Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-02
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

There must be two sides to the
question Of whether this country
needs and demands a merchant ma
rine-just as there are two opinions
about growing sweet potatoes, accord
ing to the aged darkey OF Old Wiz
ginia, who explained:
my ole marse say sweet potatoes
grow best in sandy soil, an l say
sweet potatoes grow best in sandy
soil-and so we 'sputes and 'sputes.
Senator Duncan U. Fletcher OF
Florida declares that he is going to
get a definite Interpretation of the
present law, passed in 1920, which
created the Shipping Board and pro-
vided that it should organize and
maintain an adequate merchant ma
rine, with the view ultimately to sell
ing out from Government ownership
to private ownership, providing, how
ever, that in the sales to private own
ers the buyers must be American cit1-
zens and must obligate themselves to
maintain service upon the prescribed
routes for five years.
Now comes the Senator with re-
vival of his resolution, introduced and
filibustered in the Sixty-ninth Con-
gress, which he proposes to make an
issue in the next presidential cam
paign and in Congress next Winter.
He announces that, like the boy on
the burning deck, he will stand right
there in defense Of permanent mer-
chant marine and stop this practice
Of selling ships for five cents on the
dollar, with mere pledge to run
them five years, when everybody
knows that in the life of nation
five years Is but as yesterday and as
tale that is told-a short story, as it
were. So the Senator rises as the
eternal champion Of a merchant ma
rine against the nefarious opposition
of-whom?
There is Chairman O'Conner, head
Of the Shipping Board, who Is the Of
1cial spokesman of the administration
so far as concerns its policy Of per.
manent merchant marine. Logically
one would expect the opponent of
Senator Fletcher to be bent on scut-
Ting all the aforementioned ships,
from the Leviathan down to the small.
est launch. This Is how Chairman
OConner talked in a speech at Buff
falo last October:
IF there is one national policy def
nitely and clearly fixed by expression
United States shall have an adequate
merchant marine for commerce and
for national defense. Those who
would go around seeking to make it
a matter Of debate need only to read
the merchant marine act Of 1920.
That act Of Congress, passed by a
Republican Congress and signed by a
Democratic President, settled for all
time that the United States was to
have a merchant marine sufficient to
carry so per cent of our own COM
merce, as a means Of national Sc
curity and development Of our foreign
trade"
Now It seems to a layman that
Sweet potatoes really do grow best
in sandy SOIL" so the dispute is on.
We are to have a permanent" mer-
chant marine, for the North and
South agree on that, If they never
agreed on anything else.
X y \ X
But what about the campaign issue?
Senator Fletcher is not Socialist;
ne says he does not believe the Gov
eminent should compete in business
with anything which private enter.
prise can handle, but he declares that
when the Shipping Board demon.
strates that running ships in our for.
e1gn commerce is a losing enterprise
1t cannot expect private investors TO
undertake it; therefore, the Govern
ment must maintain the business or.
according to the Shipping Boards
own showing, the business will for.
ever be a loss, discouraging private
capital
Overlooking or explaining the &c..
OOO,000,000 loss of the Government.
controlled railways during the war
and the surplus labor it required, he
cites the following as proof that Gov
eminent management Of ships should
be better than private enterprise:
The first three voyages of the Le-
viathan, from July to September,
1923. We're OF a character that would
show what a private operator could
do in commercial operation. The off.
cial records show that the three vow.
ages from July to September. 1924.
when the vessel was under the man.
agement Of Mr.. Gibbs, shows a profit
OF $277 ,406.41. The same three vow.
ages, from July to September, 1924,
under Government operation, showed
a profit Of S454.S55.O1."
II that does not make prima
rac1e case for Government ownership.
what does it show? Details might
not contradict that straight statement
of comparative profits, suggests an ex.
pert, but might discount the ascrited
cause of the difference, by showing
general improvement in commerce.
the revival Of markets and the years
addition to the advertising of the
great ships facilities, etc. Good will
In business. like the imperial city of
Rome, was never built in a day.
Chairman O'Conner, even when ad-
dressing Johnny Bull in London,
thrust this pointblank defiance at com.
petition:
"It should be clearly understood
that the American Congress has de-
clared for a permanent merchant ma.
rine, privately owned If possible, but
a merchant marine anyhow"
So Senator Fletcher and Chairman
O'Conner are that near to full agree.
ment that the merchant marine per-.
nnanant nd3ntanan ca is not omen to