Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-12-16
America Ne1u Place and
Pover Among Seafarers

Po1Oer Among Seafarers
| TT signifies a vast deal for the security
and expansion of the nations foreign
commerce that American ships now car
ry approximately fifty per cent of our over
seas trade as compared with less than ten
per cent at the outbreak of the late war;
Upwards of three thousand four hundred
merchant vessels, aggregating some seven
teeP thousand lightweight tons, are flying
the Stars and Stripes; and this does not in
clude more than two million tons on the
Great Lakes. The Federal fleet in operation
at the close of the last fiscal year comprised
twelve hundred and ninety-four steel vessels
plying to all qaurters of the globe-notably
five hundred and eight to Northern Europe,
one hundred and twenty-six to Southern
Europe, one hundred and thirty-eight in the
South American and one hundred and sixty
three in the trans-Pacific service. Upon the
completion of the Governments shipbuilding
program in 1922 the United States, it is
expected, will control more ocean-going ton
mage than do all other countries, save Great
Britain, combined.
These facts from the current annual re-
port of Admiral Benson, chairman of the
Shipping Board, are eloquent of great
achievements and great prospects. From
dangerous dependence on foreign bottoms,
the nation has come to possess large means
of it's own. for carrying American products
to the markets of all the world; and from
a >rearward place among seafarers has come
swiftly to the van. During the last fiscal
twelvemonth eleven hundred and eighty fin
ished vessels, exceeding six million three
hundred thousand to1s, were. delivered-a
record unparalleled, and the ore remark
able from the fact that it was made without
overtime labor or other such aids to speedy
production. Touching this performance, Ad-
miral Benson we'll observes that the ship
yard workers of the United Sites "have de-
veloped an eXpertness which has raised the
efficiency of the various crafts to high
plane" and that the industry has expanded
from fifty thousand skilled mechanics to a
force of three hundred and eighty-five thou
sand men available to the private shipyards.
only. the substantial nucleus of one of the
greatest merchant fleets ever af1oat but
also the means, both mechanical and human,
of steadily increasing it.
When we reflect that export commerce is
a prime factor in our national prosperity and
that adequate cargo fleet is a prime
essential in export commerce, our gains in
ocean shipping in the last few years loom
out with epochal significance. Had this coun-
try remained in it's pre-war Dependence up
on the vessels of its trade competitors, it's
outlook in the keen and rigorous contests of
world trade would be far from reassuring.
But thanks to the vast revival of shipbuild-
ing which war emergencies forced upon us,
we can face the future without anxiety on
that score All parts of the United States will
profit in consequence of this preparedness,
but the South has special reason to be graf
flied. The great increase in American ships
has made it possible for her ports to secure
tonnage for the development of their for
eign trade opportunities; and under the wise
and equitable policy of Admiral Benson their
rights in this matter are recognized.