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Fourth National Canference on the Merchant Marine By L. M. Lamm eration of the Erie canal, con- demning the program adopted by the Association of Railway Execu- tives on Nov. 20 relating to water- way transportation and urging the building of naval vessels in privately owned shipyards were adopted at the conclusion of the fourth national con- ference on the merchant marine held Jan. 21 and 22 in Washington under the auspices of the United States shipping board. In connection with the naval ves- sel resolution the conference stated that “‘it is the sense of this confer- ence that costs of construction of naval vessels and their time of de- livery in private shipyards being not greater than their construction in navy yards, the conference favors the construction in private shipyards of such vessels which are now author- ized, or which may be authorized at the present session of congress.’’ It was pointed out that the rail- way executives in their action, which was condemned by the marine con- ference, proposes ‘‘to extend the jurisdiction of the interstate com- merce commission to port to port water rates, ‘and to permit railway- owned vessels to operate through the Panama canal, Great Lakes and oth- er waters.”’ The keynote of the conference seems to have been the discussion of methods of increasing patronage for American ships and it was estimated that nearly 400 representatives of various branches of the shipping in- terests and government officials at- PQ vestion ot favoring the fed- tended this fourth conference which was declared to have been the most successful yet held. T. V. O’Connor, chairman of the shipping board, acted as chairman and made a few brief introductory remarks in which he called attention to the fact that ‘‘the shipping board is able to say, with considerable pride, that it has succeeded in trans- ferring by far the greater portion of its vessel property to private inter- ests. Its pioneering work having thus been virtually completed, its fu- ture efforts will be largely confined to developing and regulating private- ly owned shipping in foreign and in- terstate trade.” Greater governmental aid to Amer- ican shipping to make specific pro- vision for the construction in this country of passenger ships whose speeds shall be as great or greater than any of those operated by for- eign lines was urged by Senator- elect Wallace H. White Jr., chairman 34 of the house merchant marine and fisheries committee. Mr. White proposed that the mer- chant marine act of 1928, of which he is co-author, should be amended ‘so as to increase the rates payable under ocean mail contracts held by American lines payable through op- eration of the high speed ships. ‘‘We have made in our law,” he said, “‘no adequate provision for the mainte- nance in that trade of the ships of higher speed. If we are going to have ships comparable to the BREMEN and the Europa and other vessels now building abroad we must have an amendment of the law. That should be one of the first tasks of the American congress and should be one of the first interests of those in- terested in American shipping.”’ Mr.. White also called attention to combined operation of foreign ships in trades which are primarily Ameri- can. In particular he referred to the Caribbean trade in which for the past few years foreign vessels have been operated during the winter season in competition with regular American services which are maintaining serv- ice throughout the year. A discussion of the relationship between domestic shipping and the railroad and industrial companies of the United States was presented by Frank Lyon, attorney for intercoastal steamship companies which are op- erated independently. Mr. Lyon rec- ommended that railroads and indus- trial concerns be prohibited from op- erating ships as common carriers in . the coastwise or intercoastal service. He also recommended that congress give serious consideration to the en- actment of legislation which would take from the interstate commerce commission the authority which it now has to authorize railroads to charge less for a longer than for a shorter distance over the same line or route in the same direction be- cause of competition by coastwise or intercoastal ships. He likewise recommended that congress enact leg- islation to make mandatory the publication of proportional rates by the railroads to and from the ports. Representative S. Wallace Demp- sey, of New York, chairman of the house rivers and harbors committee, addressed the conference on the sub- Ject of the Erie canal and the pend- ing proposal to place it under fed- eral control. Mr. Dempsey urged this procedure as an important step in national inland waterway develop- ment. His views were incorporated in a resolution which was adopted MARINE REvIEw—February, 1931 by the conference as indicate above Efforts which have been made re. cently to place domestic shipping un. der the jurisdiction of the interstate commerce commission were oppogeg _ in a resolution adopted by the con- ference. The resolution also opposes a pending proposal in the house of representatives for an inquiry by the interstate commerce commission cop. cerning what extent and in what manner coastwise traffic should be submitted to government regulation, Mr. J. L. Banham, president of the New York board of trade and vice president of the Otis Elevator Co, pro. posed that the steamship companies give attention to cruises in nearby waters such as the Caribbean. He suggested also that they give far more attention to publicity and ad- vertising than they have in the past, In its report to the conference, the committee appointed last year to study the question of training officers for the merchant marine expressed opposition to the use of the naval academy or the coast guard academy as training schools for merchant ma- rine officers. The committee recom- mended, however, that a national system be established for this work. These recommendations are based on responses to questionnaires sent out during the past year. Problems of liquidating the huge government fleets created during the war were outlined before the confer- ence by J. Caldwell Jenkins, vice president, Merchant Fleet Corp. “The liquidation of the property and the functions of the Merchant Fleet Corp. that are of greatest significance to the American merchant marine,” he said, “do not consist in dismantling ships or suspension of actual ship op- eration, but consist rather in the sur- render to private steamship com- panies activities which the govern- ment has heretofore been carrying on. While other lines of American el- terprises are operating at levels far below those of a year ago, employ- ment in American shipyards is fully 10 per cent higher than it was at the | close of 1929, said Secretary of Com- merce Robert P. Lamont. Secretary of the Navy Ernest Lee Jahneke, urged the conference t0 consider the problem of training merchant marine officers. He sué- gested that the inseparable relation- ship between the navy and the metr- chant marine would make the utiliza- tion of the United States Naval academy for training merchant ma- rine officers seem the part of wisdom. The next speaker was Congress man Arthur M. Free of California, who spoke in behalf of reductions in Panama canal tolls. Mr. Free dé clared that the present system of dual measurement of ships passiné through the canal is unfair both to the government and to Americal shipowners. He pointed out that at (Continued on Page 56)