The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

February, 1917 congress, not only from Louisiana, but also from nearby states. He was also indorsed by trade organizations in New Orleans, after other candidates had been considered and declined to accept a position on the board. Mr. Brent does not profess to be an expert on marine matters. He is familiar with related questions, it is claimed, which will be of service to the board and probably will have a great deal to do by way of advising the board as to the making of rates, rules and regulations in accordance with the powers conferred upon the board. It is assumed also that he will have considerable to do with regard to the policy governing the traffic on the Great Lakes and along the coast because of his acquaintance with this traffic acquired when he was connect- with the Rock Island-Frisco lines. May Get to Work This Winter The shipping board will take up its duties as soon as it has’ been con- firmed by the senate. It is an experi- mental organization and has vast pow- ers conferred upon it by the act creat- ing it. In addition, conditions in the overseas trade growing out of the war present complexities that will have to be faced. How the board will dis- pose of these questions will have to be determined upon after it has been organized and has studied the prob- lems before it. While the board is authorized, with the approval of the President, to build and equip vessels for the merchant marine, or to purchase, lease or char- ter them, it has to do so through a corporation, capitalized at $50,000,000, in which the government must hold all or a majority of the stock. It THEODORE BRENT THE MARINE REVIEW cannot secure ships now engaged in commerce carrying, or belonging to any belligerent nation, or not suit- able, after reasonable alterations, for auxiliary naval or military use. More- over, the ship yards are congested with private and government work, the navy yards are also crowded with work, and it seems obvious that the board could not build: vessels before foreign owned merchant lines had re- sumed their normal trade. These facts have led to the belief that the board will not take up at once, if at all, the matter of building or operat- ing a merchant marine, but that in- stead it will study navigation laws in the United States and European laws with a view to adopting a plan of building up a merchant marine along constructive lines. How broad the scope of the board BERNARD N. BAKER may become is a question that can be determined only with the passing of time and the practical application of its powers. While those powers are already broad, it is claimed in some well informed circles that they will assume much greater propor- tions, and that, in this connection, the board will eventually take over the work of the bureau of navigation and the steamboat inspection service, both of which are now under the jur- isdiction of the department of com- merce. One of the first things which the board will do in the way of studying navigation laws, it is said, is to make a visit to England in person, or through experts, and confer with the board of trade there to get ideas. The opinion has been expressed, how- ever, that any ideas secured in this 41 JAMES B. WHITE imanner should be thoroughly Ameri- canized; the board should plan to build up a merchant marine purely along American lines, and to make it entirely independent: of foreign influ- ences. The American Bureau of Ship- ping, it has been pointed out, should be given increased importance and better provision should be made for the classification of American ships, with insurance risks on them taken by American interests. ae Shortly before he was named as a member of the board, Theodore Brent, of New Orleans, gave his views as to problems which the new body will have to work out, touching particu- larly upon its powers of rate-making. Division of Authority “The shipping board is going’to be faced with the immediate need of some definition of the division of authority between it and the interstate com- merce commissioh as concerns the regulation of both the coastwise and lake traffic,’ said Mr. Brent... “There are cases pending before the commis- sion now under the. Panama. canal amendments to the Hepburn law in which the commission is. urged to take jurisdiction of the strictly port to port rates of coastwise lines owned by railroad corporations. “These carriers tell the commission it has no jurisdiction. If this is true, then it must lodge in the shipping board and there is immediate need of an agreement between the two bodies so that in lieu of a better plan, joint records may be made in such cases for both the board and com- mission. The-port to port jurisdiction logically rests with the _ shipping board, because, while the commission