BRITAIN OUR BEST CARRIER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1639, 18 November 1916, Page 4

BRITAIN OUR BEST CARRIER.

SAYS THEODORE H. PRICE. In discussing the business to bo derived from the war, Theodore H. Price says that the expediency of developing a large merchant fleet under the American flag depends entirely upon our naval policy. In his opinion the war has proved conclusively that a merchant marine without a navy to protect it is utterly useless. The survival of England’s merchant fleet, he pointed out, is entirely dependent upon the ability of the navy to protect it. Germany has one of the finest deep sea merchant fleets in the world, but it is utterly useless to-day because of England’s sea power.

“The United States,” Air Price went on, “has a coast line of about 10,000 miles to protect, to say nothing of onr overseas possessions. In time of war this would occupy the energies of a very much larger navy than we now possess; but unless we could patrol the foreign seas as well, the commerce under our flag would be subject to attack by any nation with whom we happened to be at war. “To create a navy sufficiently large to protect an American mercantile marine against sea raiders throughout the world would involve an expenditure that would probably be largely in excess of any profit that we might derive from the possession of such a.merchant fleet.” Mr Price said that it seemed to him largely a question of dollars and cents as to whether it was desirable for ns to undertake the creation of a great merchant marine. A huge navy would be an inevitable corollary, and our past experience indicates that the cost of such a navv would he enormous.

He admitted that it would gratify American pride to see our flag upon the seven seas, but he doubted whether it would be of real advantage to us from either an economic or a patriotic standpoint. “I believe,” he added, “in an America for the Americans, but our prosperity and development would be best subserved by getting our freight carried as cheaply as possible. The English have shown themselves speeiallists in marine transportation. They are already provided with the fleet that is necessary for the protection of their vessels. I am rather inclined to believe that it would be wisest to let them carry our freight as long as they could do it more cheaply than anvono else.”