Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1922-01-26
ADMINISTRATION PROBABLY rs
TO RECOMMEND THE SCHEME
UNDER ANOTHER NAME.
TO SAVE MERCHANT MARINE
Arguments For and Against the Plan,
Heard in Congress During Many
Years, Are Being Revived-Feared
by Both Parties.
Rn EpwARp B. cLARK

udy Lndt Legislation looking TO some
thing like a ship subsidy is to be rec
commended by the administration. Ev-
cry effort which has been made to
build up the American merchant ma
rine has resulted in failure. There is
no denial that some kind of ship
subsidy scheme is under considera-
ton.
This renewed talk of subsidy for
ships makes old men of a good many
national legislators and Washington
correspondents. Off and ON they have
been talking ship subsidy, sometimes
under another name, all through the
is years that the correspondent VINO
writes this has been III Washington.
Legislators have stood on their feet to
say that through a subsidy the Amer
lean flag can be restored to the seas
Of commerce, and that restoration can
come in no other way.
The country, especially the nom
coast part Of it, SHES at subsidies.
The word has an expensive sound
Men who seem to know the shipping
business say, that if there is no sub
sidy there win be no American mer-
chant marine worth the name.
Subvention was one word that was
used instead of ship subsidy in an
elder day, and now it is said that the
administration will call subsidy re
Enumeration" Of course, whatever
name is given to it, the sum total
will be the same thing.
There are some subsidy advocates
in the shipping board. One Of them,
Maine man, knows more about mer-
chant marine than any other man in
Washington. He is a subsidy man be-
cause he believes that only through
a subsidy can anything be done. Men
here have respect for his views, but
some of them say that he is an en-
thusiast and that he is wrong.
Senator la Toilette Blamed.
Landsmen who live at a distance
from the coast and who come to
Washington as senators and repre-
sentatives, or to act in some other
capacity, find it hard to understand
the merchant marine matter. Sen
atOr La Toilette, who is landsman
of landsmen save for the fact that
he lives near one of the Great Lakes,
is held by many of the advocates of a
great American merchant marine as
being partly responsible for the pres
ent ebb of things maritime. 1t is GER
tain that legislation which Mr.. La Fol-
lette fathered is making it difficult for
the United States to establish a mer-
chant marine on q basis of compe-
tition with the shipping of other ma
tons, but long before La Toilette came
to Washington the merchant marine,
as somebody has put it, was water
logged in the trough of the, sea.
Under both Republican and Demo-
cratic control congress has looked
with unkindly eyes on subsidy legis-
lation. Most of the Democrats look
ON it as an unmitigated evil, while
most of the Republicans look on it
as something to be avoided because
it is dangerous in the Districts" es-
pecially in the Middle West.
There is one thing which is certain.
If the United States government
should substitute its merchant marine,
ships would sail the seas and fetch
and carry goods under the Stars and
Stripes The argument of the sub
sidy men is that new trade routes
would be opened and that the advan-
tage to the people from increased in
dustry would make up the subsidy a
thousand fold. There are others who
say that it is an evil thing for the
government to pay money to cor
porations."
Controversy over Submarines.
The submarine controversy in the
international conference was about as
virulent, so far as external appear
ances go, within the last few days as
it was along about the time that the
Lusitania was sunk. However. no loss
Of life has been reported up to the
present moment, though there has
been some loss of hope.
The international conference has
been principally ups" but there are
occasional downs" Some of the pes
simism concerning the general outcome
apparently has been fathered by de-
sire for disaster. There can be no
discounting this.
In administration circles in Wash
Ington there is some evidence of dis
appointment that savOrs of petulance
at times because of the disposition in
some places to hold that the confer
ence may be a failure because some OF
the minor matters under discussion
have not been or may not be settled
to the satisfaction of all parties con
cerned. Auxiliary naval crart in truth
are an auxiliary matter.
The settlement Of big-ship problems
1t seems to the administrations friends
should be considered a victory big
enough to minimize disappointment be
/ cause the questions concerning the