New-York tribune., 1921-06-11
President Will
Meet New Ship
Board Monday
Means TO Check Losses and
Get Government Out of
Business Will BE Chief
Matters To Be Decided
Two Main Tasks Outlined
Upbuilding of the Merchant
Marine and Liquidation
Are Most Pressing Needs
rv,~. -Ae 7r|bwne's ya.h;ro,ou &c.,

FvoTz Ih@ ITTewYe's WdsAs,otow EAredn
WASHINGTON, June 1o.-President
Earding and the new Shipping Board
viii have conference Monday or Tues
Gay, and will go over the series OF
grave problems with respect to the mer-
chant marine which confront the board
and which the Presidents hopes it will
be able to solve
The President announced this after
noon, after the meeting Of the Cabinet.
that he would take counsel with the
Shipping Board It Is the purpose of
the President to go into considerable
detail with the new board members
about the policy to be followed. In
fact, the first thing to be done, the
President made plain to callers this
afternoon, is to develop this policy in
order that the new board may work
intelligently.
Shipping World Paralyzed
AS the President views it, the whole
Shipping world is in a state of paralv-
sis. This is true, more or less, of both
water transportation and railway trans
pcrtarion. Shipping in most parts of
the world is being operated at a loss.
The United States government is suf-
{ering q heavier loss than other agen-
cies that operate ships, for the reason
that it operates less efficiently and ia
confronted with high charges in va
rious respects.
The President Will tell the Shipping
Board that, as he sees it, there are q
thousand things calling for attention
By the new board, but, above all a
drive must be begun to stop the gap, by
which the Administration means cut
ting down the loss and halting it If
possible. After that, il will be the pur-
pose to take the government out of the
shipping business as far as possible
and try to build up the merchant ma
rlRe on private initiative.
1t is the view of the President, he in
dicated to those with whom he talked
about the matter to-day, that the inter
est in commercial expansion must be
linked with the upbuilding of the mer-
chant marine. The President holds it
IS impossible to build up the merchant
marine by merely waving a magical
wand and wishing for it. On the other
hand. il will be a long, hard task TO
put the merchant marine on a solid
4oaANdllOu 1 ne TTGSlCenC Is eXCrenn e.
Is anxious to put it on such a founda-
ton and to prevent the existing facili-
ties from being dissipated.
Two Divisions of Work
Broadly, the Administration purposes
to have two divisions in the work of
the new Shipping Board. One will be
concerned with the upbailding of the
merchant marine. The other will be
concerned with liquidation. This divi-
SION viii have the difficult job of get
ting the best results possible out Of
SalvagIng the government-owned ships.
COO. The Presidents advices are that
they are not worth more than $3.50 ,00O,-
eco or $1,000, 100000. The problem will
be to get the best returns possible out
of them and charge off the loss to the
war.
President Harding has the utmost
confidence in the new board and in
Chairman Albert D. Lasker. He is
frank in telling his friends that he
did not select Mr.. Lasker because of
his kuowledgeof shipping, but because
lie regards him as having q genius for
organization, and, to use one Of the Ex-
ecutiva's own expressions, "a live wire
organizer" Mr.. Lasker, the President
IS aware, is making sacrifice in a
business way TO take the position. He
did not seek the post, but was COM
mandeered, and the President has high
hopes of both him and the men asso-
ciated with him.