Evening star., 1938-11-01
Efforts 10 Keep Pace
In World Shipping
Told by Woodward
New Policies Assure
Success of Lines in
Lanes of Trade

S0SSSSS VI 3ubbSS
Lanes of Trode
The rise and fall of American
predominance in world shipping and
plans to restore the flag to its proper
place among the maritime nations
were described last night in an ad-
dress by Thomas M. Woodward, vice
chairman of the United States Mari
time Commission, on the National
Radio Forum. The speech was ar
ranged by The Star and broadcast
over Nationwide network of the
National BroadcaSting Co. The text
of Mr.. Woodward'S address follows:
Three hundred and thirty-one
years have passed since the keel of
the first American merchant ship
was laid. She was the Virginia. She
was hewn from the Maine wilder
ness, on the banks of the Kennebec
River. She was apparently no more
than 80 feet long, Is feet wide and
7 feet deep. Nevertheless, the hardy
souls who built and manned her
sailed from Maine to the Chesa-
peake Bay and then across the North
Atlantic to Plymouth, England, car
rying salt fish, furs and group OF
Colonists discouraged by the forces
Of nature which they had found
too strong along the coast of Maine
With the Virginia was born a ira
dition-a tradition which was to
carry the United States to suprem-
acy on the foreign trade routes of
the seven seas. For a time, it was
in American ships that majority
of the worlds trade was carried on.
The spars of American sailing ships
were spears in the sides of the Brit
lsh. Even in Colonial days, British
traders were angered by the aggres-
Slveness and success of their Ameri-
can competitors. I recall reading
from the correspondence of Mr.. Ed
ward Randolph, an English gentle
man unfriendly to the Colonies, a
report on the success of Massachu-
setts merchantmen as he saw them
during a visit He was indignant
when he discovered American ships
trading with the West Indies and
most of Europe. He complained
that there was little left for English
merchants to import into any of the
Colonies. He found Massachusetts
ships and men voyaging to Egypt, to
Africa and to Madagascar. And it
was from that stanch beginning
that there came an American mer-
chant fleet that was the envy of the
world.
Postwar Spurt Limited.
Then followed decline. The Amer
1can flag, seen flying almost daily
ON the mainmast of sailing ships
n most world ports, became a less
and less frequent sight. Ships of
other countries were carrying more
and more American cargo. With
only an occasional squirt upward un-
til the World War, generally speak
ing, our fleet deteriorated Then in
1917 and 1918 tremendous effort in
Shlpbullding was undertaken to meet
the requirements of our own ship
pers and our own Navy. War had
brought the withdrawal of foreign
nag ships from the trade routes to
serve their respective countries as
naval auxlllaries. More than S3,OOO,-
0OO,OOO were spent at that time on
the new fleet, but like most things
-porn IN hysterla, success was limited
1t must not be forgotten that a
good part was war expenditure
even as were munitions. After the
war 1t became necessary to provide
all manner Of artificial support to
Keen an adequate fleet upon the
trade routes of the world. In 1928
tile last of the so-called ship subsidy
bllls was passed. The millions paid
operators under this act were de-
signed by Congress to be spent
largely for new construction to re-
place War-built tonnage. However,
100 many operators diverted much
OF TINS money to purposes other
than those primarily intended by
Congress. 1t went into excessive
salaries, commissions, exorbitant
payments to subsidiary companies.
and the new ships anticipated by the
congress failed to materiahze in
any such volume as had been in
tended.
During those years our position
rs maritime power continued to
tc2llne until we fell to fourth place
N tie amount of ocean-going ton
] &c. sixth in speed and seventh in
le age of our merchant fleet. To
.l1e west, we found the Japanese
! crchantmen surprising our own.
10 the east, Great Britain and Ger
many became our betters in this
industry. Finally the disease was
-o!agnosed. President Roosevelt, on
March 4, 1885, sent a message to
congress urging remedy. Con-
eless wrote the prescription out of
which came the United States Mari
time Commission the following wear
At the last session of Congress the
merchant Marine Act of 1886 was
1urther perfected, with the result
that problem, which three wears
ago seemed destitute of solution, NAV
now be answered.
And I wish at this time to express
my appreciation to The Washington
Evening Star for this opportunity
to bring to the radio audience the
story of some of the things which
the Maritime Commission has done
and to tell you of others which we
propose to do in the future to re-
vive the American merchant fleet.
Entire Question Surveyed.
Upon its creation, the Maritime
Commission decided that the most
important task to be undertaken was
thorough and scientific inyesti-
cation of the whole question of the
American merchant marine. The
many experts set to work upon this
study were instructed to take noth-
Ing for granted, to be skeptical and
to probe every corner of the indus
try. These men included scientists
naval officers, lawyers, statisticians.
financial experts, engineers, indus
trial analysts and students of the
problem of ocean-going personnel.