The Cordova daily times., 1922-10-12
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1922
NEED OF A SHIP SUBSIDY

Following Attorney General Daugherty' $ recent ruling on the liquor law, by which foreign ships having liquor aboard are prohib- ited from coming within the three mile limit of American waters, Chairman Lasker, of the United States Shipping Board, predicted that Canadian shipping would immediately profit at the expense of America. 'Vancouver,' he said, twill profit at the expense of Seattle and Portland in the Oriental trade, and Mon- treal at that of New York in the transatlantic and South America trade" Promptly upon the heels of this prediction comes the an- nouncement from Montreal in the dispatches of few days ago, that Canadian ships are prepared to take care of any traffic which may be diverted from American ports by the liquor ruling. Chairman Lasker's emphasis of the increased need for ship subsidy to coun- teract the effect of this, is thus given pointed application.
 The United States is the only nation of inn portance in the world which does not grant government aid to it's merchant marine. Every other leading nation, recognizing the import ance for regular trade routes and the neces- sity for merchant ships as a naval adjunct, provides some sort of assistance to private merchant shipping
 Great Britain extends this aid in the form of mail subventions and in one case has combin- ed this with a construction loan For the cur rent year Great Britain is spending 2o5,3oo pounds sterling on her merchant marine. Jap an established her merchant marine by con- structional and operation bounties The oper~ ating subsidy for 1921 was 7,4O2,295 yen with an additional 1,450,000 yen for mail suhven- tions. The Government of Canada makes pay ments for the maintenance of coastal and commercial services. These amounted to over a million dollars for 1921, and this was the lowest for several years. In addition to that, the Canadian government contributes 2|oOo pounds sterling per year to ma1ntaln lne from Vancouver, B. c. to New Zealand and Australia Australia has a government owned merchant marine New Zealand contributes to the support of the line to British Columbia and also to the maintenance of line to San Francisco. France kept up shp subsidy bounty system prior to the war and during the war had a government owned merchant ma rine. The ships have been sold to private con- cerns and the government is paying 57 5OOOOO francs in subventions this year. Italy has used various bountips and subventions for many wears and for the current year is paying 24O, 100000 lire for subventions and 46o7OO,OOO lire for construction bounties. Holland sub sidizes lines operating to the East Indies and pays mail subventions to transatlantic and South American lines. Spain pays an oper- ating subsidy to company operating trans Atlantic lines based on specified rate per mile and also large subsidies to lines operat- ing to African ports Germany utilized mail subventions almost exclusively prior to the war and hui1t uD an extensive merchant ma rine under that system. Since the war the German government has paid twelve-billion marks to reimburse the shipping industry for its wartime or treaty-imposed losses.
 In view of the policies pursued by the other leading maritime nations it is difficult to un- derstand how anyone can expect a merchant marine to be operated under the American flag without some sort of government assis- tance, especially since it is notorious that