Milford chronicle., 1929-12-27
NATIONAL NEWS OF INTEREST
TO EVERYBODY WHO READS
Written for This Paper by
FRANK p. LITSCHERT

Il
After having had tough struggle
since the close of the World War the
American Merchant Marine seems to
be coming into it's own, and this fact
may we'll be q cause for rejoicing on
the part of the American nation.
The signs that our Merchant marine
is coming back are beginning to
multiply. The expansion of the
mail service is one cause for felicit-
alton. This expansion, announced
with the Presidents program OF
keeping business going as usual,
will involve the construction in the
next few years of at least twenty
nine American ships at a cost of
nearly $175,OOO,00O. Four fast steam
ers will go into the North Atlantic
service, and of the total to be con-
structed all but two will go on exist
ing trade routes. The other two
will be required for the extension |
of the service into the Black Sea. |
According to the Associated Press,
construction contemplated in the
program approved includes: One
ship for service between New York |
and Valparaiso, one for the route
from Tacoma to Valparaiso, two |
between San Francisco and British |
Colombia, three between New York |
and Limon, two for the Baltimore
Hamburg line, three between New
Orleans and Puerta Colombia, three
for San Francisco-Co Corinto, three for
New York-Puerto Colombia, two be-
tween New Orleans and the east
coast of South America, and two be-
tween New Orleans and Spanish
ports.
Six of the new ships will be added
to the Merchant Marine by the
American Export Steamship Corpor-
alton according to a contract en-
tered into recently by the Postoffice
Department with that concern, which
operates to Mediterranean ports.
Two ships are to be completed in
1881 and two more the following
wear. One is to be completed in
1885 and the last one in 1886. The
ships are to have a speed of four
teen knots and to cost from two and
a half to three million each. Two
ships of the lot are already under
The signing of this
contract is the first tangible result
Of the new program and it will be
hailed with satisfaction by good
Americans everywhere.
Evidently the move started few
years ago to make the American peo-
ple shipping minded is having its
effect. That this is true is one of
The encouraging signs of the times.
II means that tile American people
will not again be lulled into false
sense of security by the cry that we
are not a shipping nation and that
we cannot have a marine unless we
are feeding some mythical and
wicked shipping trust" from the
American treasury. Propaganda OF
his sort was used to defeat the re-
rival of the American marine for
but with the coming Oh
he World War we were brought TO
he sudden realization of what the
ack of a merchant marine meant to
IS. And we know, too, that mer-
.hant marine is almost as impor-
ant to our welfare in time of peace
IS in time of war.
In a recent address Alfred A.
Iaag, director of the Bureau OF Re-
earch of the United States Shipping
Board. declared that the future OF
he American marine is now brighter
han it has been at any time since
he good old days of the Yankee
Inner ships. He pointed out that
n the decade ending June 50, 1925
american ships carried thlrty-slX
er cent of the nations foreign trade
6 against only ten per cent carried
n the decade which ended with the
of the World War. Mr..
Iaag further pointed out that I'm
lew of the fact that the value of our
,ta1 water-borne foreign trade in
ne decade Just concluded has been
,ore than double that of the decade
nded in 1914, it is significant that
ne 26 per cent gain involved an ad-
ance from an annual average or
zoe. 900 900 to an annual average OF
, 900 .O0O. 900, an increase of more
nan 70 per cent in the value OF our
ommerce carried in American
hips"
All of which is highly encourag-
,g to the man who is still old-fash-
med enough to believe that the
-elfare of his country should be
carer to him than that of any other
alton. These new ocean mail con-
acts will mean not alone the ex-
,nsion of our merchant marine:
hey will serve notice to the world
,at we intend to develop our ship
ing till we have our just proportion
yesseds on the high seas, all sub
,rsive propaganda to the contrary