Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-08-01
Mobilizing Our Man Power to Fill
Our Merchant Ships
BY EDWARD N HURLEY
Chairman United States Shipping Board
Chairman United States Shipping Board
BY EDWARD N. HURLEY


With something like 100000 tons of merchant shipping to be employed
inside of two years, the United States Shipping Board feels that it is non too
early to look around for cargoes, both in this country and abroad. With the
task of building the ships in charge of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, under
the leadership of Charles NJ schwab, this function of the United States Ship
ping Board begins to attain prominence and that lis what the shipping board
was originally created for by Congress.
twenty-five million tons is a lot of shipping. In n voyage these ships
would carry all the live stock, dressed meats packinghouse products. poultry,
game, fish, wool, hides, and leather carried on u railroads in ne year. In
less than five trips they would carry our whole yearly railroad haul of grain,
-four cotton, hay fruit vegetables, and other farm products in three and one
half trips all Our lumber; in seven trips all Our manufactured goods; in six
teen trips all our coal and coke The total tonnage hauled on our railroads is
about 1,2O0OOo0OO tons.
So amid all his splendid eforti in producing equipment to. win the war;.
the American manufacturer must be asked to take thought for tomorrow and
think in terms of shipping and foreign trade. This might appear like a dis
traction now-sOmething which will take the attention from the supreme duty
of winning the war. But far from being a distraction, it fits in with wa pro.
ducion and war psychology. While or factories and factory employees IRE
building "a material today they are also building foreign trade, if W can
only see things whole and make factor work with another.
When the business man turns his attention to export trade he looks abroad
and thinks of foreign customers. But foreign trade actually begins in his own
factory. He looks abroad and studies such factors as ocean reights foreign
exchange, export packing, and international craftsmanship. If he would look
into his own factory first, and study factors close at hand, such as labor turn
over, wages, manufacturing costs and efficiency, he would be laying solid
foundations for export trade.
In a recent study of factors that make successful, lasting foreign trade,
Prof. Taussig places first of all the element Of manufacturing effectiveness
as he calls ii, which he defines as a combination of capital, labor, invention,
sal@manship, and transportation, all working together under frtrate bust
nessl leadership, to make goods capable of holding markets in competition with
the products of other nations. These elements of effectiveness ire largely
right at hand in our factories 1T is not necessary to send anybody abroad to
find them. And as an illustration of how nations make mistakes in trying to
build foreign trade at the other end, Prof Taussig shows that real effectiveness
in manufacturing almost invariably holds its own against artificial devices for
building foreign trade, such as export bountes, special railroad rates on *
port shipments, cut prices, discriminatory tariffs etc.
With the bugaboo of cheap foreign labor haunting u in former years, we
got into the way of thinking that export trade neceSitated some lowering Of
wages and American living standards. Probably that vas crooked thinking
before the var Certainly it is crooked thinking now, for the var is bringing
other nations closer to our American standards of wages and living.
True development of foreign trade in or factories means better and bet
ter American standards.
In most of the countries of the world there will be a decided shortage Of
labor after the war. That country will best succeed which protect its wokmen
by improving their living conditions, guaranteeing a fair return for labor,
protecting workmen and their families against accidents and idlenes, and
making workers better citizens. The country taking those measures will be
the country that develops and makes products most economically, and will per-
form a world service by making goods a the prices fair to other nations
Nobody has yet suggested sending cheap American soldiers we to France
to win the war. Our men at arms ire the pick of the country, physically and
mentally. We take plenty of time to train them, make them specialists in every
branch Of fighting. We study them individually to find which ire best suited
for flying, or signalling, or bombing, or bayonet fighting. We recognize that
modern war 81 swift game constantly changing and that our soldiers must be
prepared to learn new trades and new tricks from month TO month, and we get
ready to teach them these new trades. and also put them in a receptive attitude
toward improvements in the fighting game. We feed them like fighting cocks,
and spare 10 expense in clothing them or providing the latest fighting tools.