Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-12
GIVING ARMY SHIPS
OPPOSED BY JONES.
Urges President to Deny
Davis Request for Admiral
Oriental Vessels.

| President Coolidge was told today by
/ Senator Jones of Washington, chair
! man of the Senate committee on com
! merce, that il would be a serious blow
/ to the American merchant marine II
a demand being made by the War De
| partment fo- two ships Of the Ad
miral- Oriental Line. operating in the
! Pacific, Is complied with by the United
! States Shipping Board.
1t was explained t. the President
! that Secretary of War Davis wants
these two vessels az Army transports
to replace the Grant and Thomas
which. he contends, are now worn out
and no longer suitable for passenger
cargo carrying in the Army transport
service.
This is the third request the War
Department has made for ships and
this last request will be considered at
"A meeting of the Shipping Board next
Tuesday. According to expressed
views of members OF the board. the
general belief Is that Secretary of
War Davis will receive a fiat refusal
in answer to his demand. In the
meantime it is understood that Presi-
dent Coolidge. since listening to Sen
ator Jones protest, will advise Secre-
tary Davis accordingly.
First Request Denied.
The first request of the War De
partment was for ships operating in
the Pan American Line. now sold to
the Munson interests. These We're re.
fused at the time with the explanation
that to grant the requests would COM
pletely wreck the Nations only serv-
ice to the coast of South America.
Members of the Shipping Board and
Senator Jones, who is the father of
the present shipping act. feel the
same way about the last demand of
the department for the two ships now
in the Pacific and Orient service.
The administration issknown- TO re-
gard the Admiral Oriental Line. oper-
ating the two ships and three others
OF similar type for the Government,
as being of equal Importance with the
Pan-American Line. and it is en-
deavoring to place the ships. which
are still owned by the Government,
under private ownership.
Senator Jones said it would greatly
retard the development of our mer-
chant marine if this request Of the
War Department was granted. He
said he told the President that it is
his intention to do everything within
his power to keep the ships in their
present service. He intimated that
the President was in accord with his
viewpoint.
For Economical Development.
President Coolidge is wholehearted.
ly in favor of a comprehensive devel
opment of the inland waterways OF
the United States. and he believes no
time should be lost in authorization
work, but at the same time he will in.
sist that this expenditure OF public
money be kept within reason.
Various interests have been press
ing him within the past few days to
adopt a very liberal policy in expendi-
lures for waters, but TO all such re-
quests he has given the impression
that he considers the budget estimates
for the work as adequate. Therefore
the President is not expected to he
swerved from the administration :
original inland waterways program
which, while on a scale hitherto unat.
! tempted, will not exceed $4,000, 00U
President Coolidge is convinced that
there is great need for development of
this nature, but he believes those in
charge of the Government should b.
careful 10 consider, at the same time
the state of the Nations Treasury.
Deficiency Fund Urged
During a discussion late yesterday
with Maj. Gen. Taylor, chief of en-
gineers, U. S. A. the President was
told that a deficiency appropriation
would be needed to round out the work
for the current fiscal year. During
this conference they discussed gener-
ally the waterways subject.
The President is known to have fol-
lowed closely the sessions of the
Rivers and Harbors Congress which
were held here this week. Several
delegations from that body called upon
him to discuss waterway development
and TO promote their own pet ideas
for this development.
The President late yesterday sent TO
Congress with his approval an addi-
ton to the budget for the completion
of the American Falls reservoir in
Idaho.
To this message the President at
tached a. communication from Secre-
tary of Interior Work, in which the
latter pointed out that an estimate of
100000 for the Minidoka irrigation
project. in Idaho, was carried in the
budget for the next fiscal year and as
serted that the s1,620.00 additional
amount was required for completion
of American Falls reservoir. under
that project, to a capacity of 200 900
square feet.