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AM TT HN TTT TTT E oN ys | i ( Ds Ip ay \ p i ) TTT TMU VOL. 49 CLEVELAND | OCTOBER, 1919 NEW YORK No. 10 Ship Board Now on Freal aaa Chairman Payne Favors Private Ownership But Will Not Push Vessel Sales--Out- look Brightens as Government Officials, Bankers and Operators Study Problem grown to afflict a species of nervous agita- tion upon: the. unfortunate: patients, ~ In other words, they are always on the move. No more fluid agency of the government has ever been. dis- covered. Shipping board members or commissioners come and go with bewildering frequency. A reorgan- ized board is no sooner formed than one or more of its members have their resignations accepted and the marine fraternity must begin anew its analysis of still another board's capacity for good or evil. Chairman Payne, himself a new member, begin- ning business a few weeks ago with a 60 per cent untrained membership, has now lost one of the newest members, Mr. Robinson. 'The latter's suc- cessor undoubtedly will come from the Pacific coast. The constantly shifting membership, it will be observed, has taken place without bringing the appoint- ment to the board of any one representative of Great Lakes shipping, where a big .and prosperous mer- chant marine was developed in the lean years before the war. , Mi erown to aft in the shipping board has Chairman Payne's Policies Are Revealed New light is being thrown upon the probable policies of the new shipping board chairman. In the first days of his appointment, shipping people gener- ally were unfamiliar not only with his attitude toward vital marine problems, but were unacquainted with Mr. Payne himself. After allowing for the atural regret over the failure to name a_ practical ship operator or ship builder--a regret which has been made chronic--a willingness existed to give Mr. Payne a fair field and withhold judgment until after he had had time to develop his policies. | Tn the few weeks which Chairman Payne has held office, the impression he has created has-been favor- able. This impression will undoubtedly be strength- ened by the more intimate survey of his plans and Policies unearthed by THE Marine REVIEW and pre- Sented on page 465. ; oo Mr. Payne follows the path of his predecessor 1n 451 favoring private ownership. He is said, however, to hold the conviction that the American investing public is not sufficiently educated to the value of -- marine securities to absorb, at this time, the huge fleet built and being constructed for the government. He -- favors salvaging for the government as much of the money invested in ship enterprises during the war as it is possible to. These two convictions are said to explain his attitude in cutting down the ship selling organization developed by Mr. Hurley, fear- ing that energetic sales methods would lower ship -- prices.and preferring to await gradual absorption of the fleet at a higher figure by an awakened buying public. Like many other newly appointed government officials, Mr. Payne is trying to employ real business -- methods. Following this line, he has lopped off a number of positions regarded as useless, the total annual saving from this policy of economy being set at $7,000,000. General approval will greet such a saving and will support him in his far more im- portant task of correcting present methods of the accounting staff which are said to have prevented payment to the government during recent months of sums of money which now total $1,500,000,000. Washington Developments Are Encouraging Hopeful signs of an attempt to evolve certain 'major marine policies for the United States are be- ginning to originate in Washington. The board's action in appointing a committee of bankers to ana- lyze the ship market and suggest a feasible plan whereby. the disposal of the new American vessels to private interests can be financed, is strongly approved. Other committees are studying prob- lems of marine insurance and navigation laws. The riper maturity of Mr. Payne's policies will be - followed with more optimism than has been accorded marine developments in Washington for some months past. At the same time congress should not be per- mitted to adjourn without definitely placing legal - sanction upon a merchant marine policy. --