AMERICAN SHIPPING

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 91, 17 April 1923, Page 6

AMERICAN SHIPPING

A large section of the public and an influential section of the Press of the United States are.no doubt disappointed because the Government will remain in the shipping business only until it can sell' its lines without unjustifiable loss, according to a Press cablegram. The desire of the Government and the section of people and Press above mentioned is to possess a merchant navy supreme in tonnage and consistent with the extent and wealth of the United States. It is a desire not free from sentiment, for there was a time when the American clipper, manned by Americans from master to boy, was the formidable competitor of the English ship, and with good reason. But sentiment is one of those peculiar things that cannot be.made to order, even though backed by Parliaments and prodigally financed. The "100 per cent.'American" ideal in respect to manning, for instance, has not yet been attained, for the crews of the United States Government ships last year were 50 per cent. American, 11 per cent. British, 8 per cent. Spanish, and the rest were made up of Chinese, Austrians, Daneß, Swedes, Japanese, Filipinos, Germans, Italians, Finns, Norwegians, and other nationals. The percentages of exports from the United States carried last year were 36 2-3 in American bottoms, 36 1-3 in British ships; the impoi-ts by the United States were, as to 32| per cent., taken thereto in United States ships, while British ships landed 35$ per cent, of the total, or 3 per cent, more than American. It has been observed that in times of prosperity British and other foreign ships secure a larger share of the increased trade than do the United States ships, and in times of depression the latter suffer far more than their foreign competitors. Foreign shipping, it should be remembered, pays higher dues in the States than does American. The proposal to sell the U.S. Shipping Board's lines must be very unpalatable to those Americans who looked to these lines to bring in wealth to the country by way of dividends, to act as auxiliaries to the Navy, and to creale more markets for American goods overseas.