American Notes of the Week
rRE AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE.
The Postmaster-General endorses, in a report to Congress, the view that an inadequate merchant marine service is seriously hampering the development of American foreign trade. He points out that European countries are building faster and faster steamships for the trans-Atlantic routes, and are penetrating Asia, Africa and South America with air services while the United States lags behind. While, in accordance with Congressional policy, the United States Post Office Department sends the bulk, and an increasing propor- tion, of the American mail by American ships, the Department finds it necessary to allow American ships an advantage of twenty-four to forty-eight hours for letters, and an even greater margin for parcel post in comparison with the foreign shipping lines. The need for faster American ships is em- phasized, and Congress is urged to review the whole situation with a view to making more adequate provision to subsidize American merchant shipping in the future. The demand for parity in merchant shipping, as a corollary to parity in war- ships, is becoming popular with business organizations and has increasing support in Congress. Senator Reed of Penn- sylvania, one of the American delegates to the London Con- ference, for example, has been a recent speaker at meetings of business men called to press the demand.
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