"Merchant  Marine. — In  view  of  the  policies  adopted  by  all  the
maritime  nations  to  encourage  their  shipping  interests,  and  in  order
to  enable  us  to  compete  with  them  for  the  ocean-carrying  trade,  we
favor  the  payment  to  ships  engaged  in  the  foreign  trade  of  liberal
compensation  for  services  actually  rendered  in  carrying  the  mails,  and
such  further  legislation  as  will  build  up  an  adequate  American  mer-
chant marine  and  give  us  ships  which  may  be  requisitioned  by  the
government  in  time  of  national  emergency.
"We  are  utterly  opposed  to  the  government  ownership  of  vessels
as  proposed  by  the  Democratic  party,  because  government-owned
ships,  while  effectively  preventing  the  development  of  the  American
merchant  marine  by  private  capital,  will  be  entirely  unable  to  pro-


WARREN  G.  HARDING

Warren  G.  Harding,  29th  president;  born  at  Corsica,  Ohio,
November  2,  1865;  publisher;  member  Ohio  state  senate,  1900-
1904;  lieutenant  governor  of  Ohio,  1904-06;  defeated  for  gov-
ernor, 1910;  United  States  senator,  1915-21;  elected  president,
November  2,  1920.
1916]  NATIONAL  PARTY  PLATFORMS  441

vide  for  the  vast  volume  of  American  freights  and  will  leave  us
more  helpless  than  ever  in  the  hard  grip  of  foreign  syndicates.
"Transportation. — Interstate  and  intrastate  transportation  have
become  so  interwoven  that  the  attempt  to  apply  two,  and  often  sev-
eral, sets  of  laws  to  its  regulation  has  produced  conflicts  of  authority,
embarrassment  in  operation,  and  inconvenience  and  expense  to  the
public.
"The  entire  transportation  system  of  the  country  has  become
essentially  national.  We  therefore  favor  such  action  by  legislation
or,  if  necessary,  through  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the
United  States,  as  will  result  in  placing  it  under  complete  Federal
control.
