Evening star., 1947-01-02

plagued with the prospect that we
shall tumble from our present PIN
nacle of shipping strength at least
back to where we were before the
war. If fairy godmother offered
TO grant them two wishes, they
probably would ask:
/. For o greater public awareness
In this country of our merchant
marine and its problems.
2. For q few passenger ships-the
kind known as ocean liners.
1t seems, at first. a queer set OF
choices. The first wish Is obvious.
for it cannot be denied that this
country viii never be real seagoing
power in peacetirne until Americans
begin to think of 1t as seagoing
power. But among all the other
problems besetting our shipping
leaders, one might think that the
presence in our merchant marine OF
q few more or a few less passenger
ships would be matter of relative
unirnportarice.
Would Balance Fleet.
Yet, the two wishes are, in fact,
closely related,
The argument that the United
States merchant fleet needs some
ocean liners Is most often based on
the thought that-particularly in
the kind of shipping nucleus which Is
all this country seems capable OF
employing In peacetime-the nu-
merical size OF the fleet does not
matter so much as its balance and
efficiency.
This is reasonable. 1t is in war
that we really need merchant
marine, and during the last war the
proven weak spot of our fleet was in
its passenger carrying category. We
would have been hard put to it to
get along, in this respect, without
the help of allied ships, particularly
the large British liners.
But there is another, more subtle
and perhaps, more fundamental
reason for the pressure today behind
O program for the construction OF
American passenger ships. 1t Is
that, more than anything else, the
liners are calculated to build that
public interest in the merchant fleet
80 conspicuous by its absence today.
Advertise Cargo Ships.
More than general public interest,
of course, is at stake here. It Amer
lean manufacturers travel in Our
ships, they are more likely to send
their goods abroad in our ships.
Far sighted leaders of the shipping
industry think that by providing our
businessmen with fast. efficient and
pleasant personal overseas trans
portation, they may be obtaining
the best possible advertising for their
cargo ships. They want, and need,
to break down the curious American
tendency to prefer foreign service at
sea to our own. even where competi-
tion is apparently on an equal foot
ing.
There Is the additional fact that
passenger ships, If they can be
operated on paying basis, provide
overseas shipping companies with
their only source Of immediate, reg
ular income.
However, considering the always
high and now enormously inflated
cost schedules of American shipping,
there is a tendency throughout our
maritime industry to regard passen-
ger ships as expensive white ele-
phantS--too costly to earn their
keep.
Builders Hold Off.
The United States has only one
real, modern ocean liner-the Amer
ica-now operating on the North
Atlantic route, the worlds most i'm
portant. 1t is doing so under char
ter. The Government owns 1t, and
nobody wants to buy 1t.
Private shipping lines are holding
In allegiance plans TO build q few
liners of more modest size, until
they have a clearer idea what the
postwar tax position is going to be
for them, and what they can count
on by way of Government subsidies.
The Government, with an eye to
the strategic importance of bal
anced merchant fleet, is interested
in getting passenger ships built. 1t
Is, however, not so interested in pay
ing the bill. Last summer. it backed
out of an ambitious program it had
sponsored for building six big liners.
Most of the money would have come
out Of public funds.
Nevertheless. despite obvious dif-
ficulties, the shipping industry and
Maritime Commission are thinking
inte1igently today in terms OF the
overall connection between various
types of overseas transportation.
They know the industry can more
easily be made a paying proposition
by treating it as one complete, in
tegrated service than by concen-
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