The Washington times., 1920-06-06

"fears" after the Senate had finally
approved the bill.
my fear Is that these ships viii be
sacrificed and be allowed to fall into
the hands OF momopolists," Senator
Dial declared.
NO doubt it is a good policy to sell
useless ships and ships not snit,ed for
our purposes" he stated at. another
point in his bclated speech. 81 think
that is about az far as | Would have
gone at the present time"
These views OF the South Carolina
Senator are interesting, IN view of the
fact that he is a member of the Com
mcrCc Committee which drafted the
shipping bill. Continuing he said:
THE timc has come W hen we need
a merchant marine which, will be com
mcnsuratc with our demands and
necessities. We visa to ship our
goods to every mark et in the world
| am. therefore, str' nIsIy in favor of
building up a gre at merchant ma
rine.'
In ono breath tiSc Senator declared
he had "a great Zeal of apprehension
about the bill,' bnt thought it was
the best law thst could possibly be
framed lat this me-" and then add
ed:
"If | had been preparing the bill,
this is not eNae tly as l would have
had it,
Proposes Utopinn Scheme.
Senator Dial said he was firmly of
the opinion that the charges that
"sufflcient advertisement has not
been made of the intended sales of
these ship s is true. He made no
reference bo the provision IN the bin
which per fnits OF secret bids.
The Sc hator proposed a Utopian
scheme tf distributing the Govern
ments ships among the various
States. 80 that people all over the
country would get some benefit from
the gre at merchant fleet which cost
the n5 ton more than $500 900 900.
He sa5 d:
IF there is going to be any money
mado out of the operation, if these
shlps arc to be sacrificed, | think the
poop lie all over the country ought to
get some OF the benefit of the trans
acE on"
With regard to his plan for distri-
o. ton OF the vessels among the
Yates, Senator Dial said:
IL wish some such process as |
,-am about to suggest might be adopt
! ed. | wish that the Shipping Board
! would make a calculation in order to
ascertain how many ships each State
| would be entitled to, according to the
| population Of the State.
! "Of course, ] do not believe in the
| Government giving it's ships away;
| and while | know that the States. as
such, could not buy ships, / should
! like to have the ownership of these
| ships spread out all over the United
| States.
! IL believe that the Shipping Boa rd
| ought to encourage chambers of com
mcrce, boards of trade. and different
| business institutions all over the
| Country to look into the desirability
| of purchasing the ships; and if it
could be so arranged. that each state
would be entitled to an option on the
purchase of so many ships. perhaps
the citizens of the States would get
busy and form corporations and COM
bne with other people and help buy
| the ships.
81 wish that the coal interests, the
beef interests. the grain interests. the
| tobacco interests, the cotton mill in
terests. the cotton-growing interests,
and the farming interests generally
all over this country would CO.
operate and buy these ships
80 ] hope that there will be thor
oughgoing advertisement by the Ship.
| ping Board. If | had my way, there
would be no hurry to sell these ships,
but the sales would be advertised
thoroughly all over the United States,
so as to allow every interest to come
in and bid on the ships.
| even inland cities would take
pride in, participating, If they under
stood the situation and the favorable
terms upon which they could pur-
chase the ships"