The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1919-05-24

capable Of carrying half of its natim., ,rnorts
and exports -4o-"
: de used to draw picture of a theoret,callv
per1ect balance in this important economic oues-
uon' for the sake of illustrating his point
FRANKLIN would state that a fair baance N the
ship business could always be maintained II rare
nonses, put half way across an ocean served as
points Of interchange for the overseas frada be
tween two nations. One nation would ske IN its
own ships, all of its goods for export and lea We
them at the warehouse-this imaginary pont in
the middle of the sea. There the ship xould load
up with goods from The second nation and haul
them back home. Ships Of the other nation wonld
follow the same program. t
Naturally enough midocean warehouses are
physical impossibility. And no two nations cmld
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 a schoolroom but Of no
vital importance to the ship-building engineer or
foreign trader.
All Cannot Be Shipping Natioaa
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 lacx
deep-water ports open the year around Rusxia
under the cars, made 9O0-year-long neAt Tor
9eep-watef port open IL months out of ever year
Switzerland has no ports. Italy lacks steel and
coal for operating shipyards. And 50 the storv
goes. Most nations for one reason q another
keep out of the big shipping game on account Of
natural obstacles.
In this very situation, what might be termAd -.
economic and political misfortunes Of the smaller
nations work to the advantage Of the bigger MAJ
time nations, helping their ship business
Today, America and Great Britain have -
tirely different policies on the problem Of vo,sa
shipping. We are going into the game. accordine
to our shipping experts here in Paris for ~
peace conference, because 1t is Of vital imuor.no
for the future of America to own and oper.te !.
feet big enough to carry so per cent Of our eno..s
and imports Such a program Il almost rsnds'
tory for the future prosperity of the United Sates
We need merchant marine to complete onr !,
ready enormous industrial system, our chain -
big factories. We need ships to haul our era,r -
foreign lands; to transport our raw materala M
must not face the future placing ourselves NJ ~
mercy of any other nations ships and shinns.s
interests. our shipping officials say.
In this war-just ended with the defeat a. o..
many-the whole world had concrete er,m.,.
Of what ships mean to a nation, Japan hy -
ing for time the shipping supremacy II - 3.
clio. has been able to almost paralyze Chineea =.
stgn trade with America and boost Japaneae 80
With the United States by the simple exnei,....
Of operating Japanese-owned ships for tie hecss..
q Japan: thing she had every right to do 49,
we're not enough ships to go around--e.6 ~
Japanese adopted the policy that Chinese t,.As
should suffer rather than japanese.
This condition will rapidly right Itself; IN. !.
the meantime the Chinese had to suffer In ~. =
There are dozens Of other examples that ~
piug men point to by way Of illustrating IT, 49,
aty for America to 60 into the shipping busIrs.s