The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-02-17

securing genuine advantage and
their success in the war injured or jeo-
pardized by the entrance. OF this Gov
eminent into the carrying trade might
regard whatever understanding they
may have had with us. as did the Ger
mans the Belgian treaty-"merely a
scrap OF paper" They would brush
aside as trivial this legal fiction OF
corporation" set up by the lawyers
of this Government.
Emergency Measure.
The promoters of this bill tell US
that 1t is an emergency measure. de-
signed mainly, IL not solely, to relieve
the congested condition Of oversee
traffic at the present time, but they
studiously avoid fixing definite time
for disposing of these purchased ships
and of getting out of busineys.
How, then, is this emergency pro
posed to be met? Either informed
boats owned by belligerents must be
purchased with all the attendant COM
plications or they must be built, be-
cause all other vessels are carrying
their full capacity, and to purchase
those already engaged in service
would in nowise benefit or remedy con-
ditions. If it is not the policy of the
Government under this bill to purs
chase these interned vessels of the
| combatants, and If 1t be true that the
rates are so excessively high, then
necessarily the owners of all the YES
sells now engaged in the traffic must
be reaping harvests so rich that none
! of them would care to sell at fair
valuation II the Government sought
to purchase. The only course, then,
left open to the Government, would be
to have them built. / am informed
that it would require at least 16
months for the shipbuilders to I'LL the
order. The $40,000,000 to be invested
under this plan would give our Gov
eminent merchant marine OF about
80 ships ready for service. say. in
about one year and a half. Under
normal conditions it requires on an
average of about so days for ship to
be loaded at the home port, make the
i voyage, be unloaded in the foreign
port, to take on cargo, make the re-
turn voyage, to unload, to be reloaded,
and ready for another voyage, one YES
sci thus making about six trips a year.
Under present congested conditions,
however, the number OF trips would
probably not exceed four or five, If
vessels were available now. Then, II
the purpose of the Government is &C
tually to relieve this immediate con
gested business condition, is this not
pftable, and, viewed solely from a
practical standpoint, futile effort!
Any emergency which may now exist
will have passed long before this bill
could possibly become effective, and
the vessels provided either by pur
chase or construction.
Economically unsound.
AS business proposition this meas
. ure can not be defended. It must be
| conceded-in fact, it is conceded-that
as such it is a failure, and would b.
; doomed to bankruptcy but for the
! backing of the Federal Treasury. Sc
apparent is this that it is freely ad
mitted that private capital can not b.
: induced to take the 40 per cent OF the
: stock, or, in fact, any part, for which
iC is permitted to subscribe, and thu
l Government will be compelled to go i
alone, take all the stock, furnish al
the money.
If the Government corporation IN
dertakes to purchase the vessels re
: quired by it at this time. when, owini
to the war, freight rates have ad
l vanced so rapidly, the price paid mus
: be correspondingly higher, and doubt
t less from so to 100 per cent in exces
> of what they could be purchased 70
I under normal conditions, unless it
S proposed to tempt fate and throw dis
q erection to the winds and purchase IL
d termed ships owned by the warning ns
tons. This Government-owned col
d poration would then begin business b
investing it's capital on a rising maj
ket in vessels at enhanced prices an
o be compelled to sell on a declinin
y market. Having purchased these vel
: sells at exhorbitant prices, when tn
S war is oyer and the law of supply an
T demand bring freight rates down {
l. the ordinary level, then, il II be col
: templated for this corporation to r,
tire from business and turn its vessel
It over to private concerns, as the spol
l. sors OF this bill aver Is the expects
s. ton, are we not sure to have a rep
e tition in the disparity of the purchas
s price and selling price as was exper
It enced with the vessels purchased
J. the Government during the SPANS
II War, with which we are all familia
e when many of such vessels sold Il
J. less than per cent OF the purchas
n price, and this deficit which this Go
% ernment-owned corporation will su
le tain, and from which the shipper an
10 exporter alone will benefit, will hay
Is to be supplied by the taxation OF ii
At whole people. This difference
ID tween the purchase and selling priC
1T which the Government will supply.
At it anything more than subsidy in di
in guise?
is Am !, as a representative Of the pc
O pie of Kentucky, authorized to vo
III to tax my people to raise these m
II lions which will only benefit the e
porters? Nearly every bushel Of gra
al and pound of cotton or farm produ,
is now out of the hands of the pr
IS Queer and in the hands of the e
Id porter, or will be shortly. The freig
is is paid by the purchaser on the 9th
as side, not by the farmer.
OF 1t is well known-and a practic
IL demonstration of the fact Is broug
OF to our notice every day-that Cover
IL ment management and operation
as vastly more expensive than priva
sn management. No sensible person W
us for a moment contend that corpol
sc ton managed by Cabinet officers, wi
"a no especial adaptation or technic
Isl skill or knowledge In shipping, c.
conduct its business in competiti