Page:An Adequate Navy - The Navy League of the United States (1916).pdf/4

 on the fleet to supply it with coal, oil, provisions, clothing, ammunition, new guns, repairs, etc., and to bring away from the fleet wounded and ill men, and the guns and machinery which need repairs. It is a fact that today more than half of the available merchant tonnage of the world is employed in supplying the fighting fleets. To support the armies which we ought to send to the front will require at least six million more tons of shipping than we have available.

In peace times this shipping is employed in commerce, but in time of war it is absolutely essential to the fighting efficiency of the Navy.

A navy needs not only guns and ammunition to be well equipped, but it must have an immense fleet of auxiliary ships.

One of the chief tasks of the Navy League for the future must be to work for a merchant marine, organized and conducted on American principles, without undue help from the Government, and without undue hindrance from unwise laws.

After the present war an American merchant marine is essential to the prosperity of the country. A large part of our products, including both manufactured articles and raw materials, must be exported. Substantially the age of Government ownership has come in foreign countries. When the war is over, other nations will exercise official control over their shipping and direct that it fetch and carry for the nation's own people and commerce.