since. Before the Great War, Germany had a very
extensive collection of large and rapid liners, many of them built on
the Clyde, that fought to surpass the Cunard ships. The White Star Line
also took a hand in the game and built others. In the contest, alas,
America has been far behind until gradually she has let other countries
slip in and usurp the major proportion of ocean commerce. It is a
pitiful thing that we should not have applied our skill and wealth of
material to building fine American steamship lines of our own instead of
letting so many of our tourists turn their patronage to ships of foreign
nations. Perhaps if the public were not so eager for novelty, and so
constantly in search for the newest, the largest and the fastest boats,
we should be content to make our crossings in the older and less gaudy
ships, which after all are quite as seaworthy. But we Americans must
always have the superlative, and therefore many a steamer has had to be
scrapped simply because it had no palm gardens, no swimming pools, no
shore luxuries. We have not, however, wholly neglected naval
construction for we have many fine steamships, a praiseworthy lot of
battleships and cruisers and some very fine submarines. I hope and
believe that the time will come when our merchant marine will once again
stand at the front as it did in the days of the clipper ships. Our
commerce reaches out to every corner of the earth and why should we rely
on other countries to transport our goods?"

"I suppose there are no pirates now, are there, Mr. Ackerman?" asked
Dick, raising his eyes expectantly to the capitalist's face.

"I am afraid there are very few, Dick boy," returned the elder man
kindly. "I suppose that is somewhat of a disappointment to you. You
would have preferred to sail the seas in the days when every small liner
carried her guns as a defence against raiders and was often forced to
use them, too. But when international law began to regulate traffic on
the high seas and the ocean thoroughfare ceased to be such a deserted
one pirates went out of fashion, and every nation was granted equal
rights to sail the seas unmolested. It was because this freedom was
menaced by German submarines in the late war and our privilege to travel
by water threatened that our nation refused to tolerate such
conditions. A code of humane laws that had been established for the
universal good was being broken and we could not permit it. For you must
remember t