The labor standard., 1918-04-15
OLD SEA PORTS
 COME TO LIFE
Revival in Shipping Brings Pros- perity to American Sea-
 board Towns.
ONCE BUSY MARTS OF TRADE
Same Spirit That Made Old Salem Rich Now Seen in Merchant Ma rines's DeveIopment-New
 Ports SpringinQ Up.

rines's Oevelopment-NeW Ports springina Up. WaShington.-Onee effect of the pres
 ent rapid expansion of the American l merchant marine is a sudden and un- l precedented revival of business at cer- 1 tain American ports which a few years ago were thought to have passed their l zenith.
 Bath, Me, is cited as an example. 1 In the prosperous nineteenth century days of sailing ships Bath was the country,s leading shipbuilding port It declined steadily after the introduc-
 ton of steel as building material. Now Bath, building both steel and wood vessels. is so prosperous that the housing of the workmen taking jobs
 there is pressing problem. The same is true of several other North Atlantic ports, while in other sections ports | are springing up where none existed before. ...c.- Close observers of the present re-
 vival in shipping say that before the
 United States shipping boards present
 construction plan is completed-a plan by which vast new merchant fleet is to be brought into being-the develop
 ment of American ports will parallel on a larger scale that which took
 place in the good old days of the square riggers.'
 In earlier times as at present. every
 body in port touched by the pros
 perity of seagoing. was keenly inter- ested in shipping. Present-day secre- ey about contracts, sailings and divi- dends. had its prototype in the secrecy 1 that enveloped such matters more than | hundred years ago, in a score of American ports, notably in Salem, Mass.
 In those days. we are told. rival merchants sometimes drove the work of preparation for voyages night and day. Ships which set out for foreign ports were watched when they slipped their cables and sailed away by night" Personal Touch in Voyages.
 In those times there was a more per sonal touch in voyages than now. as every man making voyage was al- lowed certain space in the hold for goods of his own. People in the home port of a ship outward bound, intrust- ed their savings to their seafaring neighborsl for ventures in far coun- tries.
 This spirit, of commercial adventure is finding expression today on larger and less personal scale, say the experts of the shipping board; and these stu dents of conditions trace the present enthusiasm of the nation for seafaring to beginnings in definite periods in which our old-time ports were at the height of their prosperity. In so do- ing, they cite Salem as good exam pie of what a venturesome people may gain upon the sea-
 Salem at one time stood at the head of the cities of the United States in the value of it's imports
 In 1872 it had 125 ships in the deep water trade, and of these. 5S were East Indiamen. These vessels brought home cargoes of fabulous richness silks, indigo. spices, ivory and other products of the far East.
 There are old people living in Salem who remember when the city's, ancient
 warehouses were full of ''hemp from LuzOn, pepper from Sumatra. coffee from Arabia. palm oil from the west coast of Africa, cotton from Bombay, duck and iron from the Baltic, tallow from Madagascar, salt from Cadiz, wine from Portugal and the Madeiras, figs, sraisins and almonds from the Mediterranean; teas and silks from China rum, sugar and InolaSSes from the West Indies; ivory and gum-copal from Zanzibar; rubber. hides and wool from South America, whale oil from the Arctic and Antarctic, and the sperm from the South Seas"
 Pioneers in Commerce.
 Salem ships were pioneers in open ing new routes of commerce. Salem merchants were the first to bring pep per from Sumatra, rubber from South America and coffee from Mocha. The Salem ship Recovery. Capt. John Ropes, was the coffee pioneer, and be- tween the landing of her first cargo of the fragrant berry in 1798 and 1895, Salem imported not less than 12,OO0,- 900, pounds of Mocha coffee.
 Salem men were perhaps no more active than other American deep-water sailors of the period but their records were better kept. They abound in stories of their adventures.
 Examining the causes of Salem's great fame won upon the sea, a recent historian of the merchant marine found that it was mot in her harbor nor in her store of shipbuilding timber. |. It was Salem men. Americans of the Americans who built up the TO- mantle commerce that left no sea un- visited, no land unexplored. Their business required iron will and iron nerve. 2 noble imagination. belief fin themselves and in their fellow man."
 The case of old Salem, and of the newer ports now flourishing under the impetus of the country's present com mercial expansion, convinces the mari time specialists that the qualify which
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