President Franklin D. Roosevelt reflected on our U.S. merchant marine during a time of national extremis in part as follows: Our ships, sailing every ocean, have been manned by courageous officers and seamen all of whom have left the security of their firesides and many of whom have given their lives for the land of their allegiance.

The American people are looking forward to the days of lasting peace when the merchant fleets of the nation, wisely used and vigilantly maintained, shall sails the seas freed from the perils of war.

Mr. Chairman, we have now been freed from not only that war, but two others, and our U.S. merchant marine has done the job. In our most recent confrontation helping Israel, it must be remembered that while the U.S. Air Force did a herculean job in moving outsize cargo, it was the U.S. merchant marine that carried over 80 percent of the war cargo and supplies during the first 30 days of that encounter. Thereafter, the percentages went up.

To talk about a congressional authorization bill and not consider the drama of the merchant marine in times of peace and war is to miss the import of the numbers with which you are dealing.

We in the U.S. maritime profession are not proud of the meager current array of ships that are today under the American flag. Ships in the runaway fleets not under our flag are wisps of the wind that might be helpful to us in time of national emergency, and then again, they might not be.

According to the MARAD report filed for January 1979, we have the following ships in our American-flag fleet: They are before you on that list.

[The following was received for the record.]

Mr. CALDWELL. The total active fleet is 546; the gross tonnage is 11,558,000.

The inactive ships may be obsolete or not usable and number 38. The Great Lakes fleet of 161 ships is special purpose.

The Soviets, this past year, eclipsed the United States in ocean tonnage, and they are still aggressively building. This committee has already passed a special controlled carrier law which is yet to bear fruit in stopping predatory below-cost competition.

Our great effort then to stop the Soviet onslaught is to contemplate in this bill $100 million for CDS subsidy to award contracts to build four ships by October of 1980. Three bulker ships need special

ssicie atmosphere for profitable con

15ion is to subsidize the operations

ker carriers. Some subsidized compahers are not so profitable; thus, capital is be to the industry, whether it be ship

sea operators are making good profits wever, there are literally thousands of ze United States and around the world mps laid up, operating at cost, or going

ou can say that an ODS subsidy at 70 to s excessive, you could alternatively allocate tner reimbursable costs associated with nose percentages would not be quite so

*** sup are very competitive with wages paid eveloped countries. The problem is that vuntries often hire support crews from lowcontrary to American fair labor standears to be a function of how competitive a LASH, Roll On/Roll Off, break bulk; reallocated; or the competition thereon. e capital employed by the company and ginal and trucking facilities associated

we are operating under can be looked at. We pe Russians, Germans, and French. We Cercan standards for ships or personnel.

art to assist the committee in accomsue of the Union policy of last January se overdue changes in the Nation's mprove the ability of our merchant aur cargo."

statement, Mr. Chairman.

very much, Mr. Caldwell.

sove more you inform:

Atis De Taking good profits building ships abroad; sf unsubsidized companies in the United with #assive tonnage of ships laid up, operating at

w more about this situation with

- we some detailed figures on that but I 3 sde in my possession at this time. I sobhar se give you a detailed response to Men and submit it at a later date. amme would appreciate it if you could

oped countries." Could you give the committee a few examples in this regard?

Mr. CALDWELL. I don't have the figures right before me but, again, the members that we represent, which are the engineers and licensed officers are very competitive and we can give those figures to you. I think they will demonstrate what we are saying. Mr. DONNELLY. I will give you an easy one this time.

Of the 42,000 members of the National Maritime Engineers' Beneficial Association and its affiliates, how many of these members are actively employed in the U.S.-flag merchant vessels and how many are now retired?

Mr. CALDWELL. I can't give you the exact retirement figure, although I can for the record. We actually have some 9,000 to 10,000 members that are actively working at this time in the trade. Mr. DONNELLY. With respect to the membership that is retired, if you can't give me the exact numbers, the percentages.

Mr. CALDWELL. I can give those to you for the record but I will have to check our records and get back to you.

Mr. DONNELLY. If you could, we would like to find out exactly how many are at an age that could be recalled during a national emergency, and in a national emergency, how long would it take to notify these men that their services are required.

Mr. CALDWELL. We can supply that information and we will readily do so. My supposition would be that there are probably not that many. After all, you have had a decline in the fleet, a decline in the work force and under those conditions, experience in other industries as well as this one would tell me that my off-the-cuff comment would be that there wouldn't be as many as would possibly be necessary certainly in an emergency. But we will supply those figures exactly for you.

Mr. DONNELLY. For the record, I would appreciate it if you would respond to those.

Mr. Snyder?

Mr. Snyder. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Caldwell, I think we all share the common concern of attempting to bring down the cost of operating the U.S. fleet so that we can encourage its increase.

Mr. CALDWELL. Anything that would encourage its increase would certainly make us happy.

Mr. SNYDER. How many people do you represent?

Mr. CALDWELL. We have 42,000 people that are either members and/or affiliates with the National MEBA. The seagoing work force is 9,000 to 10,000 members, sir.

Mr. SNYDER. How many of the American carriers do you have under contract, percentagewise?

Mr. CALDWELL. I will have to supply that for the record as well. I don't have that information right before me.

Mr. SNYDER. Is the ball park figure of 90 percent fairly accurate? Mr. CALDWELL. I would think, yes, sir.

Mr. SNYDER. Could you also supply for the record the number of your employees who receive medical benefits as a result of your medical care program and the number who receive services from the Public Health Service hospitals?

Mr. CALDWELL. That will be supplied for the record, yes, sir.

46-188 0 - 79 - 10

Mr. SNYDER. If we could just discuss that a little bit, without any direct questions, it is my understanding, and if there are any errors in it that you want to respond to when you supply those things for the record, please do it because I want to have the facts straight. Mr. CALDWELL. We want to give them to you straight and that is what we intend to do.

Mr. SNYDER. My understanding is that the contributions to your medical pian are something like $9 or $921⁄2 per day per employee, and, on the other side we still have the Public Health Service hospital system that is available without any contribution on the part of either the companies or the seamen. Is that—not the numbers-principle roughly accurate?

Mr. CALDWELL. Our accountants can certainly give me the statistical figures that you require. I don't have them before me, but I can certainly give those to you and we can answer your questions in detail and will do so.

Mr. SNYDER. Is there any public accounting of the funds that you collect for your medical program?

Mr. CALDWELL. When you say public accounting, there is an accounting of every dollar that has anything to do with this organisation, I can assure you that.

Mr. SNYDER. Is there accounting that is available to the commit

VIT. CALDWELL. We will make it available to the committee. Mr. SNYDER. I only look at the figures superficially, but I know That our Biue Cross plan, including the Government contribution, aidadavally less than that and I just wonder whether or not nece x some area there of benefit to us in reducing the cost of Specding the merchant marine.

Mr. CW. Having read any number of statements in my nectae there are all sorts of ways of reading statements, of What's dedah Wiha I would suggest, Mr. Chairman, is that we simply egvad ärevoy to your question in detail and, hopefully, satisfy

. Is approximately accurate that in addition to the WANA ay that is paid in per employee into your medical de threw approximately $3 a day per employee paid MATANG PAUSFm the schools?

Asem, sir. I have been working for the marine AM IN MAN @months and I am sort of like a freshman „VALANA AKTIVNA As a matter of fact. I would much prefer #leed homes to the committee for the record and they

Nawowa Ter me put it to you on this basis, then. I am going To we wike my understanding is and you can respond subsegecara be to whether or not it is accurate. It is my understanding

W

there Hugh $0.30 a day that is contributed per employee mid the medical program, roughly $3 a day contributed into the THETING PRAKSER, why $t a day that is contributed per employmno the hiring balls flind, and roughly $1.40 a day contributed Prva per employee

In rhage mumber are not accurate, please correct it in any reSat you wet make for the record.

wart Absolutely, sir.

Mr. SNYDER. And, then, if you would, supply such details or information as you can in regard to the number of your people who receive services under the medical program to which a contribution is made and the number who receive them under what appears to me to be the duplicate program of the Public Health Service hospitals.

Mr. CALDWELL. I understand your concern, sir, and that will be done.

Mr. SNYDER. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DONNELLY. Ms. Mikulski.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Given your newness to the union I don't know if you could answer this, but I am very much concerned about the national security and safety of this country and you alluded to that in your opening remarks on page 1.

Is it your opinion-first of all, I am concerned about the current stability of the world, the President's efforts notwithstanding, but if we should be engaged in either some type of global confrontation or even a specific one-for example, in the Middle East-do you think that we have the American merchant marine capacity to carry both the military oil and dry flow cargo that we would need to maintain ourselves and protect ourselves?

Mr. CALDWELL. Looking at the number of American ships currently under the American flag, certainly they would not necessarily sustain us in the kind of emergency that you describe, in no

way.

Ms. MIKULSKI. I really don't know how to interpret the figures on page 2, in which you give the numbers, but it seemed to me that in a crunch, for example, to get oil and dry bulk or minerals and so on for industrial work alone from the Third World, regardless of where that Third World is; Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, I ultimately believe in a confrontation; all you can count on is yourself because you are never sure who your friends are, and your friends have to come first with their own needs.

Therefore, I wasn't sure what these figures actually meant in terms of being able to respond even minimally.

Mr. CALDWELL. I would simply say that considering the minute proportion of the foreign trade of this country that is currently being carried in American-flag carriers, it is pretty obvious that in a national emergency we would really be behind the eight ball. I can give you some detailed figures and contrast tonnage that we had under the American flag, say, in World War II or some of our previous conflicts and give you some detailed studies of what would be envisionaged as needed under the sort of emergency that you describe.

Ms. MIKULSKI. Certainly, in World War II, when we were at a peak capacity, would be one set of figures, but also, I think Vietnam, in which we were engaged in an active conflict, regardless of what you call it, and that brings me to another point.

The administration is currently engaged in establishing some multiple trade agreements, the so-called MTN that will eventually be before the Congress sometime this year.

Mr. CALDWELL. Do you have a copy of it? We can't seem to find one. It is very difficult to do these days.