1.se! arging cargo Moreover, in port, most of the personnel on deck and in the engine room is laid off immediately after the arrival of the ship, to be reemved a few hours before the ship's departure, while the stevedores carry on the • of loading and discharging cargo If training in the merchant marine profession were limited to the man's experi• re on board ship, he would probably receive training in only one type of machiners on the slip on which he may serve, whereas in the academy, with machinery ha a equipped with diversified marine machinery, he would be able to learn ail Ie same is true with regard to electrical machinery, with the equipment the bridge, and with the latest safety devices. If he should serve his time on aartigated ship, he could not obtain experience with modern equipment. In every profession, such as law, medicine, etc., the student must obtain the „* fwork_covering the whole field of the profession before he is permitted to The reverse is the case in the merchant marine at the present time. The young man selects deck or en gineering upon entering the merchant marine i sticks or ly to that branch The deck officer takes pride in the fact that he awe not understand engineering, yet he is charged with the operation of much a fuachinery The engineer officer takes pride in the fact that he does not Serstard deck duties, and yet he may be in charge of a lifeboat, may become rated, and must navigate the boat. Neither the deck nor the engineer er sat vierstatigs the economies of shap operation and overseas trade, as that et, it is seất to those in the exccutive offices in the home port and to the agents A national merchant marine academy, with a course of 4 years would Te the graduate to have knowledge of the whole marine profession and Toe it vauable in attaining greater economy and efficiency in ship operation a.oat and ashore At tus present time outstanding officers like Captain Fried, Captain Grenang, at tait. Cummings, Captain Stedman, and others cannot be promoted to the „tive offices on shore due to their lack of knowledge in the econon jew ins olved • .ch knowledge and training they would be invaluable as home executives « p operators, as very few operators have any knowledge whatsoever of : tions existing on board stup through personal experience as ships ofheers. *ec boy has a better opporturity of becoming pres: fent of the line than any effcer, although this condition was directly the reverse prior to the Civil at and before the cable and the radio, when the ship's captain had to be a .","ess man in addition to being a sailor man. It was the stap s captain who ater became the ship's operator. It is true that Captain Grening is a E. iropean entative of the United States Slapping Board and has accomplished wor der*** .i** and should be engaged in shap operation, bit owing to his lack of conLa i with the financial world, is not so employed Captain Fried is supervising enter of the Steamboat Inspection Service, and is not concerned with the *es of stap operation g to the employment of cadets on board ship, it should be pointed out at graduates of the State marine schools are far better seamen than the young who has not had the opportunity to graduate from such school and who is ted it has profession to what he may be able to pick up on board ship It is te that the ca let employment be limited to graduates of the State marine of in case a national merchant marine academy is established, t› grad intes anal academy The pay for the fist 6 months should be the -tandard f are seaman and for the last 6 months should be 15 percent greater. In ast 6 months they should be able to perform efficient's any responsible duties. . the capacity of able scamen but not as great as officers. Respectfully, Ј. Н. Томв. Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Chairman, the question was asked as to the number of shipping commissioners that would be required on the axes. I would say that there would be eight shipping commissioners required on the lakes, and that in Duluth and Conneaut there might Esse to be a couple of deputy commissioners also. The CHAIRMAN. All right, that would take in the adjoining ports. The committee will now adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow Boring. Whereupon, at 5:40 p. m. an adjournment was taken until 10 a. m., May 2, 1935.) TO DEVELOP AN AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE PART II. MERCHANT MARINE ACT, 1935 THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1935 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON THE MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES, Washington, D. C. STATEMENT OF JOHN C. WHITE, WASHINGTON, D. C., COUNSEL The American Cotton Shippers Association is a national organizan with which are affiliated six regional associations: The Texas Cotton Association, the California-Arizona Cotton Association, the Oklahoma State Cotton Exchange, the Arkansas Cotton Trade Assoson, the Southern Cotton Shippers Association, and the Atlantic Cotton Association. I members are engaged in the purchase of cotton from farmers at its sale to domestic and foreign mills. I think it is safe to say at practically every exporter of American cotton, with the exception of the American Cotton Cooperative Association, belongs to the A. rican Cotton Shippers' Association or one of its affiliates. I am also representing here the American Ports Cotton Compress & Warehouse Association. That organization is composed of the cotton facilities, that is, warehouses, compresses, and the attached goks located at the American ports. It has practically every ship rport facility engaged in the handling of cotton in its membership. I am niso presenting the views in certain particulars of the Southern Pine Association, which is an organization of the southern pine mills. hern pine is the lumber which is produced throughout the entire First of all. I wish to emphasize to the committee the very bad stas of the exports of American cotton at the present time. Just sy, the New York Times reports that exports for this season are 90 bales behind that for the previous season. This means 000 bales behind the average exports. The foreign consum.pon of American cotton is about 1,400,000 bales behind the usual rsumption of American cotton abroad- while the consumption of foreign cotton by foreign nälls is about 1,500,000 bales greater other words, foreign consumption of foreign cotton has just about replaced or a little more than replaced that of the cotton which we Lave lost. In The country which the American cotton exporters are most worried about at the present moment is Brazil. The cotton production there has gone from 500,000 bales in 1932-33 to 1,000,000 bales the following season and to 1,500,000 bales this season, and there is every expectation that this next year the production there will be about 2,000,000 bales. So that in Brazil, taken with some increases in certain other South American countries, we expect they will in a few years be able to replace a very large part of our cotton exports. I have just returned from the annual convention of the American Cotton Shippers Association in New Orleans, at which the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That this association oppose the enactment of S. 2582 and H. R. 7521 and any other measures providing for the fixing of minimum ocean rates, or for the elimination of tramp competition and urge that any direct subsidy necessary to the operation of American lines be conditioned on the maintenance of competitive rates on agricultural products. The CHAIRMAN. What do you mean by competitive rates? You simply mean conditions as at present, do you not? Mr. WHITE. Well, in effect, that means to us rates that are justified by the world charter market; we think that it is in the world charter market you have the real competition so far as ocean rates are concerned. It has been our view that the ocean tramp is the real regulator of ocean rates and if your ocean tramp is put out of business there will not be any effective competition in the determination of rates. Of course we cannot put the ocean tramp out of business so far as the world is concerned; we can eliminate it from our business, as we are afraid certain provisions of this bill would do. I know certain members of your committee are rather familiar with this cotton situation. Judge Mansfield has introduced a bill, H. R. 5066, which requires an immediate reduction of 20 percent in the railroad rates on cotton exports and other agricultural products. It is really a tragic situation and other Departments of the Government and other committees are fully aware of that. The reason we feel we have lost as much in our exports and foreign consumption of American cotton at the present time as we have, is the price parity of our cotton laid down in foreign markets with that of other growths. The CHAIRMAN. Has the policy of the A. A. A. anything to do with it? Mr. WHITE. Undoubtedly. We are not quarreling with certain policies of the A. A. A. We cannot condemn them for paying benefits to the southern cotton farmers; because, if there is any group in this country that needs some governmental aid, it is that group and we so stated in our resolution adopted at our recent convention. On the other hand, we do feel that the 12-cent loan has been a very, very damaging factor, and that has been a factor in the determination of the price at which we could lay down our cotton abroad. The CHAIRMAN. Is or is not the curtailment program driving other countries into the production of cotton? Mr. WHITE. It certainly gives them a stimulus in that direction. As soon as we advertised we were going to cut our production, certain foreign countries said we are going to increase ours." The CHAIRMAN. That is what I have always thought. Mr WHITE. That is correct, I think. As a matter of fact, if we had not had relatively low ocean rates during the present period, it is doubtful whether we could have kept as much of the market as we have, beesuse it does not take very much to cause a shift from the cons imption of cotton of one growth to the consumption of cotton of another growth; as a matter of fact, a few cents a bale is enough to determine which growth foreign mills will consume. Now, we have no objections to the main features of this bill. We wo id like to have an American merchant marine. It has been very, very useful in times past. But there are certain provisions of the Lill we do have objections to. Those are to section 701, the main part of the section, not the proviso, insofar as it would place the regulation of rates in the same body that determines the subsidies or has an interest in the ownership of the vessels in any way. I observe you have a provision in there preventing the Maritime Authority or any stpointee from having any interest in the vessels or in their operation, and we think that is an excellent provision; but our experience with the Shipping Board has been it concentrates rather more on the ownership features of it, than the service which is to be supplied to the stropers The CHAIRMAN. Well the old Shipping Board got to be swamped with administrative detail, and that is why we are trying to keep the functions under this bill quasi-judicial and regulatory. Mr WHITE We feel that anybody which regulates rates should have no interest in the maintenance or operation of vessels, because Just inevitably the ownership conflicts with the rate regulation in their administration. The CHAIRMAN. You want to put them in the Interstate Commerce Commission? Mr WHITE. Well, I think probably a separate body, with particu lar knowledge of shipping conditions, is better than the Interstate Commerce Commission. The CHAIRMAN. It would be right hard to create too many bodies, You know. Mr WHITE Yes; that is quite true. If we had the choice of selecting the Interstate Commerce Commission or a body which is Interested in running the vessels, I think we would take the Interstate Commerce Commission. The CHAIRMAN. These men are supposed to be high-class men, in no way connected with any of the ships. The only determination they make is the differential, and they ought to be just as fair, or capable of being just as fair in regulatory matters as they are on rate differentials. Mr WHITE. Do not you think, though, that the pressure would be on them to keep that differential as narrow as possible; because that n.eans providing funds and that pressure would make them try to Keep those rates up a little in order to limit that differential? The CHAIRMAN. It is hoped they would be men above pressure Mr WHITE. I was not speaking of pressure in a personal or political sense, but simply from trying to limit expenditures; which, after all, 1 something we cannot condemn in a Government official. Our more particular objections, however, are to the provisos, that is, to proviso 1 and proviso 3, as they are in the bill. |