The Cordova daily times., 1921-09-28
,ny ntcrn.uIonor News sorvicc1

WASHINGTON, Sept 2S Whether the United States flag flies over the largest merchant marine in the world. as it once flew over the clipper ship fleets of American commerce depends on the development of the present shipping boards program within the next few months.
 Chairman Albert D. Lasker. of the new board, has stated that it will take full year to determine definitely the result of the present program
 The preliminary steps in the pro gram have already been undertaken. They include:
 First. A general cleanup of incom- plete contracts
 Second 4 thorough survey of the entire shipping board, to determine just where the organization stands in a business way.
 BUSINESS METHODS NEEDED
 Third To put the board on the same basis as successful business.
 The general goal toward which these steps are directed is a fullfledged American merchant marine. second to none
 Chairman Laskcr has stated that his administration has inherited chaos. They have inherited an organization, in which, owing to war conditions, ac. counts with the business clients are badly scrambled. a large amount of surplus material is on hand, some of 1t unstable. under present conditiOns and, finally. with the second largest tonnage in the world on their hands they are operating at a loss to the government.
 The first thing the present organiza. tion has undertaken has been to clean up, that is, settle long-standing ac- counts as rapidly as they can be put in shape, clear away accumulated red tape adjust the organization to pres ent conditions. and in general start with as clean a slate as possible. This is still going on, and Chairman Lasker expects months to elapse before most of the work is done
 In line with this cleanup the or Eanization is being thoroughly over mine what assets and liabilities the present board has, thing which the chairman states has never been done. He states that an enormous amount of work is involved in this alone
 WORKING ORDER NEEDED
 The third step, putting the firm in working order. involves all these things and is the immediate goal
 The fundamental thing being under i taken now is to stop the loss to the government through the boards opera . tions This is stated to be the key note to the entire undertaking.
 This loss has been laid by board of ! ficials 10 the present system of op- | erating shipping board vessels, known . as Managing Operators Agreement | No f Under this agreement operators | are practically guaranteed , per cent of the ships earnings. although the losses in operating might in some C2ses exceed by thousands of dollars the total income. This is held to be | the primary cause of all the present trouble
 According to the first definite plank in the new boards platform has been to agree unanimously that this system must be abolished This feature of the permanent policy is the only one fully decided as yet. and until il is done it is stated that lesser matters must wait
 TO STOP LOSSES
 The board, of course. has determined on other steps besides abrogating the present operating agreements. but they are all involved under the general head of stopping loss 70 the govern mpnt