The Elk Mountain pilot., 1919-04-17

discQrdlng the OiO-time
cramped forecastle from their new boats and are
putting In quarters featuring comforts that were
unknown In the old sailing days.
Hereafter the business of being sailor will not
he the disaRreeable job 1t was before and during
the war; The pay is going to be better-hrst In
the American boats and later in the foreign trade
1t will be the same proposition as business house
(America) introducing Industrial reforms and CIV
ing higher pay and enlarged opportunity. thereby
virtually obllging rival concerns (Great Britain
and the other shipping pbwers) to maintain the
same wage schedules and reforms In order to keep
their employees satisfied.
That the "stOker class Of sailors. the men who
tended the coalburning boilers in superheated
hreroOm. will disappear almost entirely now seems
to be n foregone conclusion In their places will
be men tending fue-Oil furnaces by watching a set
of valves and gauges and doing none of the ter
rible physical exertion that necessary for the
old-fashioned cOalburning ships. Fuel oil has
come to stay, have oil engines for merchant
ships. Use Of either of these modern power gen.
orators eliminates the old time stoker aboaru ship
the worst class of labor needed.
In place Of the oldfashioned sailor will come in
due time-prObably much sooner than we expect
the trained ship worker whose position In the
world will be Infinitely higher than his predeces-
-r
Lots Of criticism Is heard regarding the ships
American yards turned ont during the rush Of
war work. Many Of them leaked the rivets were
not put in carefully-there was not enough time.
Europe had to be fed-armies in the field needed
munitions-time was at a premium.
American shipping men do consider our war
built ships as fair examples Of what our yards
can turn out and predicting. with much A.
surance. that American-built boats will be a.
stanch as Americas steel buildings.
America Now Leads World.
Today America leads the world In ship build
ing. The neutral nations ran out Of steel and are
not competitors The French and Italians are
The British counting nearly 200 boats being built
in Canada and other British dominions. have about
600 boats under way. total Of little more than
2,OOO,OOO tons. America has almost twice many
being built, totaling about three and half million
tons, md We just getting started"
Government ownership of shipping Is policy
private ship owners are fighting In America and
England we'll Lord Inchcape, president of the
British chamber OF shipping and chairman of the
great British ship concern the Peninsular and
Oriental company, has emphatically stated he will
sell out his large interests in British shipping
tivities II government ownership and control to
be continued indefinitely.
1t is understood. on American authority here In
Paris, that government control Of American ship
ping Is to last only relatively short time-until
the defunct law Of supply and demand has again
gone into operation when the world trade routes
have been reconstructed from the havoc wrought
by war. s ',.-
1t is expected. however. that the American
government will always stand committed to poll
cy OF ship control certain definite phases of the
business For instance, the government should
not be expected to permit rival ship lines flying
the American flag to embark on cut-throat compel
tive programs for business. 1t would be against
the governments pOcy-after the days of rigid
control have passed-to permit rival ship lines
to operate more ships on a given trade line than
the tonnage of that route demanded.
More American ships mean more naval vessels
Our navy must be maintained so to compare
favorably in size with the merchant fleet. Not tina,
we making ready for an era of excessive arma
ments.
This much is settled however: America is be
ginning her career a great maritime power, and
the American gcvernmea. ss going to try to make
the life of our sailors comfortable. well paid
and as respectable the life of any well-paid
employee In a modern American business concern
Our young men of this generation and the com
ing decades then will gradually become create,
world travellers than they have been since the early
days Of our republic. and America probably vii
never regain the feeling Of isolation from world
AFFAIRS she had before her entry into the szeat vas