A Merchant Marine Second to None?

THIS year the United States expects to build over four times as many ships as were launched by all the countries of the world in 1938, when shipbuilding was at a 17-year peak. By the end of the war the United States is almost certain to have the largest merchant fleet in the world, with considerably more tonnage than when the war broke out. When the immediate postwar tasks are completed, when the American troops have returned home and world reconstruction is well under way, should this country try to maintain itself as the dominant shipping nation of the world? If