Neutrality Restricts the American Merchant Marine

Abstract

T HE American merchant marine is experiencing a wartime boom, though the war is not ours. American overseas shipping has reached its highest point in more than ten years. Cargo is being shut out because there is no room in ships' holds. Shipyards are working at full capacity, with new ships being placed in service at an average of one a week. According to the Bureau of Customs, overseas cargo in the five months January to May 1940 amounted to 23,807,000 tons, a decrease of 2,500,000 tons from the same period last year. Yet, of the total indicated tonnage cleared from the United States for foreign ports in the first five months of 1940, ships of American registry accounted for approximately 32.6 per cent as compared with 23.5 per cent in 1939. And all this, despite the fact that the area which in peacetime presented an active field for about one-half of our fleet in overseas foreign trade has been closed to American ships during much of the past nine months. When Congress threatened to rope off the greater part of Europe and forbid American vessels to trade with that section of the globe, shipowners and seafarers expressed the fear that such a move would constitute a death blow to the American merchant marine. But thus far results have not worked out the way the opponents of the ship embargo feared. Whether this is due to the neutrality legislation or to the war itself is hard to say. It is difficult to know just where to draw the line. Last November American shipowners were compelled to abandon service between the United States and most of Europe, sacrificing shipping lines built up after years of effort and the expenditure of millions of dollars of government and private money. To make up for the cargo space formerly provided by this American tonnage, and to obtain additional facilities for transporting war materials in the transatlantic and other routes, foreign flag vessels were withdrawn by their owners from their regular routes. As a result of these withdrawals, unanticipated openings were provided for American ships. Today, practically the only idle American seagoing vessels are those owned by the Government and frozen into inactivity by statute-the President has recently approved a bill releasing these ships for operation or, possibly, sale to foreign owners.