Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-27
Unsound and Unfair Subsidy

|
| cost of which to- American taxpayers
is estimated at between forty and
seventy-five million dollars, is open to divers
objections on grounds both of principle and
of expediency Touching the former, Sena-
| tor Borah, who cannot be charged with par
tisan prejudice on the subject, recently de-
! clared: "a nation whose citizenship has
been drugged and debauched by subsidies
| and gratuities AMI bonuses, who have sur
rendered to the excuses of treasury orgy,
has taken the road over which no nation has
ever yet been able to effect a successful re-
| treat But aside from such considerations,
| even those who hold no brief against ship
subsidy of itself can hardly fail to see the
crudites, the injustices, the hazards of the
pending bill. Though it's spirit wer' good, its
form is execrable. 1t is proposed, first, to
sell the flower OF the Governments ten mil
lion tons of merchant craft at prices from ten
to fifty dollars ton less than the present re-
placement cost would be. A marine tor
which the public paid upwards of three and
a half billion dollars is to be turned over to
private interests for some one hundred and
fifty or two hundred and fifty millions. Then
the purchasers will be subsidized by sun
dry devices to such an extent that within ten
years they will have received, according to
fair estimates about twice the sum they paid.
Surely, the Unlocking taxpayer excla1ms,
there is some less extravagant method or
keeping our flag on the seas!
But grant that subsidy in this amount ana
by Just this course is needful; still there
remains what, in many respects, is the bills
most sinister provision. This is tersely sum-
med by the New Republic when it points out
that American ship owners are not to benefit
on equal or equitable terms, but that the
utmost discrimination" in allotting subs1-
dies is made possible if not probable. Thus:
Loans at two per cent from the one hun
dred and twenty-five million dollar revolv-
ing fund may be made by Chairman Lasker
and his board in any amount, and to any
persons they may see fit; and may be refused
to any other persons, provided only that,
some sort of reason is spread upon the min
utes of the board The cash subsidy may
be doubled for any ship or any line of ships,
if Mr.. Lasker chooses; or 1T may be taken
away entirely; or it may be set at any
amount between nothing at all and twice the
basic rate. The Leviathan could receive one
million, eight hundred thousand dollars
year under this provision" Still more I'M
warrantable is the power granted the board
''over any existing contracts between COM
mon carriers by land and common carriers by
WATER allowing it, regardless of court de-
cisions, to declare agreements valid or in
valid within its own discretion. One may
not share the New Republics apprehensions
that members of some future shipping
board of low character. would have the OPP
portunity if not temptation Of lining their
own pockets" but undoubtedly they would
have both the opportunity and the tempta-
ton to build up a powerful and tyrannous
political machine.
That due steps should be taken to assure
American independence in the matter of
merchant shipping is not to be ga1nsa1d. Ma
tional defense and national prosperity alike
require that we never again lapse into the
peril of our position at the outbreak Of the
World War, when more than ninety per cent
of our overseas commerce was dependent on
foreign bottoms. The whole country suffer-
ed the consequences of that improvidence, no
region more grievously than the South,
whose staple crop sank to beggarly prices
largely for lack Of ships to carry it to wait
ing markets abroad. Nor is any region more
materially concerned with the future of the
merchant marine than is the South, whose
ports and industries are dependent thereon
for their rightful development. Ships in
plenty there must be, and ships ever de-
pendable for service to America, if the COM
mon countrys interests are to be prosperous
and secure. Moreover, if subsidy be the only
means to these important enus, then it
not be reasonably opposed on mere theory.
But the fact isl if we are to credit COM
petent thinkers on the subject, the subsidy
now advocated would not achieve those ends
So practical an authority as Mr.. Philip Man
son recently declared in testifying before the
Senate committee on commerce. Il say to
you that the only thing subsidies will do
will be to transfer from the public treasury
to the pockets of a few favored steamship
men large sums of taxpayers money;
and, what is worse, it will perpetuate the
graft and incompetence which is now the
real reason for our failure to have an Ameri-
can merchant marine" Before laying upon
the American rank and file an additional tax
burden of between five hundred million and
seven hundred and fifty million dollars,
would not Congress do well to see if fairer,
sounder and surer means cannot be devised?
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Dro%6;no NE Mosb