The New York herald., 1922-05-09
Admiral Coontz to Tell
Why America Needs
Adequate Navy.
EXTERNAL LOANS URGED
Other Nations Should Borrow
in Our Market, Says Ma
tional City Official.

outstanding recommendations last
night at the opening session Of the
twenty-seventh annual convention of
tie National Association Of Manufac-
turers at the Waldorf
Registration indicated that well over
1000 members would be present when
the more important meetings and dis
cussions get under way; to-day. The
convention will last until tomorrow
evening. Among the chief speakers
will be the Secretaries of Commerce
and Labor, Herbert Hoover and James
J. Davis.
John E. Edgerton. president OF the
association. and the, directors will be
guests OF Admiral r. E. Cccntz. Chief
Of Operations. u. S., NJ, at a luncheon
to-day aboard the Wyoming at the New
York Navy Yard. Secretary Hoover will
discuss trade association tomorrow
morning and Secretary. Davis will speak
on the labor situation in the afternoon.
This afternoon ID. r. Crissinger, Comp
trollcr of the Currency, will talk on
Better Business for the Banks" and
tonight Admiral Coontz will speak on
why the United States Must Have an
Adequate Navy"
Favors Foreign Bond Sales.
Stressing the necessity for the main
tenance of foreign trade relations. F. C.
Schwedtman. a vice-president Of the
National City Bank, told the delegates
he favored the sale of foreign bond is
sues In the United States and would not
restrict the disposition Of the proceeds
of such sales to the United States He
said:
There is a widespread misapprehen-
sion as to the economies Of restricting
the spending Of foreign loans placed
here to American merchants and manu-
facturers. The fundamental fact Is that
the business relations Of the family of
nations are so closely bound together
and so interviewer that any purchase of
good foreign securities is efficacious in
Strengthening the ability of foreign Gus
toners to buy our goods. irrespective
OF the fact as to whether or not the
proceeds of such securities happen to be
spent in this country In the first in
stance: whenever one country lends to
another 1t really lends, not money, but
goods and services. What the borrow
ing country needs is goods, and even II
It borrows In one country and spends
III aHotucT IL Bclo BOOuS III tIc Gnu.
I'VE shall always be able to hold our
own In certain lines of international
trade. while in other lines we cannot
hope to compete with foreign sales even
in our home market. To analyze this
field, which has been sadly distorted
during the war. to make strong drive
for the goods we can and should make
for export and to buy in return those
things which according to economic law
we should purchase from abroad, should
be our systematic endeavor. I think It
as important to keep the wrong people
and articles out Of foreign trade as 1t
is to aid and encourage the right ones.
Foreign trade for this country is q
vital necessity. and its financing must
be equal to the best in the world. Few
people realize that so per cent. of the
overseas merchandise that enters this
country consists OF tropical and SUBJ
tropical products that we do not our
selves produce. We cannot get along
without these goods, and we must have
exports to pay for them"
"supremacy Not Our Aim.~
Edward C. Plummer. Commissioners
OF the United States Shipping Board,
calling for the establishment and main
tenance of an American merchant
the convention. said:
"One very common plan apparently
adopted for the purpose Of misleading
the public appears in the statement so
often made that the United States aims
TO become commercially supreme upon
the seas. No intelligent American aims
at that. England. as an island empire,
necessarily must have great merchant
fleet to enable her to control majority
of her foreign commerce.
what thoughtful Americans desire is
that the United States shall have a
merchant fleet sufficient to enable this
country to handle a similar proportion
of it's foreign commerce and the
proportion which England has insisted
on carrying OF her own foreign COM
merce. viz, from 60 per cent. to rs per
cent. II good enough. for US; but we
should insist upon carrying as much
as that In the interest of the people of
this country.
Theorists. or worse, who never had
their money In American vessels, may
make declarations, but the solid fact re-
nains--that for forty years It has cost
from % to 30 per cent. more to operate
American vessels than IL did to operate
foreign vessels; and the fact that strong
American firms, like theNSewalls Of Bath,
Me-. whose people had been operating
vessels for nearly a century, who owned
fine yards In which with their own
money they could build and repair steel
ships. have been forced to sacrifice their
fleets and abandon their yards to their
own great loss leaves absolutely moth
ing effective to be said.
"Must Have National Ala"
American ships cannot remain in th.
foreign trade without national assistance
until they have become established and
the advantages which their competitors
row enjoy. and for o long time have
enjoyed. overcome.
ITO claim anything else is merely to
say In effect that we don't want Ameri-
can ships to carry any material part OF
the commerce OF this country; that we
don't want to enlarge the markets for
American products or give increased en-
ployment to American labor"
Business sessions Of the convention re-
ceived reports from the committees on
Industrial betterment, merchant marine
open shop, patents and taxation. and
also from the committee appointed ia
study the recommendations of Ambas-
sadors ana Ministers at the association s
conference last year,