The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-22
Boom In British Shipping Due to Enalands Sea Power
ny JOHN s. STEELE

| listed. not from any great patriotism,
 but just because they were fed up with 1 all work and no play which Is the rule , just now in shipbuilding town"
 l l have asked a number of ship owners | and builders if they consider that this boom is likely to last, and their answer 1 Is one which should be taken to heart by
 the United States. They one and all de-
 clared that this was only the beginning
 Of period of prosperity of which no man | can foresee tho end. The answers may
 be summarized as follows.
 l We are going to control the sea-carry- 1 ing trade of the world after this war. Why should we not, for we will have no serious competition? Germany was our
 chief competitor. but she Is swept off the sea, and will not be able to come back I for generation at least. Japan will I compete In the far east but she has a I long way to go before her competition becomes serious. America might be | serious competitor but she will have to
 change her entire shipping policy before | she is worth considering. At present she
 can't buy ships in foreign markets be- cause the law doesn't allow her to sail 1 such ships under the American flag. She cant build as cheaply as we can here. l so that she Is handicapped from the start. l Even if she overcame that handicap there I is still the fact that the laws for the
 
 scale, and all sorts of other regulations make an American ship so expensive to 1 run that it cannot compete in the worlds | freight markets. Shipping is a trade un- | like any other. America can protect her workmen at home by a tariff, but her sailors go abroad to work, and must come into competition with those of all the world"
 The immense importance oV sea power Is exempified not only in this present prosperity of England, but In all his- tory In all the history of the world no nation ever attained greatness which did not control the sea. Carthage, to quote very early example, only fell after the Romans had defeated her fleet. Rome herself conquered the world be- cause of her ability to transport her troops by sea to the ends of the known earth. Venice attained commercial great ness by her command of the sea and Fur key. when she overran Europe, did so because of her sea power. When Spain | ruled the new world and was the great est power in the old world, she did because her sailors commanded all the oceans, and her power was broken by Drake and Frobisher, Englands great sea fighters. who realized that their coun- try could not attain to greatness until it commanded the sea.
 Even Germany today. which is chiefly | dSSotidttu III 1ltll illlfluS Nlln DTOWesS
 in land fighting owes much of it's great
 ness to it's power. No one realized
 this more than the Kaiser. who has al-
 ways done all in his power to encourage
 the growth of both the German navy and
 the German mercantile marine. He real
 ized that the one is essential to the other
 and that without a great mercantile ma
 rine no nation can hope to have e great
 navy. The one Is the nursery and the
 training ground for the other England,
 thanks to her great mercantile marine,
 never has any difficulty in manning the
 gf ei test navy that the world has ever
 seen and of doing so at a minimum of
 cost Because of her mercantile marine
 she can maintain a naval reserve which
 Is more than equal to all calls on it. Be-
 fore the outbreak of the war, for in
 stance most of her second-lne ships were only half manned. and her third line ships
 were only manned with what are known
 as nucleus crews-just enough men to keep the ships clean and the machinery in
 working order When the call for mob- ilzation went out, England was able to man every one of these ships with men
 who not only had learned their trade in the navy, but who, thanks to the oppor- tunities of sea employment offered by the mercantile marine had not grown rusty in 1t. She was able to draw on the of- flcers of the mercantile marine for all SUI tS Ol duhlilftIy WOTh III coHDtttloH Wltn the fleet, and when all the vacant places had been filled up, she had reserve so great that some thousands of them are being trained as naval brigade for use | in land fighting when they are required. | Thus 1t Is that the loss of a battleshp l with over 1000 men, although terrible in | it's destruction of life. does not serious | ly weaken the personnel of the British | navy. Great Britain has an inexhaustible | store of seamen to draw on in her mer- | cantile marine.
 And, of course, it must not be forgot ten that the mercantile marine in it's turn | owes it's continued existence to the navy. | Germany's experience in this war has | proved that. The weakness of the Ger man navy has caused the death of the | German mercantile marine, at the same | time that the strength of the British navy | has given life to that of Britain, and | that the strength of the mercantile ma rine has made the greatness of the Brit ish navy possible
 When the history of the present swar comes to be written I am sure that the navy will receive it's proper place in es- the importance of the various factors which contributed to success A |