BANQUET. 251 
ADDRESS BY HON. WILLIAM J. LOVE, VICE-PRESIDENT 
OF THE EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION. 
Mr. Toastmaster, Honorable Secretary, and gentlemen, Mr. Stevenson Taylor’s letter 
arrived in Washington at a time when we were all very busy. After I finished reading the 
first paragraph, which contained an invitation to this dinner, sent to me by the chairman, I 
was uncertain whether I could come. .When I got back to my desk and was about to 
make up my mind I would accept it, I saw the second paragraph, which contained an invi- 
tation to speak. Then I made up my mind that the old saying was true, that those who 
dance must pay the piper, whether it was in making speeches at dinners, or any other thing. 
If you will bear with me, then, I will give you a little picture of the present conditions of 
American shipping, as viewed from a shipowner’s standpoint. 
It is not necessary for me to delve into the history of American shipping since the 
Revolution, as all of you no doubt are better posted than I am. Sufficient to say that we 
are aware of the many bright, if not brilliant, achievements associated with this period of our 
growth, and to conclude that, once having been successful, we can again succeed—not by 
talking or “waving the flag,” but by commercial freedom and hard work in which we will 
need the assistance of “all hands and the cook.” 
The entrance of our country into the World War in April, 1917, found our shipping 
in a deplorable condition, at least with respect to world-wide general cargo trading, and my 
entire remarks are on this basis, that is, excluding services to contiguous countries, to the 
West Indies and Central America. A brief description will be helpful. 
On the Pacific there were, I think, two American flag steamers trading to the Orient 
—the China and the famous Minnesota—and three to Australia via our South Sea Island 
possessions, the old established Pacific Mail Company service to the Orient having disap- 
peared about a year previously. 
There were perhaps eight or ten ships under our flag trading to Central America and 
the west coast of South America. 
Off the Atlantic Coast we had the American Line to Southampton and one or two pas- 
senger ships to Antwerp. The Atlantic Transport Company was using the recently acquired 
ships of the Pacific Mail in its London trade. 
The splendid fleet of the American Hawaiian Company was principally engaged in the 
intercoastal trade and to the Hawaiian Islands. 
The fleet of the United States Steel Company was in its infancy, they having a few 
steamers trading with their products and general cargo in various directions. 
This will give you a fair picture of the activities of American ships in world commerce 
prior to the war. 
Untold difficulties were experienced in getting the first 20,000 troops to France. It 
was not long before it became evident that ships were needed more than any other thing to 
win the war, and it was with this object that our fleet was conceived and built. Later, of 
course, it became equally evident that it would be an important factor in commercial trading. 
Subsequent to the armistice, the great fleet of some 1,500 steamers was divided among, 
roughly, 270 firms, many of them overnight creations, without experience, without the proper 
personnel, without foreign agencies to manage and parallel the established routes of maritime 
nations established for hundreds of years. 
