The St. Joseph observer., 1922-11-18
A REVOLT is EXPECTED
ON SHIP SUBSIDY BILL



Continued From Page One)
their political lives last Tuesday will
not be obedient followers OF President
| Harding In passing the ship bonus
. bu as they were in euacting the
prortcers' tariff bill If the president
hasn't learned the situation from the
elections it Is felt that most Of the
/ Republican congressman have derived
a salutary lesson from it and are not
likely to forget It within tho short
. space OF thirteen days.
President Harding will find the
marshanng OF enough votes to pass
| his pet measure in the special session
/ or the regular session beginning next
month difficult task, It is predicted.
It is expected that instead Of quick
disposal Of the bill, the president may
. he met in the senate by a demand for
an Investigation Of the auspices under
which the ship bonus scheme was
, conceived.
Americans are just now receiving a
painful demonstration of the fallacy
Of the Republican claim that high
. priccs--an increase in the cost Of liv-
. ing-shall always be accepted as tho
efficient cause Of prosperity. The
whole philosophy of Republican
tariff is that the people can put
money into their pockets by taxing
/ thcmge'vcs that the larger the prices
I they havc to pay for what they con-
sumo the more sure they are to have
. the whcrcwithal to pay.
The cost Of living is at a higher
level than it was a year ago. All the
prices the consumer must pay are
/ higher by some or 10 per cent
/ Prosperity should be almost at the
zenith. If it grows with the rise in
. prices in accordance with the Repub-
lican formula. Tho public is well
/ aware. however, that the wagc-work-
/ ors. the farmers, the small business
man. the great mass of Americans
/ whose only income is their salaries
are no more prosperous today than on
/ the same day and date in 1921.
Bankruptcies and commercial fail
ures are as numerous as they have
| been at any time since the Republic
/ cans took charge Of the government.
/ The prices Of agricultural products
received by the producers are the only
/ prices that have not scared under the
/ stimulus OF the Republican prcscrip-
tlon. Even these products, when they
, have left the farmers hands and are
sold TO the consumer az manufactured
commodities. are dcarcr than they
were a year ago. The Republican
/ tariffs-two Of them-have done moth
I ing for agriculture ana good deal to
/ its detrimcnt, notably by increasing
. the cost of everything that agricul-
turists require.
ship sold by I.askcr for $1,000 Burns
/ Developments following the partial
7 destruction of a wooden ship sold by
the United states Shipping Board to
| a private corporation for about $1,000
have furnished striking comment on
the value OF the vessels Of the govern
ment fleet which the Harding admin
istrat!on IS trying to sell for about ten
per cent of its original cost,
It is announced in a news dispatch
from Alexandria, Va, that the West
ern Marine & Salvage Company, which
I has been buying ships from the ship
ping board, is employing 100 men in
the work Of dismantling these vessels
and it is to engage about 200 more.
The hull Of the Alanthus, the ship
/ which was damaged by fire on October
- is being pumped dry, after burn
ing to the waters edge, and her ma
chinery i3 TO be salvagcd The dis
patch to the Washington Post semi
Official organ Of the Harding admin
i-tratIou and advocate Of the presi-
dents ship bonus bill under which all
the government fleet would be sold to
private interests, says:
at is believed that the machinery,
which constitutes the most valuable
part Of the salvage, is practically un-
injured by either the fire or the flood T.
ing which followed"
When the ship burned, the Wash
ington Times published a dispatch
from Alexandria giving the informa-
tlon that according to the officials
Of Alexandria. it IS estimated that
the damage Go the Alanthus) was
$25, 900"
1t is difficult to understand how a
ship that was sold for $1,000 could
suffer damage Of $4,000 unless the
price paid by the purchasers was very
much less than the true value. But
the fact remains that a big corpora,
tlon find advantage I'm hiring 100 mer
to dismantle the Alanthus after Tho
huh has been ruined.