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Who Is Who In New Ship Board Headed by Business Leader, Board Includes Editors, Lawyers, Naval Officer and Labor Representative AVING declared that the ship- H ping board muddle is "the most colossal commercial wreck the world ever knew", Albert D. Lasker, as chairman of the new. board, thereby definitely aligns himself as the chief of the greatest wrecking crew on record. Chairman Lasker has: no il- lusions concerning his task--a _ fact -that may save him many a trying hour --and so is vigorously attacking his problem, which is one of disentangling rather than one of upbuilding. Neither President Harding, who de- lights in referring to Mr. Lasker as a "live "wire", nor Mr.' Lasker himself mince any words as to the Lasker insight into shipping. Admittedly, he has none. But as the President has repeatedly stated, the salving of the government's billions in war-built ship- - 'pine requires not a pair' oi. sea legs but rather a headful of good, hard, business brains. Mr. Lasker was born in Galveston, Tex., in 1880. When only 10 years old, he began turning out a newspaper, for which a tablet was the paper and his pencil the type. At 14, he was actually printing a paper that carried advertisements. A year later he began sending Galveston news to eastern and southern 'newspapers, and at the close of his high-school career went on the staff of the Galveston News and later the Evening Tribune. 'Early in his son's career, Mr. Lasker senior made the acquaintance of the Mr. Lord who was then the head of the Lord & Thomas advertising agency of Pitcaco.. Mr.-Lasker senior did: a good turn for Mr. Lord; Mr. Lord said some day he would attempt to recipro- cate. Seeing that his son was de- termined to follow a newspaper career, Mr. Lasker senior sounded out Mr. Lord on the proposition of taking his son into the advertising agency. At 18 then, Mr. Lasker began at the foot of the advertising ladder, for $10 a week. Today, at 41, Mr. Lasker is the sole owner of this agency. Commercially, Mr. Lasker's ventures took him into the field of salving busi- ness as well as promoting it. His in- terests today include Quaker Oats, Mitchell automobiles, Van Camp prod- ucts and the Chicago national league baseball club. Politically, Mr. Lasker made his debut in 1918 when Will H. Hays, now postmaster general, asked BY E. C. BOEHRINGER him to handle the publicity for the 1918 congressional campaign--the campaign that restored both the house and the senate to the Republican party and was the entering wedge for the defeat of the Wilson peace proposal in the senate. The Harding campaign of 1920 again found Mr. Lasker at the head of the general staff, and here the President made the acquaintance of his present shipping board chairman. Mr. 'Lasker represents the interior on the shipping board, is a Republican, ALBERT D. LASKER and has the longest term--six years. He is married and has three children. An uncle of Mr. Lasker was the founder of the Liberal party in Germany. His father came to the United States from Germany in 1858 and fought with Texas troops in the Civil war. Incidentally, he was the first man to introduce the 8-hour day in the southwest. Four sis- ters of Mr. Lasker are active in social or allied work, T. V. O'Connor REAT LAKES representative on tie Hoard, T.-.V.° O'Connor, is also the only outright spokesman for labor. Born in Buffalo 51 years ago, Mr. O'Connor began life in the ex- emplary way of being a newsboy and bootblack. From this humble but aus- picious beginning, Mr. O'Connor barked upon the ferry em- business in 346 Buffalo harbor, then went as a deck- hand on tugboats and ultimately be- came captain. His labor career began when he started representing the tug- men, and he soon found himself presi- dent of the Buffalo local of the licensed tugmen's protective association. In 1907 he became vice president of the International Longshoremen's associa- tion, and two years later was made president, a post he relinquished only on June 15, 1921, a week after his appointment to the shipping board. In the war period, Mr. O'Connor mobilized the regiments of longshore- men which handled the 'army's: trans- ports here and abroad. Mr. O'Con- nor, a Republican, has a 5-year term. W. De Benson DMIRAL W. S. BENSON is one of the two members of the present shipping board to hold over. Placed on the old board by President Wilson in February, 1920, he was made chair- man in the following month and re- tained this post until the present board was selected by President Harding on June 8 and confirmed the following day. He is a Democrat, representing the Atlantic coast, and is holding down a l-year term. Admiral Benson was born ine Macon; 'Ga.,) Sept,7:25, 1855. Following his graduation from the naval academy at Annapolis in 1877, he served under Commander W. S. Schley--later to gain fame in the Span- ish-American war--and rose to the rank of rear admiral in 1915. During the war, he served as chief of naval operations, and made many trips . to Europe during and after the war to confer with: the 'allied. naval chiefs. Admiral Benson was retired on Sept. 25, 1919,-and later became involved in the, controversy 'with Admiral Sims. Edward C, Plummer HE Pltimimer family of New Eng- land has the unique distinction that since it was founded in Massachusetts in 1663 that branch of the family rep- resented on the shipping board by Ed- ward C. Plummer, Bath, Me, has- never lived more than 10 miles from the ocean. Mr. Plummer, an admiralty lawyer, was born in Freeport, Me., on Nov. 23, 1863, and was graduated from Bowdoin college in 1887. Entering newspaper work, in 1892, Mr. Plummer became the owner of the Bath Jnde- pendent. Shortly thereafter he visited