Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-23
gds Extraordinary Session
For Sh;;b Subsidy Pie

-HE special session of Congress which
convened Monday was called pri-
marily for the purpose of enacting the
Administrators ship subsidy bill. This meas
ure proposes to sell to private interests for
the sum of two hundred thousand dollars
the nations emergency trade fleet which
was constructed at a cost of three billion
dollars. That appears to be rather heavy
sacrifice, even with ample allowance for de-
probation and with full recognition Of the
fact that nothing Ike wartime values could
be expected in this :ourth winter after the
armistice.
It is on other grounds, however, that OPP
ponents of the bill plant their chief objec-
ton. Unfortunat, as would be the loss of
two billion eight hundred million dollars, or
Of even one-half of that sum, to the taxpay-
ers' till, far graver is the proposal to pay
the purchasers Of the vessels subsidies ag-
gregating seven hundred and fifty million
dollars. "That procedure" Democratic
house leaders declare, would be tantamount
to giving the ships away and then bestow-
ing rewards totalling five hundred million
dollars for their operation by their new
owners"
"It is proposed further that the govern
hundred and twenty-five million dollars for
re-conditioning the old vessels and for build
ing new ones. Loans thus made would bear
an interest rate of only per cent for periods
as long as fifteen years, would be secured
by no other collateral CT we are rightly in
formed) than the ships on which the money
Is borrowed, and would be obtainable in
amounts as large as two-thirds of the mar
ket value of the ships. The minority mem
bers Of the house committee on merchant
marine Interestingly point out that while
borrowing government funds at a rate Of 2
per cent year for term of fifteen years
and up to two-tht 'ds Of the market value of
the collateral, farmers who procure money
from the federal farm land banks pay in
terest at the rate of 6 per cent year for
limited periods and in sums not exceeding
so per cent Of the market value Of the farms
which they mortgage in security"
OF the sundry other well-grounded objec-
lions to the ship subsidy bill as sponsored
by the administration, let one instance suf-
flee. The measure is devoid not only of a
suggestion Of more reasonable or more equit-
able ocean freight rates, but also Of provt-
sions for regulating the charges and bust
ness methods Of those to whom the immense
subsidies and favors are to be extended. The
shipping board is not even required to make
reports OF it's expenditures anu It's acts to
any superior authority nor to go to Congress
for annual appropriations.
The special session of Congress could hard
" have been called for a less warranted or
more generally objectionable purpose. Had
the Republican record been Endorsed in the
recent national election, there would have
been at least the color OF political sanction
for now attempting to press the measure to
passage. But thu Republican record, of
WHICH ILLS very subsidy plOpOodA 10 PAL "
was overwhelmingly condemned. Rarely be-
fore has an American Congress been so en-
phaticslly rebuked " the electorate as the
one which passed the Fordney-McCumber tar,
If bill and which is now summoned to add
to that main dish OF profiteering a subsidy
pie Of some seventy-five million dollars a
year. It is thus in strange disregard, If not
in virtual defiance, of public opinion that the
measure Is urged.
We have been expecting to see in the
paper where someone has inherited a ton Of
coal.