Evening star., 1934-05-02
TARIFF MAY BOOST.
MERCHANT MARINE.
Material Benefit Expected
in Reciprocal Trade
Agreements.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

The problem of an adequate"
American merchant marine is showed
into the foreground again by the pres
ent debate over the Presidents rec
iprocity tariff bill. The theory Is
that If American foreign commerce
can be revived on a considerable scale
by reason Of the proposed reciprocal
trade agreements with other nations,
the merchant marine of this country
will materially benefit.
Secretary Daniel c. Roper Of the
Department of Commerce, whose in
terest in the merchant marine prob
lem springs both from desire to pro-
mote foreign commerce and from the
necessity of dealing with the PIT YES
sells now owned by the Shipping
Board Bureau, has given much at
tention to this question. He is con-
vinced that Congress will have to
share the responsibility of developing
a program which will provide for an
effective upbuilding of the merchant
marine and at the same time make
provision for some final disposition Of
the Government-owned ships.
Three General Policies.
There are three general policies per-
tanning to ship disposak which, in
the opinion of Secretary Roper, may
be adopted singly or in combination.
They are:
/. Sale Of ships on the basis Of the
greatest net recovery to the Govern
ment without consideration of any
NJ rNn1inty That fc without
sideration of whether such disposal
will glut further the market and in
crease further the troubles Of ship
owners to find enough commerce to
warrant operation.
2. Scrap the entire remaining Gov
ernment-owned fleet as rapidly as
possible
3. The retention Of vessels which
have a potentially useful value to the
Nation as a reserve for emergency
and national defense purposes.
Favors Ship Subsidy.
These are suggested plans for dealing
with the Government-owned vessels.
So far as the privately owned mer-
chant marine is concerned, Mr.. Roper
offered today views of much interest.
In the first place, he believes that an
outright ship subsidy be provided in
| place Of the present ocean mail con-
tracts. which are merely subsidies in
! camouhaged form His subsidies would
| fall into four classifications: A con-
struction differential subsidy; an op-
Grating differential subsidy; a trade
penetration subsidy when absolutely
needed, and subsidy equalizations
bearing upon the issue. such as for
eign subsidies and similarly related
| factors.
In addition to financial aid to the
overseas American merchant marine,
Mr.. Roper maintains that the Gov
ernment may aid greatly through the
proper and effective Coordination
between the various governmental
departments and other public agen-
cieS to insure that American ships
carry proper share of the cargoes
: arising through governmental activi-
ties" In other words, when Govern
ment agents and Government supplies
travel. they should travel In American
/ flag merchant vessels.
Dackeu Dy roosevelt.
! President Roosevelt has been re-
ported as favoring direct subsidies
+ TOR the merchant marine rather than
/ the mail subsidies. What Congress
will do about the matter whent it is
put up to it is another thing. 1t
baked seriously the last time a ship
subsidy bill was before it, backed by
/ the late President Harding. However,
1t does not seem possible that Con-
gress will be willing to let the over
seas merchant marine go by the
board. 1t had one experience of
pouring out some $4,000 100000 in a
mad effort to build a merchant ma
rine during the World War
A great many of the ships then
constructed in a hurry have been
scrapped. From September %, 1922,
to November 5. 1882, 237 wood ships
were sold by the Shipping Board for
scrapping. for which the Government
received a total of $782, ,748.66, and
426 steel ships with a dead weight
| tonnage Of 2,661 ,381 tons, for which
the Government received SASS, 1887.
All these vessels were sold under
| agreement that the purchaser dis
mantle and scrap. Included among
them were five passenger ships taken
over from the enemy during the war
and one former Army transport.
Government Agreement.
The Government had an agreement
with the Boston Iron g. Metal Co. to
sell for scrapping l25 more ships, but
only 80 Of them were delivered by the
Government, and the Attorney Gen.
eral under a recent opinion held that
the Shipping Board did not have the
Bladder Trouble
FREQUENT call is unpleasant and annoy