The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-27
GIVING HARDING his WAY.

President Harding has been prom
ised by Mr.. Mondell. floor leader of
the house. that the ship subsidy bill
will be put thru that body next We'd
nesday. Probably he knows what he
is talking about. 1t has not been I'M
usual in the past for the lower branch
of congress to enact a piece of bad
legislation and leave the senate to
rescue the country from its conse-
quences- And the senate often has
been found dependable But always
there is possible log rolling to be
feared.
If the subsidy bill shall by any
chance become a law the American
people will find themselves no nearer
the accomplishment of their desire
for a merchant marine than they are
today. The past history as well az
present condition of ocean navigation
prove that, the seas being free to COM
merce. the best ships Will win. This
means, of course, the ships that give
the best service. That includes not
only low rates OF freight, but skill, a
thoro understanding of the methods
and needs OF the great trade between
nations-in a word, mastery of the
business of a merchant marine.
The moment We try. to dodge these
hard necessities we fall" declares the
New York Times Then the instinct
of some public men is to think up
device which will enable-us to make
money out of international shipping,
tho we manage it badly. The resort
is to monopolies or subsidies, or legal
contrivances to impose handicaps and
restrictions upon our rivals or COM
petitors. Moreover the very feeling
that by government aid or some other
form of favoritism our shipping COM
panies can be pulled out of their diff.
nculties tends directly to make them
careless or slovenly in the conduct of
their business.
An American who has spent some
time in Singapore as the representa-
tive of a large American exporting
concern, wrote recently to the Spring
field Republican:
During the last six months I have
received American shipments of sew
eral hundred cases and shipped by a
vsriety of lines-American, Japanese.
British and Dutch. Not only has there
been not the slightest evidence of dis
elimination, but as a plain matter of
fact conspicuously the best service re-
ceived has been from an English line,
while the only out-and-out example
of bad service was from an American
Inc operating for the account Of the
shipping board.
The fact that our shipping men have
not more resolutely grappled with the
realities of their business, if they ex-
pect to hold their own on the free
ocean routes, probably is partly due to
their feeling that, if they fall behind,
the government will somehow come to
their rescue President Harding is
willing to- do it. He declares that it
must be either subsidy or a blunder-
ing government operation at loss, or
the selling of our ships abroad or else
scrapping them at home. But why not
sell them at home for whatever they
will bring in the market? 1t is only
a question of taking a heavy loss one
way or the other. and sooner or later.
'If the government ships could be
turned over to Americans at low
prices. and then the order went out to
our shipping concerns that they must
depend upon their own efforts, sink or
SWIM" says the paper quoted above,
there would be great force in appeal
ing to American initiative and Ameri-
can pride. Then indeed We might
hope for restoration of the old race
of American seamen who whitened
every ocean with their sails and asked
no favors from anybody. Meanwhile,
to take money from the taxpayers to
bolster up a losing enterprise is pro-
cedure (which the American people
are evidently in no mood at present to
applaud or to approve"