The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-09-05
BY EARL R. RRowpER

an countries. Australasia, and the Far
East, render it important that exact
information be available about the
position of the United States in world
shipping, as basis for the program
OF the militant seamen of America to
participate in the world struggle Of
the toilers of the sea.
According to Lloyd's Register, 1924
Is, the total tonnage Of the world is
04,02S,567; of this, 15,956,967 tons are
of United States entry, or approxim-
ately rs per cent Great Britain is
credited with 21,S7S, 500 tons, or "a
per cent of the world tonnage. The
remaining Al per cent is divided al
most entirely among 80 other coun-
tries, the largest of which is Japan.
Japan has 3,S43,707 tons, or 6 per cent
the scandinavian countries, Denmark,
Norway and Sweden, have together z
per cent; France has 3,49S,233 tons,
and Germany 2,953,671; the first
something under per cent and the
latter over 4 per cent. Italy is slightly
under Germany, with 2,S32,212 tons.
The Dutch shipping amounts to
per cent, and the Spanish to Q per
cent. Thus eleven nations control
92 per cent of the worlds tonnage,
of which SO per cent is in the hands
of Johnny Bull and Uncle Sam, leav-
ing 3S per cent to the nine other prin-
cipal countries.S
THE problem of world shipping is,
4 in the light of these figures,
largely a problem of Great Britain
and the United States. Workers in
America must understand this, and
turn more attention to the organiza-
ton of the seafarers, in which is in
volved the future of the whole labor
movement This is even more clear
when the connection is understood be-
tween world shipping and imperial
ism.
All of this tonnage is not in use.
There has been a world crisis in ship
ping for the past five years, with vast
amounts of tonnage lying idle. The
most acute result to the workers in
this crisis, heretofore, has been in the
ship-building industry. In America,
the labor unions in the shipyards have
been almost entirely destroyed. In
Great Britain, the unions have suffer
ed severe defeats and unemployment.
THE amount of idle tonnage in CIV
Il en- in a U. S. government reports
as 6,753,O00 tons for the world, of
which the United States has 4,253, 900
tons, and Great Britain 100000 tons.
More important that the relative am
cunt of idle tonnage, however, is the
tendency Of development. From Jan.
to July /, 1925, the amount of idle
tonnage in the United States increas-
ed by less than one per cent, while
that Of Great Britain increased nearly
so per cent.
1t is this sharp accentuation of the
shipping crisis for Great Britain that
has brought about the struggle now
going on between ship owners and sea-
farers turnout the world. British ship
ping has lost tremendously thru the
decline in British hegemony over the
world market. Even in 1921, the fig-
ures of British imports showed a de-
cline to 74.3 per cent of those Of 1918,
while exports had dropped to 49.S Of
1913; this decline has become even
greater at the present time.''
At the same time that British ship
"A ping is In decay, the opposite is
true of United States shipping. Less
than nine per cent OF the idle tonnage
in the u s, reflects any crisis In trans
portation itself, as distinct from ship
building, The present tremendous
U, s, merchant marine was produced
during the war, by government funds,
and is now being absorbed into the
normal process OF American imperi-
alism, beginning with the sale of vast
quantities of tonnage by the govern
ment to private interests, at a mere
fraction of their value. the process is