The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-21

fulness to our people our merchant
 marine must pay.
 ''The investment of billions of dol lars in ships-good, bad and indiffer- ent-merely because they are ships IS simply waste unless intelligent and constructiv emanagement and control
 go with possession.
 MT Nixon said that the arguments in favor of any form or method of aid ing our own merchant marine were oe- nounced by a certain school of thought
 responsive to the propaganda against any effort to put our flag back upoh the acean.
 "For thirtyAfive years l have ex-
 pressed publicly my opposition to sup-
 sidies which would meet a difference
 in cost of operation by payments out of inc public treasury" said the former naval architect "In the first place, believe such a policy unconstitntlonal, and in the second place am sure that it would be ineffective. We might pay subsidies that would permit our Nes'
 sels to run empty and yet not oeVeiop maritime carriage of any use to the nation or it's people. We should dc as our forefathers did and drive trade into American bottoms by preference, as it is only upon healthy and grow ing trade based upon demand Tor American vessels, that we can found an enduring merchant fleet. 'rWhfle our so-called statesmen in response to sophistic arguments have bartered away our birthrights upon the seas in cunningly drawn treaties anl
 conventions, prating of reciprocal bene- fits the other nations, after persuad- ing us t6 suspend constitutional regu- lations which were proved effective, hve evaded such reciprocity by adopt ing every possible discrimination against us that ingenuity could con- l ceive or our impotent statesmanship ! permit.
 l, Tt has been said by little Ameri- cans" Mir. Nixon went on, that our people were as well engaged in other l industries as in shipbuilding and ship l owning. 1 think that they cannot be better engaged than in preventing l bankruptcies and panics, adding to our
 national wealth. independence and con structiye efficiency and in keeping | gold at home.
 l sWe mus tstop the betrayal of 9 sacred pact of the constitution brace 1 up the weakened commercial pillar of national greatness and return to meas
 ures found effective by cur legislators 1 when conditions in the foreign trade were such as they will be two years hence"
 The Baltimore platform of the demo- cratic party. Mir. Nixon pointed out, pledged itself as favoring the exemp- tlon from tolls of American ships en- gagged in coastwise trade passing through the Panama canal. and also expressed the belief in fostering, by constitutional regulation of commerce. the growth of merchant marine for 1 the United States.
 We must stop the betrayal of a vessels to American registry" said Mr. | Nixon. "We adopted discriminating | duties under the leadership of Senator | Underwood. directly carrying out the above pledge. yet this law of the land ! was abrogated by a treasury ruling | We have caused our coasting vessels 1 to pay tolls through the canal. All 1 this before the war
 ''The world war found us with sev- eral shipyards of high efficiency. There was a tremendous demand for neutral bottoms. but even these were subject to attack without notice or search We entered the war and the government also entered shipbui1ding. Shipbuilding was considered a business and not an art. Hence any good busi- ness man was considered capable of organizing a shipbui1ding industry. So carried away were some that the peo- l pie were promised 100000 900 tons of shipping a year; the very promise evil
  1 iser
 Instead of building on existing yards to the fullest possible extent, many new yards were started and | riot of expenditure and hurrah methods resulted. Men were bid for
 by rival establishments. and many rushed in who could not build vessels at all. assumed enormous contracts and enjoyed vast advances. Tt was too late to ctitfcize nor was 1 it the time. even if views of a veteran builder would have been listened to. saw vessels launched riveted only par tially above the water line. with sea valves uncut. no tail shafts in place, TO rudders mounted and no dry docks in which to finish them.
 And the people thought that tonnage launched was tonnage practically ready to go into service!
 "Instead of utilizing available labor for the maximum tonnage of really we'll built ships. efforts were scattered and much poor work, which must be made good, was put overheard. We must in many instances now insure against leakage, and every failure of one of our newly built vessels at sea is we'll heralded and used against us by our commercial rivals l About sixteen months ago" he said- 'the Secretary of the Navy stated that lthe administration would embark upon | the government OpeTdtiOi ol NCSSCiSs VI 1 course. such a policy meant the end of American shipbuilding in a short time. Men who understood. ship management would go abroad to get their ships and put them under foreign flags, that they might escape bureaucratic handicap Happily this policy has been abandoned and there is still hope therefore for an l American merchant marine
 | CT do not approve selling our vessels to | foreign owners to be run under foreign I flags but no country will dare bankrupt | itself by keeping fleet of idle vessels of 1 such numbers as will strain it's credit I Proper legislation by Congress at this | time. MT Nixon thinks, can save the situation for the American merchant mar l inc.
 1 "I'he control of the oceans in peaceful | commerce is the great prize of states nanship. The great trouble is that, after i one has spent lifetime in the study of ocean commerce, treaty influences com