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had the effect of making some people wonder if there isn’t a nigger in the woodpile somewhere. A foreigner without sympathy for our na- tional aspirations for a merchant marine will say: “Of course you can build ships, fine large able ships, with Uncle Sam paying the bill. Anyone would be a fool or doesn’t know conditions in the United States who believes that you do not have the skill to build ships that will compare favorably in engineering and in architecture with ships built anywhere else. But have you considered the problems and burdens of profitable operation of these ships, once they are built? Here again, it is read- ily admitted that you can keep them on des- ignated essential routes subsidized by Uncle Sam in the form of mail pay. This can only be temporary, however. You say the con- tracts are fairly long for periods up to ten years. What’s going to happen after this pe- riod? Is there any assurance that your gov- ernment will continue to pay money to have your flag represented in these routes? We think you are heedless and that you are rush- ing into something, the seriousness of which you do not appreciate. When this is all done and your enthusiasm dies it will go down in history as a great failure, as one of the most ambitious attempts ever recorded of paternal- ism in government in trying to change the free currents of business. Having learned a cost- ly lesson you will again resume the transport of your commerce in foreign bottoms.” We must consider the point of view ex- pressed by this mythical foreigner concerning our attempt to get into a field in which he would like to be left undisturbed. How rash are we? Are we rushing into this thing with sufficient planning and forethought for the future? The answer must be a prayer that we have wise men in control of the distribution of these sums for promoting our merchant ma- rine. Also, every agency of the government should be used to facilitate and to promote trade and commerce on the essential routes favoring our own ships in every legitimate way as carriers. Every chance must be given for the efficient and skillful American operator to make good. i We are building ships and in the next five years to come we will be building more, in- cluding probably two super liners for the At- lantic. The prophecy of the unsympathetic foreigner must not be allowed to come true. Every American should work toward this goal, and if need be Uncle Sam will continue to stand by to see it through because we cannot afford ever again to go back to the position we were in when the World war came. First Transatlantic Liner LMOST coincident with the launching of A the great ship referred to above came the keel laying ceremony for the first of two even greater ships. When the keel is laid every assurance can be felt that the ship will in due course be completed. Never be- fore in an American shipyard has a merchant vessel of this great size been laid down. The new vessel will rank in size and speed with some of the finest and best known vessels on the North Atlantic. The gross tonnage, for instance, is 30,000 tons. The length is 705 feet and the beam is 86 feet. Compare this with the Paris, for instance, of something over 34,000 gross tons, 735.4 feet in length, and 85.3 feet in beam. The Homeric, also a little over 34,000 gross tons, is 751 feet in length with 83% feet in beam. In luxury and comfort of appointments and in all other features, including safety, affected by modern advance in engineering and archi- tecture, the new United States liners will un- doubtedly be superior to any ships near their size now afloat. It is a fine beginning for the United States lines, but the effort to co-ordi- nate all of the factors making possible the building of two super liners must be contin- ued with all possible vigor. We must not rest on any program which leaves the American flag second to any other on the North Atlantic. Training American Officers HE shipping board is doing many things Te promote a well found and an efficient merchant marine. Under the leadership of the present chairman the board has put into vigorous action several rather nebulous sug- gestions made by the law under which it was created and subsequent marine legislation. For instance the board has done and is doing some very fine work both in research and prac- tical application to advance the art of ship- building and marine engineering. The diesel program is a case in point, as is the introduc- tion of practical means to use pulverized coal for fuel. Experiments have been made at the model basins in the navy yard at Washington and Ann Arbor, Mich., on hull forms and pro- peller characteristics. But no work that the board has undertaken is of more importance than the attempt now being made to establish practical methods of training officers for our merchant marine. We are trying to build good ships. To be success- 18 MARINE REVIEw—January, 1931