Ground fish are the most important resource of New England and the third most valuable in the United States. S. 1374 represents an effort to preserve that resource so that it may be available to future generations. Today the fishing industry is facing one of its most critical periods. Every one of the studies I have seen indicates:
The vessels are in rundown condition and poorly maintained. This is not for lack of private initiative but because of insufficient financial resources to engage in major renovation.
The vessel owners are in serious financial difficulty. Composite net earnings for the industry show a net loss.
The fishermen receive only a bare subsistence income.
The processors have been greatly damaged in recent years by heavy imports of ground fish and have inadequate working capital to improve their competitive position.
The causes for this condition are complex but two things stand out.
First, the national policy has contributed to this condition by continuing the tariff upon imports at too low a rate.
Secondly, the Federal Government therefore has a responsibility toward the industry which can only be met by helping initiate a constructive program to prevent it from collapsing.
The best program is one which encourages an industry to help itself. That is what is contemplated in S. 1374. It does this by:
Offering the owners of vessels an opportunity to build a new, modern fishing fleet at a cost which will enable them to compete with foreign-built vessels. Such a program has long been in effect with regard to other types of vessels. According to the most recent information I have received, the cost of construction of a large vessel in Northern Europe would be 45 percent less than that in the United States (apart from the United Kingdom and France). In the United Kingdom and France the differential would be slightly less. In Japan the differential is 50 percent. These cold statistics are translated into an almost insuperable handicap to the American fishing Industry.
Establishing a loan fund for improving and modernizing processing plants. If such a fund is established, our processing plants will be able to lower their costs, increase their efficiency, raise their standards of quality and thus meet the foreign competition which has confronted them for so long. These changes are expensive and the operations have not been sufficiently profitable to permit them to be made. In fact, as the plants and equipment deteriorate, costs increase further and quality suffers. The only way to reverse this disastrous cycle is by means of a loan fund such as S. 1374 contemplates.
Six years ago I testified before the Tariff Commission urging relief for the ground fish industry. Twice the Commission recognized the difficulties confronting this domestic industry and twice the Commission recommended duty increases. The second time was on October 12, 1956, when the Commission unanimously urged an increase in the tariff and in a public report called attention to the danger facing this important domestic industry unless their recommendation was accepted. Both times the President denied the increase in duty for foreign policy reasons. In his 1956 statement refusing to implement the Tariff Commission’s decision, the President suggested the "bold and vigorous steps" be taken "to provide root solutions for the industry’s problems."
Yet nothing has been done since then. I am encouraged by these hearing to hope that legislation will be reported by this Committee and adopted by the Congress which will take those long overdue "bold and vigorous steps." There is a tendency in some quarters to ignore the fishing industry on the ground that it is of little economic significance. Nothing could be further from the truth. It has a major impact upon the economy of Massachusetts, upon the economy of New England, and upon the economy of the whole United States. Until comparatively recently, the fishing industry was a major stabilizing factor in the economy. Today 1,500,000 people are still directly dependent upon it. Its gross annual sales are one billion one hundred million dollars.
In the past ten years foreign imports of fish have cut deeply into the domestic market. Imports of ground fish fillets have almost tripled since 1948, rising from 54 million pounds to 141 million pounds. The effect of this upon both the employees and the employers of the industry has been little short of disastrous. To the natural hazards of the industry have been added man-made financial dangers.
Mr. Chairman, I am convinced that the program embodied in S. 1374 will help make the fishing industry a healthy, progressive, self-sustaining feature of our economy. Once again it may become an important stabilizing factor. Foreign governments and foreign fishing industries recognize the importance of progress in this area, and we cannot afford to be second best to anyone.
I cannot stress too strongly the urgency of the need for legislation. It will help retrieve the position the fishing industry has lost during the past 10 years.
Source: David F. Powers Personal Papers, Box 31, "Federal Fisheries Assistance Act of 1959, Washington, DC, 4 August 1959." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.