DEVELOPMENT OF A MERCHANT MARINE AND COMMERCE. 22/ 



Our awakening to a realization of this situation has come within the last fifteen years. 

 It began during the construction of the Panama Canal. The desire to be prepared to take 

 advantage of the opportunities that were expected to accompany its completion was respon- 

 sible for arousing many of our ports and commercial bodies to action. A report on Trans- 

 portation by Water, made in 1910 by the Bureau of Corporations, first opened our eyes to 

 some of our port deficiencies, including the lack of public ownership of water frontage at the 

 great majority of ports in tiiis country. This condition has since greatly changed for the 

 better. This growing interest also resulted in the organization of the American Association 

 of Port Authorities, which, with its large membership and through its annual meetings and 

 the publication of papers on port matters, has been a powerful factor in securing the improve- 

 ment of our ports and an understanding of our necessities. This was followed, in 1916, by a 

 very complete and comprehensive report by Grosvenor M. Jones on "Ports of the United 

 States," including terminal facilities, commerce, port charges and administration at sixty- 

 eight selected ports, which was published by the Department of Commerce. 



With the establishment of the U. S. Shipping Board, the importance of ports and port 

 facilities to the development oi our merchant marine was recognized by the organization, in 

 May, 1918, of a Port Facilities Commission, that was authorized to make a survey of the 

 ports of the United States and undertake investigations that would enable the Shipping Board 

 to make the best use of existing port facilities and would further the construction of new 

 facilities. The survey made by this commission showed that the shipi-repair and docking 

 facilities of our ports were inadequate, and steps were immediately undertaken to supply the 

 deficiency. The commission made a study of handling appliances, transit sheds and ware- 

 houses, and of a zoning system under which exports and imports would flow through those 

 ports within economical transportation distance of the points of origin and destination. For, 

 as stated by J. R. Bibbins, in his report on port facilities, presented at the First Congress of 

 the International Chamber of Commerce, held in London, June, 1921 : "The elements of time 

 and cost ultimately control most competitive movements of international commerce, and inter- 

 nal transportation exercises a relatively controlling influence not only upon shipping capacity 

 and allocation, but upon port development and the trans-shipment facilities there required." 

 It is largely for this reason that, aside from the matter of sufficient depth, ships themselves 

 do not determine the character of a port, and that the railroads have played such an impor- 

 tant part in the past history of most of our ports. Among the other investigations under- 

 taken by the Port Facilities Commission was one to determine economies effected by the 

 more rapid turn-around of vessels in United States ports, and the result of this investigation 

 clearly indicated the considerable savings that would accrue to our steamship lines through 

 quicker tum-arounds, made possible by increased efficiency of port operation. 



When the Merchant Marine Act went into efifect in 1920, in order to carry out that por- 

 tion of the law enjoining the U. S. Shipping Board to cooperate with the Secretary of War, 

 with the object of promoting, encouraging, and developing ports and transportation facilities 

 in connection with water commerce, arrangements were made between the Shipping Board 

 and the War Department whereby the work of that character that had previously been per- 

 formed for the Shipping Board by the Port Facilities Commission should be transferred and 

 thereafter performed under the Chief of Engineers by the Board of Engineers for Rivers and 

 Harbors, and that Capt. F. T. Chambers (C.E.C.), U.S.N., Chief Engineer of the Port Facil- 

 ities Commission, would continue his work in an advisory capacity under the Shipping Board 

 and should also serve as consulting engineer in connection with port facilities with the Board 



