New-York tribune., 1921-04-11
Big Men Urged
For Directors
OF u. S. Fleet
Harding Asked TO Name Most
Competent Executives in
Country to Take Hold of
$4, 900, 100000 Marine


Unless Congress takes immediate ac-
Iion to rehabilitate the merchant ma
rlne, Americas shipping six months
hence will have relapsed into it's neg
llglble pre-war position, and foreign
vessels Will be carrying ninetcnths Of
Ch's country,s foreign commerce, ac-
cordlng to Edgar Pennington Young.
publisher of The Marine Journal.
Mr.. Young in an open letter to
President Harding, published in this
weeks issue Of The Journal asks that
the most competent executive men in
the country be employed to take hold
now in the hands of the Shipping
Board and that marine interests be
represented in the Cabinet. "There is
only one ak to be ground-and it is the
nations AK" says Mr. Young.
"The nations trade fleet must be
treated as big business" he continues
THE great enterprises Of the country
have not been built up by $4,000 "a
year men, but by the best men whose
services it has been possible to get, re-
gardless of cost. 1t is because the gov
ernment has always counted its pennies
IN fixing the pay of its executives that
It's ventures into the field of business
have invariably been failures. TO
keep Sl2,OO0-a-year mon at the head of
a $4,000 100000 enterprise, and in par
ticular handicapped enterprise that
must compete with all the great ma
tions of the world, will merely be the
guaranty of another failure, and a fail
ure of greater disaster to the nation
than any that have preceded.
he biggest man. in the entire
country is none too big for the task
of placing the American merchant ma
rine on basis of assured permanency.
Roll the salaries Of all seven commits
sloners of the Shipping Board into one,
double or treble the sum if necessary,
and the resultant amount will be not a
penny too much for the services of the
right man.
"Whether the shipping activities Of
the government are brought together
minstration or whether they are coor-
dinated in the services of an existing
department, does not matter. What
does matter is that the guidance of our
commercial sea power should be in capa-
ble-the most capable-hands. and
that the American merchant marine
should have representation in the coun-
ellis of the Cabinet"
Mr.. Young asserted that Great Brit
ain alone is carrying more of our ex-
ports than our own bottoms are. He
adds:
eve seek the right to carry a fair
share Of the trade Of our own country
in our own vessels. Simply that. What
other maritime nation does not seek it {?
What other does not have it? British
ships carry two-thirds of the trade of
Great Britain. They carry 90 per cent
of the British trade with British over
seas possessions. And they carry 20
per cent Of the trade of the rest Of the
world.
"Our merchant marine is sufficient in
tonnage to carry 60 per cent of our
own trade. That is what we are seek
ing to carry, and we are told that if we
take steps to do SO we shall be breed
ing war.
with feet adequate to handle two
thirds of our foreign commerce we are
actually transporting about half that
amount. There can be no increase un-
der existing conditions. There can only
be millions of tons of American vessels
idle and piling up losses of millions of
dollars in depreciation and upkeep.
Under other conditions--under protec-
tion for the American merchant marine
we can take our rightful place upon
.he seas"