Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-02
SIDE-SWIPING THE COASTAL
TRADE

TlHE Administration ship purchase bill
l. conceived by Mr.. McAdoo under con
dltlons which no longer exist, IL they ever
did exist, has been amended into q hybrid
sort Of thing which has fangs without
venom and is likely to prove as useless
as It is unnecessary.
| 1t has offered the Democrats, however,
an opportunity to achieve by cunning a
thing which they have been endeavoring
for years, directly or indirectly, to accom-.
pllsh. There is law which prohibits
any ships except those built in America
from engaging in the coastal trade. For
generations that law has stood on the
statute books, its inspiration originally
having been the experience of Great Brit
ain and other maritime nations. Although
this inhibition has prevented no man or
set of men from engaging in the trade by
conforming to the requirements Of the
statute, the Democrats have been pleased
TO believe that a monopoly existed and
that 1t behooved the party, in pursuance
of its wrecklng policy, to drive this mo-
nopoly out OF business. There was one
sure way of doing it, and that was by
substituting a foreign monopoly. for 1t
was apparent that opening the trade to
any ships, no matter where built, would
drive native American industry off the
coast, Just as American shipping was
driven off the high seas by the fatuous
policy of administrations, Republican and
Democratic, which were fooled into be-
lieving that the way to revive and nour-
ish shipping was to hobble It, But the
American people were too shrewd to be
deceived. II everything else was lost,
they still did have their coastal ships, and
they intended to keep them. So they re-
fused to sanction legislation devised to
deny the coastal trade that protection
which for decades it had enjoyed and
under which 1t had flourished.
DuI hO" lllS SullllAIlb Va NliO 4ISAiloSAo oNo
asserts itself They have seen IN the
shipping bill an opportunity to attain
their purpose. They have inserted a
seemingly innocent clause authorizing the
Government to purchase foreign ships not
only for the foreign trade, but also for
the coastal trade. The plan is so simple,
An American citizen cannot buy a for
eign ship and use it in the coast trade,
but under the proposed law the Govern
ment could buy such ships. lease them to
the private citizen and so accomplish the
one thing against which American senti.
ment and policy have been set for CEN
tury.
The President has declared that the re-
habilitation OF the American merchant
marine is a prime necessity. Leading
members OF his party have so expressed
themselves. There is not, we believe, any
American opinion which indorses an op-
posite course. Yet here we have scheme
10 at lnc NSly lASdII VI "lldI
we have, to drive 1t from the seas and
destroy the nucleus around which must
be formed the new marine we are so
anxious TO get. The ship purchase bill,
the very thing which is supposed to have
as its purpose the restoration OF the flag
on the oceans. is being used as the instru-
ment for the prevention OF that Identical
purpose. II 1t is not trickery. It ap-
proaches it very closely.
Unless the Democratic party is to con-
vict itself OF bad faith. or even OF double
dealing. it must join with the Republi-
cans in excising from the pending bill
this wholly indefensible and inexcusable
clause. The President could not. we be-
lieve, knowingly indorss 1t otherwise.
Nor should our local trade bodies be
backward in forwarding their prompt
protests against this legislation, for its
text is a cipher that spells ruin for the
American marine and for American ship
yards which have only just begun to
thrive.