Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-03-14
NEW MERCHANT
 MARINE IS BIG
 AID TO FARMER
Ports Will Be Less Con- gested and New Export
 Territory Opened.
(By Edward N. Hurley, chairman
 United States Shipping Board.)

We're strikingly similar in one re- spect.
 With the outbreak of the conflict our seaports began to congest with freight, there being no ships to carry our exports because of the more ur- gent demands of war. We were the most powerful of all the neutrals. yet we mad no overseas shipping of our own, and our commerce had to depend on ships of alien flags, dependence that failed us at the first note of war. For those controlling these ships un- der foreign register placed their owr war necessities first and we helpless ly stood aside and watched the pro- ducts of our farms and stockyards congest on piers and in warehouses, and saw prices for the sea commcdi- ties descend at an appalling rate. all because of the lack of ocean trans. portation.
 With the cessation of hostilities our seaboard terminals once more began to choke with the products of farm and stockyard, a congestion due tc the same cause which had overloaded them at the beginning of the war lack of adequate ocean transporta- tion.
 This was the reflex action of the war which absorbed and still is ab- sorbing tonnage for the homeward movement of the legions which had been assembled on the various battle lines The allies, no longer depend ent upon American armies and Ameri- can war material for their national safety, suddenly withdrew many of their best ships from the American trade. American business was there fore thrown suddenly upon its own resources in caring for the less essen- tial imports so necessary for our man. ufacturers.
 whole world is in desperate need of all we can send from this land of plenty. The only reason why we cannot immediately supply that need lies in the fact that upwards of 13.- OCG,O00 gross tons of shipping had been sunk during the war, and a1- though American shipyards wrought Ian amazing miracle in production still this unprecedented effort was not sufficient to overcome the enormous losses.
 Nevertheless it is inc 'Amarican shipyards and the tremendous ener- gies which built an American mer- chant marine from tn ground up, that is saving a larg part of the world from starvation today. Had it not been for the great fleet which this nation sent afloat in notwithstanding md hn ind of the Amtrican farmer of foreign bottoms in which to ship his products our agricultural population would now be studying economies instead of the price of luXuries.
 Although our seabOard terminals are congested with freight awaiting shipment, this running into hundreds of millions of dollars, more than 100 vessels of our own merchant marine are now devoted to the work of eX- porting products of American farms and stockyards. Next to the fleet that is engaged in serving army needs, this newly built fleet of ours is the greatest that now operates under the American flag. Moreover. four-fifths of this argosy came from, American shipyards during the past year. Only five Of the food-carrying ships ante- date 1918.
 The sudden termination of the war found garin and meat storage termin- als on the seaboards and Great Lakes filled to overflowing with an unpre- cedented accumulation of American foodstuffs. According to the records of the department of agriculture there were in storage on November 1, 3o0,- 000,O0O bushels of grain, 250,00O,000 pounds of dairy products, and nearly a billion pounds of meats. Some of the increases over 1917 were from 70 to 100 per cent-miscellaneOus meats, for example, 70 percent; lard, more than 100 percent. Had the new Amer ican merchant marine not been on hand to move these products the CO., sequent crashin prices and blow to the agricultural population would have been appalling.
 As was pointed out by Senator Ransdell in his opening address to which he had had called, the centre f population is in Indiana, nose than 1 ,OOO miles distant from the seaboard It is perhaps natural that those o1 the interior-far removed from salt water-should think they have no in terest in shipping. But listen a min ute to Senator Fletcher, ehairmtn o1 1 the Senate Committee in Commerce
 eff anything has been taught by the war;" the Senator said in ad
 dressing the conference, "it is that merchant marine is as important for natural defense and our well be l ing as our battleships. Moreover. il makes q It of difference to the farm er-although he does mt seem to real 1 ize it-whether he has to pay cents boshel carry his grain over seas or 40 cents a bushel. It makes some
 difference to the planter whether h' pays $2.50 bale on his cotton iron , Galveston Liverpool, or $50 a bale Our people everywhere have awaken ed to the sitoatIion. It fas driver home to them in the early stages O
 the war when they foond the freigh
 rates mounting up to a thousand pe t,. o1, ,rl k,vJ 1,1s1