Excerpt from The Shipping Situation of the World: An Address Delivered by James A. Farrell, Chairman, National Foreign Trade Council, Before the Tenth National Foreign Trade Convention, New Orleans, La., May 4, 1923The restriction as to sales of ships to foreigners still obtains. So, while we can sell shipbuilding material and all other products of the soil, mills, and mines, to the nations of the world, the Board seems unwilling to dispose of tonnage to foreigners, except conditionally, resulting in an intolerable burden upon the taxpayer in maintaining upkeep with three-fourths of the Ships idle, coupled with losses under the so-called M. O. 4 operating agreement on the balance.About tons of the original fleet have been bought by private Shipowners, who are still operating, mainly in the intercoastal trade. Of the total tonnage owned by private owners, about 9070 is in operation in various trades without, material competition coastwise, but in direct competition with foreign as well as with Shipping Board vessels in overseas trades, in which business operat ors of Government tonnage are guaranteed against losses.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.