Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-06

one long route TO another at
the suggestion of an unseen
man in Washington.
Unseen and until now almost UNI
noted. yet the power of this man,
though nowhere to be found in an
act of Congress, IS prodigious. What
he says may concern Africa and Asia
or alter the trade currents OF Europe
and South American.
At the start, war on the Huns, first
Of all, was a matter of transporta-
ton. Ships were added; ships Ameri-
can and British. Freight was added;
freight common and uncommon
The freight it was found would not
go into the ships. And ships were be-
ing torpedoed constantly Could the
troops. their food and their weapons
be carried across the Atlantic?
tAlso. complicating the question,
England and France needed bread and
meat. Would they be starved into
submission eventually? To the war
freight, then, of the United States
would have to be added the war
freight of the allies of Europe. Italy,
too, came into the problem, peremp-
torily.
X
There were other countries whose
friendship was valuable; countries
with products to sell in markets at
peace and in markets disturbed by
conflict; products necessary and UNI
necessary to the nations locked in bat
tie. Again but always subordinately.
commerce. in it's normal ebb and flow.
was a part of the question in its
entirety.
The shipping board of the United
States became, therefore. second to no
other war body in America. Its build
ing achievements, spectacular and re-
smarkable, have, however, dWarfed its
other enterprises. Ships are being
launched. The Prussian tigers of the
sea are losing their claws and teeth,
their spring and stealth
But more was required than build
ing: was required, and is required
and will be. The Army in France is
to number 100000 men. Their can
non and shells, their rifles and cart
ridges. their food and clothing call for
a monstrous fleet. The allies, like
wise, must be fed.
Men of business go and come by
reading the signboards along the
highways Of truth. Unless they are
spectators, they rely little If at all
on chance. Happily, men of business
are constructing the cargo ships and
are apportioning the space: With
them figures govern, rather than the
fates. Politicians are permitted to
guess and invent and that is the rea-
son so many of them have their be-
longings sold by the auctioneer.
1t can be said and should be said
that the shipping board all along has
been controlled by facts. So many
ships and so much freight. present
and prospective. was the base from
which it sailed out upon the ocean of
accomplishment.
The labor of obtaining the facts
was delegated to Edwin Francis Gay,
dean of the graduate school of bust
ness administration and professor of
economics at Harvard University. He
is the man at whose suggestion goods
are left or taken and deep sea vessels
change their routes.
:, Helping him are forty scientists
Mostly they are professors like him
SELF who, by familiar report. are wont
to overlook the commercial aspects Of
a strictly business case. Thus il steel
is cheaper in Great Britain than in
the United States. then the American
buyer. without hindrance. should sup
ply his wants in the British mark cts
And SO with other things
Probably the forty scientists COM
ing to Washington--wool specialists
metal specialists, and so on-unani-
mously held to the primary logic and
ethics as taught by practically all col
lege political economists. Each group
of practitioners and thinkers has a
millennium toward witch it is strug-
Cling. By and by. If programs are
workable, there will be no sin, no
sickness, no selfshness no injustice
i. 4:
But revolutionary event occurred
when the forty scientists. duly as
sembled, after being called generally
by telegraph. heard the voice of Dr.
Gay. Millenniums were switched onto
side tracks, and the war express
loaded with men and rifles. was given
the right of way.
Everything was forgotten, but the