subsidiary TO
its navy has ever thought Of resortlng to
the clumsy, costly experiment which Mr..
McAdoo advocates with such childlike en-
thusiasm He puts the cart before the
horse. 1t is not the creation Of the aux
iliarv feet but the expenditure Of the
s5O.OOO.O00 out Of the Treasury which
seems to him to be the crying need Of the
situation.
Ii is a parody on reasoning TO argue
that the government must become a ship
builder and ship owner because the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company has just sold
its liners on the Pacific. Those liners were
sold because Congress passed the oppres-
sive La Toilette scamen's law. Government
al action alone drove them from the trans
pacific trade. They would still be con
Quoting that service, over whose termina-
ton Mr.. McAdoo sheds crocodile tears, II
the President had had the courage to
veto the La Toilette act, instead of sign
ing it and then attempting TO escape ITS
evil effects in part by having department
law officers construe it out of its natural
meaning.
A very moderate aid given TO our mer-
chant marine would revive it and pro
vide more auxiliary tonnage than the navy
asks for. But 70 revert TO that practical
matter-of fact plan would be to admit that
the administration grievously deceived it.
self when it plunged last winter on the
ship purchase BILL Pride Of opinion is g
costly luxury. Rather than confess
blunder, the administration will 80 on try
ing to persuade the country TO sink fit,
million good dollars in a perfectly super
fluous and proftless enterprise.