, 1922-03-03
A c UP u RoATs.

No movement for a permanent American merchant
marine can succeed unless the people OF the nation are
behind 1t. And on the other hand it will succeed If
shippers and overseas tourists recognize their pa
triotic duty and patronize American ships.
Government officials are already intimating to sub
ordinates that our merchant marine should be given
the preference in booking passage and in making ship
ment Of goods. This, coupled with the publicity cam
paign put on by the shipping board, ought to bring
results.
1t is well to remember in this connection that the
sole reason for the traditional British supremacy in
maritime commerce is the fact that the British people
have been behind their shipping men and their gov
eminent in their determination to maintain their mer-
chant marine second to'none- 1t is bred in the bone
of the Britisher that the safety Of the empire depends
as much on a successful commercial fleet as it does
on an adequate navy. School children are taught the
advantages to their country in lending encouragement
to British shipping, and are given study courses in
foreign commerce that make them familiar with the
principal ports of the world, ocean trade routes, and
the products and needs of the various countries. Their
interest in maritime commerce is thus aroused at an
early age, and it remains with them through life. Gov
ernment aid in the shape of loans and subsidies to ship
builders and operators is taken as a matter of course
in Great Britain.
In the United States there is quite as much atten-
ton to problems of national defense as elsewhere, but
the minds of the people have not, up to this time,
been sufficiently aroused to the Importance of a mer-
Chant marine as a guaranty of safety. The recent
treaty for the limitation Of naval armament has
brought renewed emphasis to the subject. With the
capital ships of big navies held down in tonnage and
gun power by arbitrary rules, as they will be for at
iSaSt beH car u COHt, IndC HaJlOn Will nave M pre-
ponderant power that has at its command a big mer-
Chant fleet capable of prompt conversion into aux
iliary cruisers or transports. Had it not been for the
huge British commercial feet, the German U-boat cam
paign would have brought the speedy surrender of
Great Britain. More than half of the American army
was transported to the front in British vessels. If
they had not been avilable there might have been A
different ending to the war. How much more signif-
cant are those facts now that the strength of navies
is to be restricted.
Then too often in the pas. the discussion of our
merchant marine has taken n N sectional aenacfe r;ti
zens of the middle western states have been inclined
to look upon shipping as an industry of those states
in proximity TO either coast, but of no special inter
est to them. The observation has frequently been
made that if foreign ships can do our ocean carrying
cheaper than our own it is better to give the business
TO them OF course such a viewpoint takes no note
Of the commercial independence and national security
that a merchant marine under our own flag gives.
Those factors are of as much concern to one section
oil the United States as to another. Their proper ap-
probation by the people generally is all that is needed
to insure our future upon the seas.