Speech #560095631

I will answer both questions. The reason why American capital has not gone into shipbuilding until recently is quite manifest. We were engaged in building up the vast country that stretches. you may say. from the valley of the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. Immigration was pouring into that country in a constant stream. A large amount of capital was necessary to rebuild the waste places of the South. Capital to do all this was borrowed abroad. Interest was highas high as 7 per cent. Now it is 3 per cent. Our marine is in the condition that it is because we did not start years ago on the policy of free ships.