366 BANQUET. 



rice and sage; and before the opening of the Panama Canal, coal and manganese ore have 

 made up the bulk of our imports. 



This leaves, then, for consideration the great Mediterranean and European countries, to 

 which the vast bulk of our exports goes, and f rom whom, in return, we receive relatively in- 

 significant tonnage of imports. The exports cover practically the entire range of our produc- 

 tion. Here we are met by one of the most remarkable results of these studies. From the 

 United Kingdom, North Europe, and the Mediterranean, we import, in tons, less than one- 

 quarter of our exports, a_ situation that clearly illustrates one of our difficulties, in that full 

 cargoes for the return voyage are very difficult in this trade as it exists today. 



A study of the total tonnage imported and exported from the United States, omitting 

 tonnage on the Great Lakes, and tonnage of oil carriers, is interesting in the extreme. Over 

 the last year, the average monthly tons of imports are about one million, while the average 

 tons of exports are a little over three million. 



If we take out from these totals the commerce of middle America, that is, the West 

 Indies and Central America, this discrepancy is even more astonishing. With these figures 

 excluded, imports have reached little more than half a million tons per month, while exports 

 have averaged slightly under three million tons, or six to one, a readily understandable rea- 

 son for the large number of ballast homeward voyages. 



It is interesting to study the change that has taken place over the last year in the per- 

 centages of cargoes carried in American vessels. To find out exactly what is going on 

 this study has been made to exclude the Great Lakes, the Mexican oil and the West Indian 

 trades, so that the comparison would only show those routes in which our ships might move 

 in competition for market. On those routes, comprising all the rest of those world-trade 

 routes in which the United States shares, one-quarter of the exports in January last was 

 carried in American ships. These rose to a peak of 40 per cent in June, when many car- 

 goes of coal were moving because of the British strike, and fell back in September to 25 

 per cent, showing a practically constant percentage, at the beginning and end of this period, 

 of largely diminishing traffic. In the case of imports, however, the story is quite different. 

 In January, nearly 75 per cent of the imports were carried in American vessels. This per- 

 centage fell by April to about 35 per cent, and had fallen by June to a minimum of little more 

 than 30 per cent, from which date it has ascended to about 40 per cent for the month of 

 September. For a nation with ten million tons of idle shipping, this is not a record to be proud 

 of, nor one that will satisfy any red-blooded American. (Applause.) 



Such is the inventory of current tonnage operations on export and import with which 

 the present Shipping Board finds itself confronted at the inception of its term. With a fleet in 

 magnitude beyond any dreamed of by Americans a decade ago; with a fleet, if total tonnage 

 alone were to be considered, far beyond the world's immediate absorbing power, the new 

 Shipping Board finds the use of its other American tonnage currently decreasing. In measure 

 this can be attributed to Great Britain's releasal of its government control over its own ship- 

 ping which has given flexibility to British tonnage that it did not possess during the period 

 when the government set the routes which its ships must follow. 



In measure, the decrease in American tonnage carried in American ships is due to the 

 difficult economic times the world throughout, which make for keen competition by other na- 

 tions which America, with its standards of living, cannot meet. In measure, but very small 

 measure, this condition is due to the government's retirement, under the present Shipping 

 Board, of many trips so unprofitable as to find no warrant, even with a view to building 

 up for the future. 



