Imperial Valley press., 1937-10-15

rugged ships which sailed f
of Boston, Salem, Glouceste
North of Europe and the F;
were no pilots. radios, and few light
houses. Captains were not only good
nayigators, but they were also first
class traders and fighters. It was
a great life to develop rugged in
dependence. initiative, and courage.
Hence, as gazed across the At
lantic on the White Star S. S. Ber-
engaria, the lives of my ancestors
came freshly to my mind. I say this
even though I am utterly ashamed
of my luxuries on a modern ocean
liner when l consider the hardships
that my ancestors endured on SIM
liar trips. For instance, one of my
great-uncles, Captain Gorham P.
Low. navigated one of the first sail
ing clippers to take passengers from
Boston to Liverpool. In 1928. he
made one of the fastest trips that
had ever been made and it took
him % days.
Past heeords
Our shipping reached its zenith
before the Civil War. Up until then
foreign trade and carrying of car
goes was major business and
provided much of the wealth which
later went into our industries. When
our country began to turn indus
trial after the Civil War, capital
poured into mills, the maritime in
duStry of Great Britain and other
nations grew more rapidly than our
own. AS time went on, our high
wages, our high material costs, and
our labor trouble became greater
and greater handicap to American
shipping.
The following figures show rough
~ the trend in the American Mer-
chant Marine since the Civil War.
Note the terrific declines following
both the Civil and World Wars:
1861 ............................. 2,379,000 tons
1880 ............................. 1,314,000 tons
1900 .......................-...... $4,000 tons
1910 .............................. $4,000 tons
1920 ...................,.... 9.925 900 tons
1885 a...............4....,........ 4,560000 tons
To appreciate the full meaning
of these figures, you must realize
that the tonnage of all foreign YES
sells entering and leaving this coun-
try has grown to ten times the vol
ume of 1860. Yet American shipping
has barely doubled. OF course, due
to national restrictions on foreign
competition in coast-wise trade, this
latter branch of our shipping has
grown along with The nations in
dustry. Today only one-third of our
vessels are in foreign commerce.
The other two-thirds are in coast
wise, lake, and river trade. But even
this shipping is harried by rail and
bus competition on the one hand
and labor strife on the other.
Many feel that the big lead we
took as a result of the war should
at least have been kept. After all,
we had the vessels. They were a
total loss if not used Hence, Amer
ican shippers could keep them on
the seas for the mere cost of oper-
ating them Why not? That war
time shipyard at Hog Island in the
Delaware River turned out one T.
500 ton ship a day and the great
majority of them are still being
used! The government poured $780,
100000 into that shipyard and it's
ships. American shipping concerns
bought the bottoms as low as three
cents on the original dollar cost.
Yet with this tremendous advantage
we are steadily losing-out in the
race for tonnage.
Moreover, while these government
ships were being operated, other
American vessels remained iale. The
great S. s. "Leviathan", formerly
the "Vaterland" was captured from
Germany. Several United States
firms tried to operate it but COM
pletely failed and it is now being
scrapped. Its sistership, the I'm
perator", however, was taken from
Germany by the British. 1t has
been successfully crossing the North
Atlantic under the British flag all
these years known as the Beren-
garia" 1t was on this boat that I
crossed to Europe
BOunties HO.
Of course, you know that our for
eign competitors subsidize their
shipping concerns in one way or
another. There are figures available
but how thoroughly or fairly they
represent facts in this mysterious
industry, I do not know. 1t seems
that our major competitors-Grea
Britain, Japan, France, and Italy
average bounties of around S15,00O,-
900 year each. Even so, our bit
in that respect was 26,000,000 in
1888 Aside from this, however, II
we look into the problem more care
fully, we shall discover the real fly
in the ointment.