Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1915-02-12


studiously avoid fixing definite time
for disposing of these purchased ships
and of getting out of business.
How, then, is this emergency pro
posed to be met? Either interned
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. II it is not the policy of the
under this bill to pu--
chase these interned vessels of the
and if it be true that the
-ates 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 a fair
valuation il the Government sought
to purchase. The only course, then,
left open to the Government, would be
to have them built. l am informed
that it would require at least l6
months for the shipbuilders to fill the
order. The s4O,O00,OOO to be invested
under this plan would give our Gov
ornment a 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 60 days for a ship to
be loaded at the home port, make the
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 year.
Under present congested conditions,
however, the number of trips would
probably not exceed four or five, if
vessels were available now. Then, if
the purpose of the Government is &C
tually to relieve this immediate con-
sested business condition, is this not
a pitable. and, viewed solely from a
practical standpoint, a futile effort?
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. 1t must be
conceded-in fact, 1t is conceded-that
as such it is a failure, and would be
doomed to bankruptcy but for the
backing Of the Federal Treasury. So
apparent is this that it is freely ad-
mitted that private capital can not be
induced to take the 40 per cent of the
stock, or, in fact, any part, for which
il is permitted to subscribe, and the
Government will be compelled to go it
alone, take all the stock, furnish all
the money.
II the Government corporation IN
Gertakes to purchase the vessels re-
1uired by it at this time, when, owing
tC the war, freight rates have ad-
vanced so rapidly, the price paid must
be correspondirgly higher, and doubt
less from so to 100 per cent in excess
of what they could be purchased for
under normal conditions, unless it is
proposed to tempt fate and throw dis
cretion to the winds and purchase in
.erned ships owned by the warning ma
lions. This Government-owned cor
poration would then begin business by
investing its capital on a rising mar
ket in vessels at enhanced prices and
be compelled to sell on a declining
market. Having purchased these YES
sells at exhorbitant prices, when the
war Is over and the law of supply and
demand bring freight rates down to
the ordinary level, then, IL it be con-
templated for this corporation to re-
tire from business and turn it's vessels
over to private concerns, as the spon-
sors of this bill aver is the expecta-
ton, are We not sure to have a repe-
tition in the disparity Of the purchase
price and selling price as was expert
enced with the vessels purchased by
the Government during the Spanish
War, with which We are all familiar,
when many of such vessels sold for
less than 5 per cent of the purchase
price, and this deficit which this Gov.
ernment-owned corporation will sus-
tain, and from which the shipper and
exporter alone will benefit, will have
to be supplied by the taxation of the
whole people. This difference be-
tween the purchase and selling price
which the Government will supply, is
it anything more than a subsidy in dis,
guise?
Am I, as a representative of the peo-
pie of Kentucky, authorized to vote
to tax my people to raise these mil,
lions which will only benefit the ex.
porters? Nearly every bushel of grain
md pound Of cotton or farm produce
now out of the hands of the pro
lUcer and in the hands of the ex.
porter, or will be shortly. The freight
: paid by the purchaser on the other
side, not by the farmer.
It is we'll known-and a practical
demonstration of the fact is brought
o our notice every day-that Govern
ucHL hdhd6Ohloht anu OPCidti IL
vastly more expensive than private
management. No sensible person will
sor a moment contend that a corpora
ion managed by Cabinet officers, with
10 especial adaptation or technical
skill or knowledge in shipping, can
conduct it's business in competition
with a company or corporation man.
aged by men who have given a life
time study to it's mastery and are
familiar with every detail OF the bust
less. Besides, Government ownership
always will have more or less politics
and favoritism injected which of itself
will largely detract from, if not prac.
tically destroy, it's efficiency.