The weekly soliphone., 1915-02-26
CLARKE DEFENDS RECORD
ON ship PURCHASE BILL

| al Z hOL W UC pei lllttCu W tdhS up d
pound of freight at one port in the
United States and deliver it at an
other.
| The chief contention made in proof
of this alleged emergency is as to the
movement of cotton. About 1920
I 600 bales of cotton grown in the
south go for spinning to New England
ports; but this bill intended to meet
an emergency, to transport promptly
and more directly than can be other
wise done by private ship owners, cot
ton cannot be carried on these ships
from the Gulf ports to the consum-
say, a ship load of cotton may not
be taken from New Orleans, Calves
ton, Savannah, or Charleston and de-
livered at Fall River or any port
along the New England coast under
this proposed law. 1t seems to me
that there must be some excuse, that
there must be some explanation for
that. The only one that l have heard
preferred was by a senator here, who
said that by including provision ad-
mitting ships purchased by the gov
! ernment to the coastwise trade in the
proposed law, they would encounter
opposition that they did not care to
reckon with, nor hope to cope with
successfully. | presume he referred
to the coastwise shipping monopoly,
one of the most insolent and COM
pletely law-protected monopolies on
this continent, and one that has op-
pressed the people of this country
more than any other twice its mag
nitude, as everybody who knows any
thing about current affairs knows to
be true. Why that particular trust
should have been spared, why con-
test with that particular trust should
have been declined and foreclosed te-
hind the closed doors of a democrat
/ ic caucus, is a burden of candor that
rests on somebody and that must be
discharged at some time. 1t Sc 2ms
that we have at least found one trust
that the democratic party is afraid to
grapple with at close quarters.
Now, a word about my refusing II
1t l. Tn, or4
when the appalling consequences Of
this European war had not so clearly
defined themselves as at the present
time, l thought that it was simply a
question of transportation to get the
cotton that was produced in he
south, and the wheat and the corn
and the meat of the west, to the con
suming markets of Europe, and fell
in promptly with the idea that #, for
any reason, the shipping offered ry
private owners was not adequate TO
meet that demand, it would be Moth
ing more than the governments du-
ty to supply it temporarily
The matter has now been delayed
until that emergency mas coma and
gone, as l see it. OF course, I have
only a surface knowledge about the
facts and details of the shipping busi-
ness, but this has been obtained from
reliable public and private sources.
I But it seems to me that when wheat
I brings dollar and sixty cents a
! bushel it is about time to keep it al
home, for every time an additional
million bushels is exported 10 cents
bushel goes on the price of the
more than 600,O00,000 bushels con
sumed at home.
SO far as cotton is concerned, the
exports during the months of Deem
Der and January were in excess OF
those of any year since the cotton in
dustry was first inaugurated. There
has been more cotton shipped during
those two months than in any two
months in the history of the world
There was adequate shipping found
for that even under all the Difficult
ties of the existing situation. There
may be an explanation for that, but
the foundation and undisputed fac
is that the shipping was found with
out government participation.
1t is said that the prices of ship
ping are excessive. That is a techni
cal matter that has been explained
by others, and / shall not detain tht
senate at this time to go into it; bu
want to say that it is like the an
swer that Mark Twain gave to the
1 reporters who inquired as to whether
or not the rumor that he was deat
was true, when he said that the re
port was very much exaggerated. Th'
rate from Galveston to Liverpool OF