The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-15
NO SACRIFICE OF OUR SHIPS BY UNCLE SA M
Continued from Page one)


 man Lasker said today advertisement of the sale would be ready in three weeks.
 All Routes Must Go.
 Tt must be understood" he said, that the board does not contemplate selling only the cream routes" and leaving the government stuck with unproductive lines. If sufficient routes are not purchased to insure success of private operation, the gov ernment will proceed to hold them all. eliminate the agency system entirely and embark upon program of az gressive operation itself"
 In this event, he declared, the board would be prepared to go before Con gress in December and ask for a sub stantial appropriation fors new con struction, the first to be undertaken by the board since the war. Any program of government operation, the chairman explained would in clude maintenance of adequate sur plus tonnage ito convince competi- tors that the American merchant fleet was not intended to serve a tempo rary purpose.
 Regardless of the outcome of the proposed sale of existing routes, the day of the cost plus flee operator is gone. it was announced officially. Chairman Lasker characterized the system as vicious" It was learned today the board has list in its files of government operators who have maintained connections throughout their service with foreign shipping lines.
 Operators under the so-called "M-O-f contract, by which 'the ic Nf financial outcome, have been reduced
 from 80 to 39, and their privileges materially restricted. MT. Lasker said the remaining operators will be 1 dropped If the government takes over l operation.
 Tt was continued" he said, fin
 the hope that the more efficient and
 ambitious operators could be devel- 1 oped into prospective owners, but
 this hope has been dissipated The system was never commercially | sound"
 Against Federal Operation. The chairman emphasized the re- l pugnance he felt toward government l operation.
 T despise the very idea" he said.
 "The President and the board felt
 that private ownership was the ideal
 method to assure American shipping,
 but since the only way obtaining
 this has been denied us, I, for one, l will take any method which prom
 ises results"
 Survey of the entire fleet will be l pushed in order that unsuitable tom
 mage may be speedily eliminated, and 1 In the meantime ships not engaged 1 In active service on government 1 routes will be sold without restric- ! tions at world market prices to
 American buyers if any are discov- cred.
 l Chairman Lasker supplemented the White House statement by predict Ing that after consolidation of the
 lines and initiation of the selling campaign it ought not to take more than 50 days to ascertain whether
 the government can dispose of its t fleet or will have to go into opera
 tion of the ships itself as perma
 nent proposition.
 Later Mir. Lasker said that if the
 government found il necessary to embark on straight federal oper- ation. the shipping board would he prepared to go before Congress in December and ask a substantial ap- propriation for replacement con- struction.
 The chairman made 1t plain that in the plan considered by the con- terence today an important feature was provision for new tonnage built Tn American yards, to maintain a surplus as a notice to competitors that the American people intend to keen