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September, 1921 Puts Operating Control in Hands of Three The decision to place actual opera- ting control of the great government fleet in the hands of three vice presi- dents was. the idea of Chairmay Lasker and was counter to the sug- gestion of the priva-e steamship owners. Experienced American operators recommended a single director of oper- ations with complete authority in the selection and control of his assistants. Two of his principal assistants would have had control of finding cargoes and of keeping ships in repair respec- tively. The Lasker 'plan, as adopted, places control in the hands of three men, acting respectively as vice presidents of the Emergency Fleet corporation in control of traffic, of the physical operation of 'the vesels atid: Of jallo: MARINE REVIEW The spirit of mutual helpfulness bui't up. between the shipping board and the private operators is a significant evidence of the changed attitude of the board. It testifies to the sincerity . of the board's efforts to put its feet in order and to cut off the waste which has been a handicap to private opera- tors struggling to meet that heedless kind of competition, The shipowrers whose sought in a called H. H. Raymond, president of the American Steamship Owners' asso- ciation 'and president of the Clyde Steamship lines; W. -Averill Harriman, chairman of -the board of directors of the United American lines; P. A. S. Franklin, president of the Inter- national Mercantile Marine Co.; and Frank C Murson, nresider: 72. xho Munson Steamship lines. The ship operators included C. H. Potter, presi- dent. of the United States Ship Opera- views were meeting included 395 Complete plans for reconditioning have been ready for some time, the plans being drawn from the ship itself follow- ing the refusal of the German builder to release the plans for less than $1,000,- 000. The ship has been kept in first class condition during her inactivity, has been repainted and the machinery proper- ly looked after. She can proceed to sea on short notice. The cost of keeping the ship in condition has been about $50,000 a month while estimates on i<s reconditioning cost run from $4,000,000 to $12,000,000. Would Keep Politics Out of Board's Work . Politics injected into the attempted! business management of governmental! enterprises has always been the blight: which made incompetence and waste an inevitable partner in the federal over under the requisitioning order. Vessels Owned ane Controlled by the Shipping Board N JULY 1, the shipping board owned and controlled a fleet of 1740 vessels aggregating 11,323,668 dead- weight tons. This total embraces 1148 new steel vessels built under contract and 229 steel vessels taken Ex-German and Austrian vessels accounted for 42 more of 365,732 dead- weight tons. In the following table, is the complete record of the shipping board': fleet divided by both by type of ship and the methods by which secured: ------T otal--_, 7----Cargo--~ Cargo & Pass. No. WL. No. D.W.T, Ne DAW ak: Contract: steel. vessels...) ee: 1148 8,108,513 L053: 27,000,772 13° 158,754 Requisition steel vessels ....+..-.....--. 229 1,546,596 205 1,373,824 0 0 Wood and composite vessels...........-) 288 1,066,649 288 1,066,649 0 0 Concrete vessels... eee eee 10 62,783 2 6,500 0 ; 0. Purchased vessels: ; 636 23-55 oo see 22 173,395 18 156,135 2. 312200 Seized German and Austrian vessels...... 41 359,885 17, 112,918 24 246,967 Ex:German: sailers (42.35) see 2 5,847 2 5,847 oy 0 1740 11,323,668 1585 9,887,645 39 417,921 7-Tankers-- Refrigerators Colliers No. D.W.T. No. D.W.T. No. D.W 74 716,706 S -O7.28k 0 14 110,975 8 50,825 2 10972. 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 56,283 0 0 0 0 1 1,200 U U 1 3,860 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 97 885,164 16 118,106 3 = 14,832 cating the ships to private operators. The new board looks upon the operation of the fleet from now on as the crux of the entire situation. If they can be operated with a closer relation to sound business principles than in the past, the country will be saved huge sums of money and the merchant marine started fairly on the road to permanent Operati6ns are continued: in the slip- shod fashion which has prevailed, the New board will set up a_ record equally as indefensible as its prede- cessor. For that reason the board set up an operating division patterned after Successful American and British com- panies. Mr. Lasker emphasises that no British company entrusts the operation of more than 40 ships to any one man. The shipowners were given every °pportunity to present their views both "pon the reorganization of the opera- tng division and upon the best men qualified to fill. the new positions. success. Lf - tors' association and president of the Potter Transportation Co.; J. Barstow Smull, vice president of J. H. Win- chester & Co.; Clifford Mallory of C. D.. Mallory & Cos: and August F, Mack, president of the Cosmopolitan Shipping Co. Works Out Future Use o Leviathan The future of the great LEVIATHAN, according to officials of the shipping board has been put up to Commissioner Chamberlain to work out. He has been charged with the responsibility of mak- ing a preliminary survey and decision as to what to do with the immense liner. ~ The ship has been cared for by the International Mercantile Marine Co. un- der a contract calling for this firm car- ing for the ship while inactive, acting as the board's representative during re- conditioning and as agent and charterer of the ship when she returns to service. venture. The influence of politics was clearly evident throughout the war and afterward in various phases of both the ship construction and the ship opera- tion program. The cleansing and purifying work undertaken by the new board carries as one of its cardinal principles the complete divorce of politics from the operation of the fleet. The new board members regard the job of reducing the cost of running the fleet as of su- preme importance and difficulty. Poli- tics would ruin all hopes of accom- plishing an already herculean task. Evidence of the sincerity of this pur- pose to submerge politics came from Chairman Lasker in commenting to the writer recently on the appointment of Joseph P. Tumultyv, former secretary to ex-President Wilson, as temporary receiver of the Pusey & Jones Co., with shipyards at Gloucester, N. J., and Wil- mington, Del. "We worked vigorously against the appointment of a receiver,' said Mr. Lasker, "as well as against the selec-