THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507260013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
The July 17 Business Weekly article by the Honorable Herbert H. Bateman, Virginia's 1st Congressional Representative, about the vital need for a U.S. flag merchant marine makes absolute sense for national-security purposes.
Although accused by The Wall Street Journal of ``pork'' in introducing the Maritime Security Act of 1995, in sticking with only national security for justifying the merchant marine Mr. Bateman fails to give the additional very good reason for such a program: It is a good investment!
Why, you may ask? How can paying out taxpayer dollars from the U.S. Treasury be good investment? Because it has been proved that in the past, every dollar spent on subsidy for the U.S. merchant marine has returned $1.15 to the U.S. Treasury through taxes paid by U.S. seamen, U.S. shipping companies and related maritime companies and their employees. This does not include even the benefit to the United States that an American flag merchant marine has in regard to our balance-of-payment difficulties, which, if our merchant fleet goes entirely foreign flag, will increase substantially. The only taxes paid to the U.S. Treasury then will be on profits made by American owners of foreign-flag ships, and we all know how easily they can hide such profits from taxation.
Thomas Jefferson was quoted as saying: ``As a branch of industry, shipping is valuable. But as a resource of defense, essential!''
Jefferson might very well have given equal weight to each, because there is no ``pork'' in the Treasury making a 15 percent profit for every dollar of investment.
JACK F. HARRY
Moyock, N.C., July 17, 1995 by CNB