The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-08-31
WE SHALL TRADE WITH ALL THE wORLD

WE al nj vi II III WUhD
New York Commercial: Edward N. Hurley, chairman of
the United States shipping board, assures us that America is
building a merchant fleet of three thousand ships, with cargo
capacity of twenty-five million tons, that will carry American
merchandise at the cheapest rates in the world. Fast Amerl-
can cargo and passenger liners will run regularly to every
port in Latin America, the Orient, Africa and Australia. Such
is the shipping policy of the American government.
After the Civil war America devoted itself to building rail-
roads, but neglected its merchant marine. What we did we
did well. We settled the west and the Pacific coast states and
carried the freight at the lowest rates in the world. We deVel-
oped our domestic commerce and industries and made the
United States the richest of nations. In the end, we forgot Inc
debt we owed to those who financed and built the railroads
which did the work, and they were starving to death when the
war came and the federal government was forced to take them
over and do what the private companies were forbidden to do'
namely, tc raise the ratees sufficiently to meet expenses.
In the railroad situation we find a parallel with what nap
mened to our merchant marine in the last fifty years: we neg,
lected our shipping on the high seas and congress administered
he death blow by passing the La Toilette seamen's bill and
other inimical legislation. When the war came we were IN
dulging in an orgy of corporation-baiting which was strah9-
ling both railroads and merchant marine.
To win the war the federal government had to provide ad-
equate transportation on land and sea. 1t was forced to undo
the harm already inflicted by making appropriations for build
ing ships and equipping railroads regardless of expense. A
billion dollars for each account, two billions In all, is te I'M
tial cost Of doing in a hurry at the expense OF the government
what private interests would have been able to provide had we
been wise enough to let our ships and railroads earn enough to
attract capital. Mr.. Hurley says that public neglect ruined
our old mercant marine He knows, for he has closely stud
led the situation.
When peace comes America will have the largest merchant
fleet III the world, larger In tonnage than England d our
years ago. These vessels will carry American goods to all for
eign markets and bring back raw materials needed by our man
ufacturers. Have American producers and merchants the Wis
ion to see what lies before them?
The federal government and the United States shipping
board can provide ships, but not the cargoes. TO gain and hold
our place in the sun of international trade we must use these
ships as we use our railroad facilities. In the forties and ffties
of the last century American sailing vessels carried the Stars
and Stripes into every port, though they had to rely on a mere
fringe of producing territory along our Atlantic and Gulf coasts
before railroads gridironed the country behind.
America has reached q stage of advancement that forces
it to go far afield for markets and to take a trading part in the
development of other countries which have Jagged behind in
the march of progress. We shall be in a better position than
other great nations to do this work. We need not fear compe-
tition. Our best customers have always been the most pro-
gressive countries. We have been selling more to Canada than
to all the rest of the western hemisphere, or to all the lands
that lie between Suez and San Francisco, yet Canada is our
most direct competitor. If we can help Latin America, the
Orient and Russia to develop their limited resources our trade
with them will grow in volume and profit as it has grown with
our northern neighbor.
We shall have the ships with which to do these things.
All depends on the use we make of them. They can connect
us with countries and markets across the seas as closely as
railroads have linked us with Canada. All this we can do with
out taking trade from other nations, but rather by adding to
their commerce.