The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1922-03-10
100000 GOO COO
('yGleE TED'S
BEDTIME STORIES.
,;,,SscSctc,ooCO Coo CCCCCc

JtSS'-''Ns'>S~S~~
Good gracious, Jack, how in tn
world did you get so wet?" asket
Uncle Ted, as Jack some into his room
with his hands dripping wet and tn
front Of his clothes soaked from hi
head to his feet.
ewe've been playing ships an
swered Jack. Ruth is wetter than
am and mother made us stop to &c
ready for bed. I've built two dand!
boats and have been trying them II
the bath tub. Next summer we cal
| try them on the river, can't we Uncle
Tedr'
"I guess we can, Jack. but for the
present you'd better get those WEI
things of and get into your mighty
| Ruth! oh, Ruth" called Uncle Ted
what is 1t Uncle Ted" she an
swered.
"Get those wet clothes of and hurry
in here and I will tell you a new story
about ships"
So It was that our three friends
gathered in Uncle Ted's room for their
story.
81 suppose you Riddles have heard
about President Harding's talk TO
CONGRESS- Gu tn eship question and
what his plans are to make a mcr-
chant marine for the United States
and at the same time do It without dis
elimination and at comparatively
small cost am going to tell you
some of the "details Of that plan. For
a long time everyone has been crying
for an American Merchant Marine.
Turing the war we built an unprece-
dented number Of ships, some ships
that helped win the war, others that
didn't Much money was wasted by we
cannot 20 on and on carrying that ex-
pense forever and get anywhere. the
Republican party in its last campaign
platform pledged the enactment OF
law for the upbuilding Of merchant
marine. Our president has been WORK
ing on this matter for long time
with the aid of men who know this
question and he recently went BEFORE
Congress and presented plan as out
lined in bills offered for enactment oy
the Shipping Board. In a few WORDS
here Is what Mr.. Harding's plan L.
lust as he stated It, :,
"I propose that we shall coiiect al
,nnort duties without discrimination
as between American and foreign oo'-
toms, and apply the heretofore pro-
rosed reduction to create fund Tor
tho governments aid to our merchant
marine By such a program we snail
encourage not alone the carrying o.
inbound cargoes subject to tariffs out
wa shall strengthen American ships III
tho carving of that greater inbound
tonnage en- which duties are LEVIED
and more important than these, we
shall equip our merchant marine 10
serve our outbound commerce. wh'ch
is the measure of our eminence IN for-
eign trade ~
"Iete me go into the details OF TINS
nlan as far as we can tonight. NO mat
ter whether it is peace or war tne
more than 1OO,OO0.Oo0 people OF TINS
country are vitality interested IN inc
use Of the seas, and the part the Unit
cd States of America shall take Oh
the seas. President Harding has maze
Il clear to me that there is no use Try
ing to put trade on American ships os
bringing to an end treaty arrahse
ments any more than it would be Wise
~ try 10 build I'D a merchant marine
by putting higher duties on Imports
In foreign vessels. That would De diS-
and other foreign ccuh-
tries ould play that game Just as wen
"a We could. Looking at these differ-
ent ideas and turning the whole maj
ter over in our minds, we wonder
what in the world can be done tha'
will help. Our answer is contained Id
The Presidents address to Congress
This plan will allow the importing OF
goods into the United States under
uniform rates, no matter what snip
brings them. Then fund would be
created by taking ten per cent. OF all
hese custom receipts. this fund TO be
used as government aid to the private
owners Of THE ships which Will FORM
,pr new merchant marine. The ships
hat we now own would be sold at the
market price and the books made
clean. It ia certain TO my mind that
we cannot go on carrying the terrific
burden of expense Of hundreds Oh
hundreds of ships now on our hands
built during the war. But we must
have a merchant marine and the gov
ernment can we'll afford to pay to keep
Il I'D II for no other reason than 10
have It ready In case another war
comes upon US.
"of course, there are some people
who will say that 1t would be no saw
Ing for the government to eubs'dize
our shipping and thus pay for keeping
Il I'D. You can easily answer that by
asking them to look up and see what
The emergency fleet we built during
the Great War cost US. II has been
estimated that the cost fthat fleet
would pay for the proposed mainten-
ance plan for 100 years!