Evening star., 1933-09-24

local enterprises. There was not much
left for outsiders when those two mon
sters were at work.
Moreover, the United States had that
unfortunate monster of her own, the
Shipping Board, which was observed at
times to be methodically swallowing
American trade and living on its own
blood streams. No other nation on earth
ever fostered SO astonishing a paradox.
In Central American ports we had at
one time overmanned Shipping Board
vessels competing with privately owned
lines, and waiting for weeks in harbor
for few bags of coffee, or a bundle of
hides. These private American concerns
were being taxed millions of dollars
yearly, and the money was being used
by the United States Government to de-
stroy their trade for them. We can
hardly blame those lines for accepting
the present subsidies when we recall the
subsidies they paid for years to the
Shipping Board.
A LII this, perhaps, was inevitable in the
nature of things An enormous IN
dustry, feverishly evolved out of chaos
during the war, had to experience re-
verses of fortune. But in recent years
we have seen a change. The ballyhoO
has died down Symbolic of this new
sanity is the retirement of the German
built Leviathan. a vessel which showed
for number of years a regular annual
deficit of 81 100000. The money would
have built modern fleet had she been
scrapped 10 years ago. It is possible to
say now that pre-war German ship de-
sign had certain very German technical
peculiarities. The Leviathan had many
of these; so had the Berengaria. It
was really an excellent thing for Ger
many that she got rid of those obsolete
ships so long ago. They cost a great
deal of money to recondition.
Now America has entered on a new
phase in shipping. She has got rid of
not only obsolete ships, but also of senti-
mental illusions She has discovered that
there are things she can do and things
she cannot do. She cannot, for instance,
ballyhoo Americans into travelling in
American ships. She cannot take from
another nation the trade that has been
built up through a century She is
building up her own trade routes and
connections. And with ships like the
Manhattan and the Washington in regu-
lar commission, American passengers
are getting resigned to seeing the Stars
and Stripes over them instead of the
Red Ensign of the Tricolor. Times are
changing.
And there is another aspect of this
change. With the ballyhoo eliminated,
the American merchant marine is de-
veloping a life of its own. Men like
Fried and Stedman are re-establishing a
tradition that needs no hubbub from
publicity experts. The American public
is becoming accustomed to having
American officers reveal courage and
resource without expecting them to in
dorse cigarettes or some other nationally
advertised product.
4 AENTION of the above two distin-
w guished officers of the American
merchant marine reminds us that with
many excellent features We have taken
over from Europe an almost medieval
conception of the demands to be made
upon ships officer. To be candid, the
minds of most ship owners have never
been clear about this. When an officer
performs his duty to his ship and his
owner with skill and fortitude he is a
hero and an honor to his cloth. But
when he discloses himself human being
with a family or sweetheart, and ex-
presses the modest ambition to have a
living wage, with time off ashore to enjoy