Norwich bulletin., 1918-10-15
HOW FARMERS LINE UP
 WITH MERCHANT MARINE

Farming is the greatest American business. The new merchant ships we are building promise great benefit to farming Therefore. it is important that farmers begin to learn something about ships and the American mer- chant marine.
 The farmer is a practical business man. Tell him that a new railroad is coming into his section and he would see the business value immediately.
 Our merchant marine is railroad ex- tension-new railroads running from every farm section in the country out over the ocean along the worlds trade routes
 A good way to learn what the American merchant marine will do for the nation is to compare merchant ships with railroad trains. ocean ! transportation is furnished by four kinds of steamships:
 Big passenger and mail liners 1 correspond to limited passenger trains. 1 These ships carry little ca&go. The l only routes upon which they are suc- 1 cessfully operated in normal times are 1 those between the United States, Great Britain and Europe.
 1 2-Passenger and cargo steamships tcarry passengers heavy trade on Irregular lines, as between the United States and South America, the Orient, | etc. They correspond to ordinary passenger trains and by fast regular service are highly useful ip building
 trade in fine manufacturedSeo foods and 1 furnishing foreign customers good mercantile service.
 1 3-Cargo liners carry freight only. but at good speed and over regular ] routes. They correspond to fast freight l trains and like the passenger and l cargo liners require good organization of shipping facilities, port equipment
 and foreign trade
 | 4--Tramp cargo steamships running at moderate speed are the ordinary freight trains of ocean traffic They do not travel on regular routes o1 schedules but are chartered from port to port according to freight available and go all over the world as seasons change and commodities are ready ir different countries. It is estimated that fully two-thirds of the tonnage on the ocean consists of tramp steam ers.s
 The United States will have ships tc
 carry every farm commodity. It will have ships to build new markets iE fancy farm commodities such as fruit
 breeding animals and dairy products
 etc. Our merchant marine will no ctl1y u6N0lOp cuSlOn]6TS abroad fOl farm products. but will be linked tC our farming sections by the develop
 ment of inland waterways and branci railroads. Moreover, they will benefi
 the farmer by bringing back iron
 other countries many Of the materials
 needed in his business, such as fbel for binder twine, nitrates and potasf
 for fertilizer, metals needed in makins
 farm machinery. and the like
 AS business man the farmer doe
 not need to be reminded of the impor
 tance Of transportation. He know.
 that railroad transportation opened Il,
 most of the, present farming area. il
 this country after the Civil war H.
 knows what railroad transportation means to him in mal keting his prod 1 ucts.
 The American merchant marin
 means to farmers a new form of trans portatlon to reach even more distan
 markets. It means perhaps a 25 pc
 cent increase in our railroad facilities It means that lis products delivered
 at his railroad station can now reacl any country in the world in Americal bottoms, at rates controlled by Ameri cans and with American speed ant service. ? In other words, the American mer } chant marine means to the America ] farmer-better business! And that i , 1 about all one has to say about such E business proposition to such a bushes : |