Evening star., 1921-09-01
Editorial Digest.
Those Wooden Ships Again.

Those Wooden Ships Again.
The controversy over wooden ships.
which at the beginning Of the war
occasioned the resignation Of Gen.
Goethals as chairman Of the Ship
| ping Board, 10 revived in editorial col
| umns by the announcement that the
government is negotiating the sale OF
these white elephants" for q small
fraction Of their cost. The majority of
| papers regret that it is necessary to
| sacrifice the ships at figure which.
as number of writer's put it. is less
| than one-half OF / per cent" of their
original value. but they feel never
| theiess that any price is preferable to
| their continued upkeep at public ex-
pense. and that the great money loss
| must simply be charged to the war
however. protests against the pro.
posed deal as an unnecessary giving
| away of public property, and several
papers follow the lead of the New
| YORK World (democratic) in demand
| ing an investigation Of transaction
doubt.
ine Shipping Board, it Is explained
IN the Norfolk Ledger Dispatch (inde-
pendent democratic), has been in
structed by Congress to get rid of the
meet meet oy october l." and It must. there:
stances. the Chicago News (independ-
ent) feels that nobody should criti-
cize the sale" since 'only one bid" has
peen submitted, and there was no
csptance; The News accordlngiy
thinks that the Shipping Board has
done the right thing, at the peril of
6eing thought ridiculous by super
nclal minds and its action, the Kan
| sas City Journal (republican) says.
prevail"
ships" the Charleston wv. Va.) Mail
| independent republican, holds. has
eeen money lost. money misspent IN
their them b"id,nr S"iIdim and ND money wasted In
their Keeping" but the New Bedford
| It agrees entirely with this statement.
| 1eeis that 1t is unjust to hold any
one to blame for this hasco" and
,nothing remains now but to try to
forget the whole episode and to
as part of the inevitable waste of
war" The Knoxville Journal and
Ir,ouns athoua e, ,ar%epublican). % however. thinks
building" because "if we had needed
them, we would have needed 'em
nadly. Now that we have no use
Tor them the paper hnds 1t better to
turn loose hot poker than to try
to hang on to the thing because it
cost money. and get more seriously
burned every minute"
The Louisville Post (independent)
maintains that the government
should sell these ships for what they
III hA
as a war expense" because it Is q
| mistake" to continue their support,
| which. the South Bend Tribune (inde-
pendent republican, points out. must
be paid for by the people," and while
the contract price offered is very low
It presents "a way out of the costly
difficulty. which should be welcomed" !"
| The Springfield Republican (inde-
pendenD suggests that 1.-The board
| may perhaps be thankful not to have
! white Elephants" and while sale at
| the ''ridiculously low" figure amounts
/ to giving the vessels away" the ST.
Joseph lMo.) News-Press Undepend-
enO believes, the government will
keeping them At is considerable" And
| the Elmira Star-Gazette (independ-
! ent) feels that 'if those 205 ships
can be set to work as carriers Of
goods and stimulators of trade" the
sale of them for what seems like a
| small sum-"
But the Milwaukee Journal Unde-
| pendenD Is not convinced that an
| enort was made to get more for
! these vessels" than the $2.100 bid, and
| outcome of the prevalent idea that
! they may be had for a mere nothing"
Such government salesmanship," the
| New York Evening World demo
cratic) thinks, "is enough to send a
shudder down the spine Of every
sense In his composition" because
granting that these vessels were
built In something akin to a panic"
| that does not excuse their being
sold in a panic" Plesuming that
the wooden ships were made out of
wood" the Johnstown Democrat
(democratic) remarks that when Mr.
l.asker sells vessel that cost $780,
coo for $2.100 it is time to look him
in the eye and ask him few ques-
these days" and even if the vessel is
lcf doubtful value for shipping pur-
poses, still there should be some
good lumber in it-enough for a
house or two"
Before this transaction gees any
PENDENT republican, suggests that 1T
would be we'll to inquire whether
there was some bidders combine
which has dubbed off legitimate huy-
ers in the interest of junk specula
tors" and the New York World
(democratic) asks if the Shipping
Board has been ignoring much higher
Lids for the ships for the sake of
being able to turn them over to this
New York concern at price hardly
equal to the worth of their nulls as
indllng wood"