The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-08

1 Congress recently authorized Amer ican> registry of foreign-built ships. Thirty-four such ships have declared their intention to become "American'' and have applied for permission to fly the United States flag. Twenty-Five of these ships-tIae United Fruit Com pany's fleet-wdIl enjoy in addition an uItra-Amerfcan 1ndividualisn
 Each Ship a Corporation
 Each ship will be g. corporation, or technically speaking, the ownership of each vessel will be vested in a corp O. ration which will take the vessels name and the corporate property of which may consist of the vessel alone. The capital stock of each of these new companies is noninal1ya 1000. The Zacapa, transferred by the Fruit coTn- pany to the Zacapa Steamship corpo- ration. sailed from New York on Sep ternfber 16 flying the American flag. Our satisfaction at this extension. of our merchant marine does not prevent our entertaining some curiosity as to the motive and purpose underlying this multiplication of corporations. Whatever may be the purpose or eff feet in this case the possibilities of abuse Of corporate organizations are dramatically presented by the incor- poration of these vessels and the an a1ogies which it suggests. The Penn syIvanis railroad might incorporate the Broadway Limited.
 Whatever the purpose of this trans fer of the Za-capa to the sZacapa Steamship company, it's most import ant legal consequence is to fortify the owners present limited liability in admira1fty by the added and in this case very similar rule of limited 1ia- bility under our corporation laws.
 Our admira1ity statutes limit the liability of ship owners to the value of the vessel. If the vessel is lost there is no liability The Tftantic case ena- phasized not only the absence of any substantiaI liability to which claim ants could resort, but also the back wardness of our law from the point of view of claimants as compared with the English law. For example, in our courts victims of the Titantic disaster $eO, 00O, whereas in the English courts the owners were liable for more than 2,OOO, 900.
 To Get Around Increased Liability
 If our admiralty statutes are amend l ed so that more financial responsibil- ity is placed on ship owners, claimants will be able to attach other property Of the owner than the vessel respon- sible for the loss, just as the victim oe a railroad accident may resort to the general property of the railroad. corporation for satisfaction of his claim But of what value will this right be to the claimant if the owner of the vessel is a corporation and if that corporation owns no property except the foundered vesse12
 This situation indicates the pos sfble imp ortance of the inc erporation Of these United Fruit steam CTS. Tho incorporation makes practically no difference so long as the present limit ed liability law remains on the stat ute books but; if Congress should re- peal this law and substitute the Eng fish statute the incorporation of each ship would be of the utmost inpor- tance both to the owners and to the public It would mean that the act of Congress would be practically in effective and that the actual liability in case Of the loss of the ship would remain just where it was before the passage of the act,-name1y, it would be limited to the value of the salvage. if any.