Evening star., 1929-06-28
Washington Ticker
By the Associated Press.

| By the Associated Press.
A knotty Shipping Board problem
has just been passed up to q Feoeral
| advisory committee for a Judgment
and will likely be several weeks In
| that mill before q solution is forth
coming. The committee, recently Gre
ated by President Hoover, includes
several cabinet members, and Is charg-
ed with making suggestions to the
| Post ONCE Department on the man
ner and size Of subsidies to be paid
boat lines for carrying ocean mails,
| while the problem arises because there
| is actually a market, and a compet-
tive market at that, for some of the
Government merchant marine ton
mage.
When the board recently offered for
| sale the American-France Line, sail
| ing out of North Atlantic cities with
| nine vessels to French ports, and the
| American Diamond Line, with IA ships
| in the low country trade, it received
| two sets of bids on each. The Black
Diamond Steamship Corporation, OPP
orator of the last named fleet, bid
had been in its charge, while the
Cosmopolitan Shipping Co., which had
been operating the French boats, bid
about the same for the others. Then
| the United States Lines, which has
been going to sea heavily lately, offer
ed in excess Of $25 per ton for both
| fleets.
The disparity between the bid prices,
IN private business, would quickly set
ernment has different outlook. The
old operating concerns are held to
have claim ON the boats, Of an In
tangible but definite sort, because Of
their investment and organization for
soliciting cargo In the particular
trades. It has been Federal policy
| to train operating organizations, and
to turn them loose on their own in
initiative after a period, with the idea
Of upbuilding the national sea service.
Likewise, the board would prefer to
maintain as much competition as pos
sible. Yet the higher offer of the
| United States Line for the vessels
makes it extremely desirable.
| Wherefore the appeal to the special
| advisory committee, which in way will
get rather general administrative re-
| that may be made. The mail subsidies,
under the theory of the Jones-White
law which authorizes them, are intended
to be q practical stimulus to national
| shipping interests, not merely q pay
n1Gnt for getting the mails carried, and
President Hoover's proclamation estab-
! fishing the committee instructed 1t to
give particular weight to the possibility
| of establishing additional merchant ma
rine under the American hag in consid-
ering mail payments.
Through one small Office, located In
| Washington, the Panama Canal organ
| 1zation, one OF the Governments well
established business branches, buys about
| $4,000, 600 yearly of supplies and replace
| mentS that go to keep the waterway
open. The list Of things bought is some
what surprising, in that 1t illustrates
the ramiications of an enterprise
that maintains a population, looks after
an imposing military guard and sells
neceSsaries and luxuries Of life to legions
OF people, transmitting by vessel over
| the isthmus.
Everything goes through from
needles to fuel OIL" commenced A. l..
Flint, general purchasing officer of the
canal establishment, but the amount
bought f1uctuates yearly"
The canal and its most important ap-
purtenance. the Panama Railroad Co,
entirely Government owned, run among
other things several farms, a hotel, a
| laundry. a bakery, a coffee-roasting
| plant, an ice cream manufactury, q bot
| Ting works, slaughter house, and a
| sausage plant. There were 5000 head
of cattle on the canals grazing lands at
last count, and there was horse and
mule stable organized as a special sec
ton. This is aside from the commissary
| organization, which is a department
store affair. The railroad company Is
the mechanism for running most of
! them, and the last report figures that
from the whole Of the enterprises there
was net annual profit in excess of
| 1900, 900.
Naturally. canal bookkeeping is far
from simple matter, but the estimates
for the fiscal year 1880 indicate that
the entire expenditure on the waterway
VIII be $l7,649,000, while there will be
received from sales and services through
all the establishments revenues of
| 1880 900. That will leave about
$4,000, 900, regarded as net expense of
operating the canal. From the tolls
paid by ships passing through the
government is likely to receive as much
as $24 900, 900 in the same period, and
win thus have an earning Of perhaps
Sl8,0o0,000. This, of course, takes no
account of the huge investment made
in cutting the path between the oceans.
| Exact causes for the striking reversal
OF the country'S international trade in
May, which resulted in q balance of
100000 unfavorable to the United
States are now coming to light. Occa-
1 - AA1NC ECVhA AcAC III tA1c C1hl
history Of the country when it failed,
as 1t did IN May, to export more than
1t imported. 1t now appears that during
last month crude materials shipped
abroad had . value of but $57, 900, 600,
which was $32.000,000 less than like
shipments In the same month last year.
The great export of American manu-
factured goods hardly contributed to
| the loss at all, since the May manufac-
lures exported amounted to $202 ,000,-
| 600, almost the same as In the same
| month last year. Taken together, the
Two figures are regarded as proving
that the low price of cotton this year
and the reduction in its movement
| abroad were chiefly responsible for
turning the trade balance.
| There was however, a sharp increase
in imports for the month. which mostly
| centered in the class of partly manu-
factured goods. brought into the United
| States for further treatment. The
total of those imports In May amounted
to $85 1000, 900, against $50, ,000, 900 dur
| ing the same month last year. One OF
| the most important factors here seems
| to be the rise in iron and steel imports.
May imports of iron and steel, all par
| TALLY fabricated articles, amounted to
74272 tons against about $4,000 tons
Of such imports in April. Pig iron,
hoops, strips, and cast iron pipe. nearly
all intended for further manufacturing
| In the United States, showed the great
est gains At the same time, American
steel exports fell on.