The Arizona copper camp., 1920-03-27
need or MERCHANT
Marine IMPERATIVE

must have her own merchant marine
to gain that touch with world affairs
which her greatness and increasing
manufacturers call for" said the
president of one of our leading young
er steamship companies. "Only in
that way shall we obtain the interna-
tional viewpoint that our business
and especially our banking, must have
if we are to hold the position in
world trade, and take the part in
world development, that this nations
greatness and the worlds future hope
of peace demand.
"We need merchant marine to
give vision to our bankers-to con-
vert them, as it were, from pawn
brokers and dabblers in stocks into
merchants of credits, with national
and international as we'll as stock
market viewpoint. Possibilities of
20@o money and stock market move
ments seem to engross our bankers
attention today.
"Paradoxical as it may seem. we
cannot have merchant marine until
we have real bankers, and we cannot
have real bankers, it begins to ap-
pear, until we have a merchant ma
rine
"England's merchant marine is
what underlies her greatness. 1t gave
English banking that viewpoint which
made it supreme. Germany's mer-
chant marine gained her foreign trade
for her, and was the basic factor be-
hind her phenomenal rise to great
ness.
eve have the worlds gold. But,
unless we gain the world viewpoint
which constant trade with the differ
ent nations of the world brings, and
keep the close touch with business
conditions everywhere that success
full ship operation demands and com
pels, we cannot hope to hold our
proper place in world banking.
"If we do not engage in world
finance, and if we do not send our
ships with goods throughout the
world to develop new markets for our
factories by bringing back those ma
terials and products which we need,
SO that those people can buy more
goods from us, how will our foreign
trade become rich and varied, as is
that of England, and as was that of
Germany?
ITO get full benefit from a mer-
chant marine our ships must be
owned by large number of aggres-
sive medium-sized companies rather
than by a few large ones. England's
greatness on the sea is not due to
few large companies, but to her. many
virile medium-sized companies. The
same also was true of Germany, and
may be true again, unless our bank
ers begin soon to view shipping loans
farsightedly.
"Unless bankers encourage Ameri-
can investors to loan on ships as Sc
curity, our merchant marine, when it
passes into private ownership, will
become concentrated in the hands of
a few large companies. The con-
sumer pays the freight, not the ship
ThnrOfnro tho nnfit x1yhi oh
ownership of merchant marine
brings to nation that exports more
than it imports, lies largely in the
indirect advantage that results from
the development of large number of
resourceful international traders. A
Te-export or trans-shipment trade of
Importance springs up, and this helps
increase expectation of the nations
own products and wares, just as de-
partment stores, when grouped to-
gether, do more business than when
far apart.
American bankers loan on ware
house receipts, and keep the cost of
living up. Foreign bankers loan on
ships and equalize living costs. Ameri-
can bankers loan on railroads and fac
tories. European bankers view ships
as even better security, because of
their fluidity. The ships value is
more certain, because it's earning
power is more even. 1t is not staked
down, as railroad or factory.
When crops along railroad fail, it's
earnings drop. The business of a
whole nation may become depressed,
but the earning power of it's ships
does not diminish. They merely
change routes as the ocean paths of
world commerce change. Modern in
dustry's complexity always continues
to force interchange of products from
continent to continent Today Europe
stands ready, despite freight charges
of from $22 to $26 a ton, to contract