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Handling of Bids for Vessels To be Scrapped Is A National Disgrace Shipping Board and Emergency Fleet Are Again at Odds Divided Authority Leads to Incompetent Management— Steps Under Way To Do Away With the Shipping Board ECENT | negotiations in connec- R tion with the sale for scrapping of 200 government-owned. ves- sels again demonstrates how futile it is to expect anything but the most unbusinesslike action from the ship- ping board and its appendage, the Emergency Fleet Corp. The muddling of affairs coincident with the receiv- ing of bids for these ships brought out anew the extent to which government handling of shipping can be bungled. Complications arising from the method of handling the bids advertised for receipt on June 380 and July 16 resulted in having the whole matter involved in legal technicalities, be- cause of making public the bids and then reconsidering them later to in- clude other bids. To make public bids which have been rejected is unethical to say the least. Henry Ford’s bid of $1,706,000 for the 200 shipping board vessels provoked a flare-up that threat- ened to bring on a new crisis in the affairs of the board. Ford’s bid was one of the 13 new proposals sub- mitted as a result of the failure of the board to sell the ships to the Boston Iron & Metal Co., of Baltimore, al- though recommended to do so by Presi- dent Palmer, of the Fleet corporation, who was delegated by President Cool- idge to handle sales negotiations sin- gle-handed in the interest of speeding up the work of getting the govern- ment out of the shipping business as soon as possible. It was found that Ford’s offer on July 16 exceeded the offer of $1,370,- 000 made by the Boston Iron & Metal Co. on June 380. Communications were then filed with President Palmer on behalf of the Baltimore concern and the Waterside Salvage Co., of New York, protesting against the action of the board in allowing firms or in- dividuals to submit bids who were not represented in the’ first proposals opened on June 380. Most of the members of the board were out of the city when President Palmer sent in his recommendation 1o award the contract:on the basis of the bids opened’ June 30, and the hastily called and poorly attended board meet- Ford's Offer’ Not’ Yet Accepted Admiral Palmer on July 21 recommended to _ the _ shipping board that the Ford offer of $1,- 706,000 for 200 vessels for scrap made July 16, be accepted. Coun- sel for the board holds that pub- lication and rejection of the first bids received June 30 and again advertising for bids which were received and made public July 16 is entirely legal in spite of pro- tests made. The shipping board did not meet. on July 23 as .in- tended to consider Admiral Pal- mer’s recommendation, because they were unable to agree, some members holding that to sell for scrapping is illegal under’ the merchant marine act. So. the muddle continues and will con- tinue as long as seven political appointees are in charge. ing rejected his judgment. The critic- ism of the Boston Iron & Metal Co. and others over the bungling of the bids seem to be justified in that such action worked to the disadvantage of those who had submitted bids on June 80 and to the advantage of those permitted to submit bids up to July 16. It is contended, with considerable basis of common sense, that at least the . 289 amounts of the June 30 bids should have been kept secret until negotia- tions had been completed under the terms of the advertisement. At any rate the complaints which developed had to be referred to the board’s legal. counsel to be untangled. After the Ford bid, and a number .of others, none of which was as high -as the Ford bid, except that of $2,- 440,000 by A. B. Wilson, representing the Ocean Power Co., of Bar Harbor, Me., which was not regarded seriously because it was unaccompanied by a certified check for a part of the amount, Admiral Palmer announced that recommendations would again be made for the board’s approval. The Ford bid was handed to Chair- man O’Connor, of the shipping board, by W. B. Mayo, of the Ford Motor Co., dated July 16, with the check for $175,000 accompanying the bid dated July 7. Ford was not among the bidders when the first bid was opened June 30, but it was said in De- troit at the time that a bid had been mailed, but it never was discovered at the board’s offices. It developed that the Ford offer actually was not made until later. The Waterside Salvage Corp. sub- mitted a bid June 30 for one vessel and asked for negotiations to discuss the disposal of the remainder of the 200 ships. This concern, which pro- tested against the method of making public the offers and then rejecting the highest bid to receive additional ones, warned the board not to accept any bid until it had negotiated with it on the bid submitted June 30. Several members of congress have denounced openly the dilly-dallying methods of the board in pursuing the settled policy of the government to facilitate by every means the removal