Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-01-05
SHIP PURCHASE BILL
Senate Committee Submits Unusually
Strong Report.

|
Strong Report.
Initiating the aggressive fight to be
! waged in congress for the passage Of
the government ship purchase bill to
free American commerce from Euro
pean war limitations, majority men,
bers of the senate commerce COM
mittee on Wednesday. filed a report
recommending the measure In vigor-
GUS terms and transmitting a COM
mandatory letter from Secretary Of
Commerce Redfeld.
The committee report, filed by
Acting Chairman Fletcher, quoted the
| report submitted Tuesday, by Secre-
taries McAdoo and Redfeld, showing
| enormous increases in ocean trans
portation rates since the war began
and attendant falling Off in ocean ton
mage facilities. The committee pre-
dicted that enactment Of the ship
purchase bill would go far to relieve
that situation.
"Unquestionably," says the report
III we had additional ships under
the American flag, the situation would
improve and much Of the distress Of
not only in the south but throughout
the country would be relieved. The
need Is urgent"
Secretary Redfleld, in his letter,
written to Senator Fletcher to accom-
pany the report, declared that for
years the United States ocean ship
ping had been in the hands Of its COM
petitors like a department store
without any delivery system except
such as competitors were willing to
supply" The result was easy to be
foreseen, he argued, when 20 years
ago, American goods displaced Ger
man products in second place among
South African sales and American iron
and steel entered into keen compe-
tition abroad with German and Eng
lish products.
"You cannot imagine Germany or
England continuing permanently to
transport on favorable terms to US
American goods on any such scale as
to seriously threaten German or Eng
lish Industrial markets" the letter
continued.
Like an ostrich with It's head in the
| sand, We have put our money and
merchandise at risk Of the war.
American capital invested in ships un-
der European flags can be and has
been destroyed by the acts Of hostile
cruisers. Two vessels under foreign
flags on their way to be transferred to
our flag, were thus sunk. American
| capital in goods transported in ves-
sells under foreign flags, which were
| not owned by American capital, has
been lost or injured when such ves-
sells have been sunk or held up and
American goods for which Americans
long since paid are today lying in for
eign harbors.
1--WE know now that our commerce
while ocean-borne Is subject to war
risks not Of our making, but by which
we suffer. The time has been when
war risks shut off the movement Of
American wheat and delayed the
movement Of American cotton and 1t
is quite within the range Of probable
ity that such a time may re-occur.
An American merchant marine Is
necessity and cannot be had soon
enough to relieve us from the jeopardy
in which we have stood and in which
in some measure we now stand.
Indeed, so vital Is the present time
to America that 1t seems as II we were
in the very transition from being a
debtor to a creditor nation and the
possibility opens to our lending that
hand of financial fellowship to our
fellow republics in Latin America
which they so much need and by
winch we Should tie them TO ourSelV-
es in commercial bands Of steel
which would endure to the great gain
Of all our people.
mot only are our goods hampered
by absence Of shipping, but they also
are hampered by the rates which are
out of our control, but which are now
charged on such shipping as takes
place. Our competitors. who control
our ocean terminal facilities (for such
and no more are ocean steamship COM
panies as related to railways), have
seen fit for their own profit to ad-
vance their rates from one-half to
double or more. There are ports In
Europe today that eagerly seek our
cotton and we know that our breth-
rem in the south anxiously desire to
sell their cotton and the price abroad
is such as our producers would be
thankful to receive. Between these
two stands the excessive rate and the
scarcity Of ships. The reasons must
be mighty and compelling which
would lead any one to interpose be-
tween the floor Of American COM
merce seeking to be free and the needs
of foreign buyers seeking for our
products the interest of any one or
two or more groups Of our people"