The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-04-18

capable OF carrying half of its national ,mnorts
and exports 80 ""''oN'' ii"po'''
lie used to draw picture Of q Theoretically
periecf balance In this important economic cues
,,o" ror tne sake OF illustrating his point,
FRANKLIN would state that fair balance In the
ship business could always be maintained ~ ware
houses, put half way across an ocean served as
poiH's ol interchange for the overseas trade be-
tween TWO nations. One nation would take in its
own ships, all of its goods for export and leave
them AT the warehouse-this imaginary point In
the middle OF the sea- There the ship would load
up with goods from the second nation and haul
them back home Ships Of the other nation would
follow the program
Naturally enough midocean warehouses are a
physical impossibity. And no two nations could
ever have anything like equal tonnage to ex-
change. For all practical purposes, except in the
matter Of framing policies the Franklin scheme is
blackboard stuff, very useful in explaining the
theory of foreign trade to schoolroom but of no
vital importance to the ship-building engineer or
foreign trader.
All Cannot Be Shipping Nations
Then the whole world cannot be guided by the
Franklin Idea. Many nations are unable to get
into the shipping game seriously They lack ma
terials for shipbuilding, perhaps or they lack
deep-water ports open the year around. Russia
under the cars, made 3O0-year-long fight for q
deep-water port open IL months out of every year
Switzerland has no ports Italy lacks steel and
coul loT Operating SnlpyuruS. And the story
goes. Most nations for reason or another
keep out of the big shipping game on account Of
natural obstacles.
In this very situation, what might be termed the
economic and political misfortunes Of the smaller
nations work to the advantage of the bigger mari
time nations, helping their ship business
Today, America and Great Britain have en-
tlrely different policies on the problem of world
shipping We are going into the game, according
to shipping experts here in Paris for the
peace conference because 1t is Of vital Importance
for the future Of America to own and operate q
fleet big enough to carry so per of our exports
and imports. Such program is almost manda-
tory for the future prosperity of the United States
We need merchant marine to complete our al.
ready enormous Industrial system our chain of
big factories. We need ships to haul our grain to
foreign lands; to transport raw materials We
must not face the future placing ourselves at the
mercy of any other nations ships and shining
interests. our shipping officials say.
In this war-just ended with the defeat of Ger
many-the whole world had concrete example
OF what ships mean to a nation. Japan, by gain
Ing for time the shipping supremacy in the Pa
cic. has been able to almost paralyze Chinese for
eign trade with America and boost japanese trade
with the United States by the simple expedient
OF operating Japanese-owned ships for the benefit
Of Japan thing she had every right to do There
were not enough ships to go around-and the
japanese adopted the policy that Chinese trade
should suffer rather than Japanese.
This condition will rapidly right Itself: but in
the meantime the Chinese had to suffer In silence
There dozens Of other examples that ship
ping point to by way Of illustrating the neces-
'-sity for America to 60 into the shipping business