The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-07-20
Pres. Harding Will
Not Tell UCertainFacts


try to sound sentiment on the pend
ing Ship Subsidy bill. Unfortunate
". he will not tell certain facts about
the effect of this bill-he is so in
tensely for the measure that he will
sing it's praises, with none present
to state to the audience the follow
ing truths which the people are en-
titled to know:
The bill proposes to turn over to
q the shipping trust s3,000,000,OOo
worth of fine steel ships built by the
government, the most modern fleet in
the world, most of them oil-burners.
The people of the United States own
these ships. The bill proposes 10
sell them to this group of capitalists
for 5000, ,O0O,0OO, or one fifteenth OF
their cost.
The bill also proposes to lend these
men s125, 100000 to recondition the
ships. If they had been properly
cared for during the Harding ad-
ministration this would not be need
ed.
The bill provides for the payment
of subsidy of s750,Oo0,0o0 to the
capitalists in the next ten years for
using this great grab of ships for
their own private gain. During
three recent years the Atlantic Gulf
and West Indies Steamship company
made'a clear profit of 100 per cent.
on it's shipping business without
subsidy; the published reports OF the
company show this, and it is merely
used here as an example because it is
one of the largest Of American COM
panies. During the war some ships
earned their entire cost in one trip.
There is no reason why any of them
should fail to be self-supporting at
any time.
This subsidy will be paid eV-
en- to the value of the ships
of the Standard Oil company
and the Steel Corporation for
transporting their own products
in their own ships for their own
profit. Is it any wonder they are
all for Harding? And the passage
of this bill greatly increases the list
of calling places for the campaign
fund collectors of the Republican par
ty when Mr.. Harding comes up for
reelection. Is it any wonder, there
fore, that Warren is for the bill?
Under this bill the army and navy
transports will be abolished-sold for
Junk at great loss-and the busi-
ness turned over to the trust, when
we already have the ships, built and
paid for-not only the transports
but the merchant feet-in our own
possession. Is there business man
in the country who would make such
deal?
The bill does not require any re-
ports to be made to congress and no
accounting as to earnings of these
ships. Thus the people will never
know how badly the Republican par
ty sold them out.
The bill exempts the shipping trust
from the payment of all federal tax
es, providing the amount is set aside
for the building of new ships-and
all the time the party is claiming that
too many ships are already built for
the business being done-under Re-
publican administration.
The bill makes no provision for
regulation of freight rates on the wa
ter and creates a gigantic combina-
ton which can make rates as high
as it chooses and leave the shippers
helpless. Whether they will make
the rates high can be determined by
barking back to the open robbery OF
the war rates.
In the committee hearings practi-
cal steamship men admitted thatlthe
wages of our seamen do not hurt the
American steamship in competition
with European vessels. Their testi-
mony showed that the difference in
tfes wages does not exceed two per
cent. John C. Seager, Jr., vice pres
ident of the Seager Steamship COM
pany, admitted in the hearings that
there is no reason why American
ships cannot compete with the world
under present conditions; his and
other companies are doing it. The or
ly difficulty he saw was that some
of the American companies paid very
large salaries to unnecessary execu-
tives, some of them as high as $780,
900 per year, greater than that OF
President Harding.
The bill provides for the shipping
board to make subsidy contracts with
the shipDing trust covering periods