Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-02-28
HOLDS GREAT
MARINE VITAL
FOR DEFENSE
Reads His Message in
q House Before Joint
Session.
ANSWERS CRITICS
No More Sectional
Than Manufacture
ing or Farming.
ANSWERS CRITICS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28.-A great
American merchant marine is neces-
sary as the second line Of the Ma
tons naval defense, President
Harding told Congress today in ap-
pealing for approval Of his ship
subsidy program
Such a merchant marine is also, he
added, the highest agency Of peace
and it bears no threat and incites no
suspicion.
President Harding incorporated in his
speech almost bodily the recommendation
Of the United States shipping board for
q direct subsidy amounting to about $780,
100000 a year and calling for various in
direct aids. All these he asked Congress
to approve.
Recognizing the widespread opposition
to agriculture interests - q ship sub
sidy, which has been a political bug
npear" for many years, President Hard
hy emphasized that shipping is no more
sectional interest than agriculture or
manufacturing, and that all sections of
the country stood to gain by a thriving
ocean commerce under the American flag.
4 HARDING COMMENDB
PROPOSED WATERWAY.
He commended the Great Lakes st.
Lawrence waterway project as a broad
visioned enterprise.
Only by means Of subsidies can the
merchant marine of the United States be
made great and the Nation take the
place on the sea which it held in the
early days of the Republic he said.
The President spoke in the hall Of the
House.
"The merchant marine is universally
recognized as the second line Of naval
Defense" he declared. sit is indispensa-
BILE in the time of great national emer
gency. 1t is commendable to upbuftd
and maintain because It is the highest
agency Of peace and amity, and bears no
threat and incites no suspicion.
"And yet 1t Ii a supreme assurance
without which we should be unmindful
of our safety and unheeding of our need
to continue growth and maintained in
nuence."
America cannot hope to compete in
world trade unless it is equipped to
carry its own goods, the President en-
phasized The term subsidy" long has
been hateful" to the American public,
he admitted, but the desire to build up
d merCuduI LAS OuLuNSQ al U6-
feats
CITES DEFEAT OF
EFFORTS IN PAST.
1.-THE conflict between two schools Of
political thought heretofore has defeated
all efforts to employ the Governmental
aid which other nations found advan-
tageous while we held aloof," he con-
tinued.
The President asserted that American
Indifference to the vital necessity of q
merchant marine as part of tse national
defense resulted In waste and extrava-
gance during the war, costing at the
time he came into office $16000,000 a
month and the added humiliation Of
ships libelled in foreign ports.''
Nevertheless, 1t was the American ton
mage that was mainly responsible for
Americas stability to share in the world
trade Immediately following the war. In
all probability the losses we have sus-
tanned in our shipping activities were
fully compensated to the American peo-
pie in the saving Of ocean freights in
that period" he said.
The Presidents recommendations were
embodied in bills introduced in the House
by Representative Green, Massachusetts,
and in the Senate by Senator Jones,
Washington.