April 1, 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



375 



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HENRY C. PEARSON. Editor 



Vol. 56 



APRIL I. 1917 



No. 1 



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^able of contents on last page of reading. 



AMERICA ON THE SEAS. 



ALTHOUGH crude rubber prices in the United 

 States have risen somewhat, the submarine menace 

 has as yet affected the supply scarcely at all. Neverthe- 

 less, the importance of a larger merchant marine grows 

 daily in the minds of rubber, cotton and other importers 

 and exporters of raw materials and manufactured goods. 

 American commerce of every sort is carried on to a great 

 extent in foreign bottoms, principally British, and as 

 more and more ships have been requisitioned for war 

 transport, and the toll of sinkings has increased, both 

 importers and exporters have oftener experienced an- 

 noying delays and higher cargo rates because of the lack 

 of adequate tonnage. Henceforth we shall have the full 

 benefit of our armed merchantmen, but if, as now seems 

 likely, the United States is destined to suffer greater 

 losses through ruthless submarine activities the need of 

 ships is likely to become more pronounced. 



London and Berlin figures are widely at variance, but 

 submarine warfare, measured by either, has thus far 



fallen considerably short of its aim. Yet the campaign 

 can hardly be said to be altogether a failure, although 

 the list of submarines captured and destroyed is also 

 believed to be a large and growing one. British em- *-i 



bargoes and greatly restricted imports will minimize the ^^/^l- 

 effect of ship losses and conserve cargo space to the ut- ^^ 

 most, but, of course, British exigency will have first con- ''''' 

 sideration in determining to what British cargo space 

 shall be devoted. 



The question whether America can have a merchant 

 marine of its own worthy of the name is already 

 answered. Bureau of Navigation statistics show that we 

 can and do have one of more than 4,000,000 gross tons, 

 exclusive of lake and river trade, that ranks second in 

 the world's list, although only one- fourth England's 

 tonnage at the outbreak of the war. Better still, last year 

 was the third best in our shipbuilding annals. There 

 were constructed in American shipyards 1,163 vessels of 

 520,847 gross tons to sail under the American flag, 886 

 vessels of 405,744 gross tons being for foreign trade. 

 The figures for 1917 promise to be much more encourag- 

 ing, for on February 1, American private yards were 

 building, or under contract to build, 415 steel ships of 

 1,529,854 gross tons and 161 wooden vessels of 207,623 

 gross tons, most of them for ocean trade. Inadequate 

 as is our new merchant marine, it provides the founda- 

 tion upon which standardized construction and bulk pro- 

 duction, as in the automobile industry, will build a great 

 overseas carrier system of the future if properly safe- 

 guarded. 



As a result of the war, high freight rates and scarcity 

 of tonnage have rendered shipping under American 

 registry very profitable, but this will not long continue 

 with the coming of peace. The certain prompt replace- 

 ment of British and European tonnage will in a few years 

 reverse the situation unkss preventive measures to pro- 

 mote our own reawakened shipping industry are taken 

 in time. It is a national duty to protect the capital so 

 courageously invested under only temporarily favorable 

 circumstances in this potential American asset. Our 

 shipping laws must be such that we can meet our own 

 cargo requirements and compete successfully with other 

 nations for a rightful share of the world's commerce. 



RAILWAY SERVICE MUST BE MAINTAINED. 



THE epochal decision of the United States Supreme 

 Court upholding the constitutionality and enforce- 

 ability of the Adamson law, establishing an 8-hour day in 

 computing railway wage schedules, appears permanently 

 to have eliminated the probability of future transporta- 

 tion paralysis such as twice threatened to imperil the 

 nation during a gravely momentous i)eriod in its history 

 and to bring American industry virtually to a standstill. 

 The majority opinion is of far-reaching importance in 

 declaring that both carriers and employes engaged in in- 

 terstate' commerce charged with public interest are sub- 



