Evening star., 1923-10-17
UNCLE SAM READY
TO RUN OWN SHIPS
Manager Operator System
Abolished for Direct Han
ding by Government.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Government operation-more of it
than before and probably for all times
has been embarked upon by the
United States Shipping Board.
After many weeks of maneuvering
on the part of shipping interests to
get possession at low prices of the
fleet built during the war, and after
the Chamber of Commerce OF the
United States had appealed to Presi-
dent Coolidge TO turn the. ships over
to private operators, the Shipping
Board has gone ahead with plans
exactly in line with the announce
ment made by the late President
Harding when the ship subsidy bill
failed to come to a vote in the last
session of Congress.
Will Operate Own ships.
The Shipping Board will operate its
own vessels. The system of handling
them through managing operators
who received a commission on gross
business done, whether 1t was at a
profit or a loss, has been abolished.
Consolidation of lines is being worked
out with the aid of executives who
are to receive salaries direct from the
United States government instead of
through managing agents. The only
commission arrangement which has
been arranged is that which permits
loading agents" to solicit freight
business for the government lines,
but. the commission is paid only on
freight obtained.
Broadly speaking, this is direct
tensive scale than has been tried be-
fore. The Shipping Board has been
prompted to make the experiment by
the success achieved in handling the
United States Lines, as the line Is
known which runs a passenger serv-
Ice to Europe, with such ships as
the Leviathan and the George Wash
ington. The opinion of Attorney
General Daugherty. which called
Illegal the plan to organize subsidi-
that 1t was questionable whether un-
der the law the Shipping Board could
delegate it's powers. This gave added
force to the desire of the board tc
do away with the manasing- agent
system and has brought about direct
operation the only ;%ay o. con-
forming to the spirit and the letter
of the Daugherty opinion.
Can StiII Sell Ships.
But the merchant marine act also
says that the ships must be operated
SO as ultimately to make 1t possible
to dispose of them to private owners.
The subsidiary corporation plan was
designed to demonstrate how at
tractive the ship organizations ere
ated by the government could be
made to prospective purchasers.
Members of the Shipping Board in
sist that what they now are doing
will not interfere with the sale of
the ships to any one who wants to
buy them. But thus far no offers
which the board thinks worth while
have been made. And the probabIli-
ties are that the deeper the govern
ment gets into direct operation the
less attractive will any offers be-
come.
1t begins to look as If private ship
ping interests lost their best chance
when the ship subsidy bill failed, and
that as alternative plans are worked
out the government will constantly
reduce it's losses or adopt the atti-
tude which II does with respect to
the deficit in the postal service
namely, that the loss to the govern
ment is relatively small compared to
the insurance it gives the American
producer of an American merchant
marine, with freight rates that are
not under the control of foreign
countries.
fcony-;,b+ 1909