24 OPERATING PROBLEMS OF THE AMERICAN SHIPOWNER. 
Until the fleet can be disposed of there can be no objection to the maintenance by the 
Shipping Board of essential ocean services non-competitive with private enterprise. But this 
situation must be handled very carefully so that private plans may not be blocked. Every 
effort ought to be made by the Shipping Board to turn every one of the essential services over 
to private ownership and management at the earliest possible moment. Many operators dread 
more than foreign competition even the faintest risk of the competition of their government. 
Let me emphasize the truth which all practical men of our industry realize, that the gov- 
ernment-owned fleet can never be sold until ample national aid is provided for the operation 
of those ships after they have passed into the hands of those who have the knowledge and 
the means to use them. Absolutely vital to the success of the American shipowning and 
operating industry is the prompt passage of the great Shipping Bill proposed by President 
Harding. If that fails, everything is lost that has been done toward a permanent restor- 
ation of American shipping in the overseas trade. If that fails, the American people lose all 
hope of realizing anything on their $3,000,000,000 investment in the shipping business. The 
national importance of this measure cannot be overestimated. Our foreign competitors are 
anxiously watching the result of the present legislative effort in Washington. They know as 
well as we know that this bill, once enacted, will make America a great commercial power 
on the seas. They dread the result of national aid applied to shipping exactly as it has been 
so successfully applied in the past to manufacturing, mining and farming in America. 
As President H. H. Raymond of the American Steamship Owners’ Association declared 
recently in his address before the joint Merchant Marine Committees of Congress in 
Washington: 
“Either this present bill must be promptly enacted, or the United States in defiance of 
sound business, and in defiance also of the instinct and conviction of the vast majority of its 
own citizens, will be committed to a policy of government ownership and operation in the 
shipping business, and worse than that, to a policy of governmental subsidized competition 
with American private capital and enterprise. Such an unjust policy as this would not be 
tolerated for a moment by manufacturers. It would not be tolerated by agriculture. It should 
not be imposed on the merchant marine.” 
All American shipowners and operators will heartily approve this declaration, 
The pending shipping measure offers substantial aid to every branch of our merchant 
marine. It proposes that 50 per cent of the immigration into this country be reserved to 
American ships. This of itself will be a most powerful help to the regular mail, passenger 
and cargo lines of transatlantic steamers. Another feature of the bill is the deduction from 
income taxes of shippers of 5 per cent of the freight money on goods exported or imported 
in American vessels. Though this will not directly benefit the shipowners, it will offer a 
strong inducement to shippers inward and outward to prefer the American flag and will thus 
assist to give American ships the full cargoes so necessary to profitable operation. Exemp- 
tion of net earnings of American ships in the foreign trade from Federal taxation, if the 
amount of the exemption is pledged to the building or purchase of new ships, will encourage 
shipbuilding and increase the active merchant marine. The.construction loan fund of $125,- 
000,000, while costing the Government nothing in the long run, will promote the building of 
new tonnage of superior character. 
Very important is the provision in the new bill that will make it possible to secure more 
