Evening star., 1922-07-16

/
Board Emergency Fleet Corporation
is found in the long list of steel yes-
4 sells. OF the active vessels 4eE Are
4 steel and ten are wooden and Conn
posite vessels-tugs. as a matter OF
fact. But 1.011 of these steel vessels
are tied up, inactive, and SSS of them
are cargo vessels tied up. The gov
ernment has nine concrete vessels
tied up and 23s wooden and COM
posite vessels. The total tonnage or
this great merchant feet is put down
as 1l,114,966 tons, really tremendous
tonnage, yet only about $500, 900 tons
are active or appear to have a chance
of being active at this time.
The assignment of Shipping Board
| vessels for the month Of June to
trades is given as follows: To the
I Army and public health service, .
vessels, with tonnage of 1885: to
| northern Europe. III vessels. with a
| tonnage of 1.513,542; to southern Eu-
rope, 35 vessels, with a tonnage OF
27S,09s; British India, vessels, 55,179
| tons; Australia, IL vessels, 96,704
tons; the orient, SO vessels, 543.ss2
! tons: Dutch East Indies, vessels.
tons: South America, 3S vessels, 31I,-
6ss tons; West Indies and Caribbean
sea, 10 vessels. 4l.704 tons; foreign
service. 1s vessels, 1l1.sSS tons; domes-
! tic, 10 vessels. 69,123 tons. 90
Il y n
A canvass of sentiment in the Sem
ate and House reveals the fact that
! there is a strong majority in favor
Of doing something" for the Ameri-
i can merchant marine. This is not
confined alone to the republicans by
any means. The democratic leader
of the Senate, Mr.. Underwood, be-
lieves in giving aid to the merchant
marine. though he has not committed
j himself to the administration bill.
Senator Ransdell of Louisiana, demo- :.
| crat. has committed himself whole
heartedly to the bill. and his col
, league, Senator Broussard, and Sena-
tor Walsh of Massachusetts and Sen
ator Pomerene of Ohio are other
democrats whose support of the
! measure is expected. AS a matter Of
! fact, the democrats are largely re-
sponsible for the building up OF the.
great merchant fleet now owned by
the government, though it was to
! meet a war emergency. They were
| in charge of the government. They
take pride in the fleet, and desire
to see it continue on the seas carry,
ing the American flag.
AS Senator RansdeI pointed out in
/: detailed statement in support or
/ the ship subsidy bill in the Senate,
/ the democrats in the past have cup
ported ship subsidies, particularly in
| 1880. when large subsidies were
granted by this government to Ameri-
can ship builders and operators to
/ compete with the British-and with
| success.
The fear in Congress appears to b.,
that the middle west will not ap-'
prove a plan for ship subsidy, since
it will not benefit directly. But the
great indirect benefit of having Amer
lean bottoms when they need them TO
carry the product of field, factory
and mine overseas should weigh
strongly in favor of the proposition.
A great campaign of education to
show the people of the middle west
how they will benefit from an Ameri-
can merchant marine is now being
launched by the government and by
the American Merchant Marine Asso-
citation, of which Senator Ransdell il
president.
One senator who favors the sub
sidy plan and who has studied the
situation in Congress insists that the
fnr "a adninio-
tration to obtain favorable action on
| the measure is to have the bill taken
! up at the beginning of a session of
Congress and have the administration
focus its entire strength and atten-
| ton upon getting it through. After
the election, he contends, this may
best be attempted The President
could call Congress here In special
| session, November Is, say, after the
t election, and ask 1t to give its entire
attention to ship subsidy. By the
opening of the regular session. in De-
cember. he insists, the bill would be
| ready for passage, or certainly soon
thereafter.
The injection of the prohibition
issue into the controversy over ship
| subsidy has muddied the waters con-
siderably. Members of the House
realize that they will have to vote
wet" or dry on the amendments
proposed to be offered to the subsidy
! bill to prevent any American vessel,
! receiving the benefit of the subsidy
from selling liquor on board any
where in the world. They do not
want to have 10 vote on this vexed
question just before the election
comes of, in which their political
fates will be decided.