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


cramped forecastIe from their new boats and are
putting in quarters featuring comforts mat were
unknown in the old sailing days.
Hereafter the business Of being sailor Will not
be the disagreeable Job 1t was before and during
the war. The pay Is going to be better-first In
the American boats and later in the foreign trade
1t will be the same proposition business house
(America) introducing industrial reforms and CIV
Ing higher pay and enlarged opportunity, thereby
virtually obligng rival concerns (Great Britain
and the other shipping powers) 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 coaburning boilers In a superheated
freroom, will disappear almost entirely seems
to be a foregone conclusion. In their places will
be men tending fue-oil furnaces by watching set
of valves and gauges and doing none of the ter
rble physical exertion that was necessary for the
od-fashioned coal-burning ships Fuel oil has
come to stay have oil engines for merchant
ships. Use of either of these modern power gen.
orators eliminates the oldtlme stoker aboard ship
the worst class of labor needed.
In place of the old-fashioned sailor will come In
due unexpectedly much sooner than we expect
the trained ship worker, whose position in the
world Will be Infinitely higher than his predeces
Lots Of criticism Is heard regarding the ships
American yards turned out 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-tme was at premium.
American shipping do not consider our war
built ships as fair examples Of what our yards
can turn out and predicting, with much as
surance, that American-built boats will be as
slanch 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
building only a relatively small number of boats
The British, counting nearly 200 boats being built
in Canada and other British dominions have about
800 boats under way, total Of little more than
2,OOO,OOO tons. America has almost twice as many
being built, totaling about three and half million
tons, and we are 'just getting started"
Government ownership of shipping is a 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 emphaticay stated he will
sell out his large interests in British shipping &C.
tivties ii government ownership and control are 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
nave Deen recOnStrucleu from the havoc wrought
by
1t is expected, however, that the American
government will always stand committed to poll
cy of ship control on 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 cut-throat Compel
tive programs for business. 1t would be against
the governments policy-after the days of rigid
control have passed-to permit rival ship lines
to operate more ships on given trade line than
the tonnage Of that route demanded.
More American ships mean more naval vessels
Our navy must be maintained so as to compare
favorably in size with the merchant fleet. Not that
we are making ready for Of excessive arma-
ments.
This much Is settled however: America is be-
ginning her career as great maritime power and
the American government Is going to try to make
the life of sailors comfortable as well paid
and as respectable as the life of any well-paid
employee In a modern American business concern
Our young of this generation and the COM
Ing decades then will gradually become greater
world travellers than they have been since the early
days Of our republic. and America probably will
regain the feeling Of isolation from world
affairs she had before her entry into the great war