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

Personal Sketches of Marine Men Gen. A. C. Dalton, Vice President and Gen Manager, Merchant Fleet Corp. By L. M. Lamm Photo by Clinedinst Studio HE establishment of an American merchant ma- rine, privately owned and operated, or partly government owned and_ privately operated ‘under the American flag, is inevitable if we are to maintain our future prosperity and influence as a world power,” said Brig. General A. C. Dalton, vice president of the Merchant Fleet Corp., formerly the Emergency Fleet Corp., in discussing his attitude on the merchant marine question. “History has repeatedly shown that nations have de- clined in their power and influence in the exact proportion in which their sea power had declined,” he said. When Elmer E. Crowley, president of the Fleet cor- poration resigned in July of last year, the shipping board was called upon to find a man to fill the position and they selected General Dalton, who at that time was assistant to the quartermaster general of the army. General Dalton enlisted in the United States army in January, 1889 and continued in that service up to the time he accepted his present position. He was made a second lieutenant of infantry in 1891 and served in the grades of first lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel and colonel in the regular army until December, 1922. He was temporarily made brigadier general dur- ing the World war until December, 1922 when he was appointed assistant quartermaster general with the rank of brigadier general. He acquired a great deal of’ practical experience in transportation and construction, including army irans- port service in the Cuban expedition in 1906 and the Vera Cruz expedition in 1914. In 1917 he was attached our E SERVED with distinction in all army grades from private to brigadier general, and for his work in the World war he received the dis- tinguished service medal. a S HEAD of the army transport service his training as an execu- tive in charge of vessel property par- ticularly fitted him for the difficult post he now holds. NDER his able management of the government owned fleet the service has been gradually improved and operating losses have been mate- rially reduced. to the army organization overseas Philadelphia. In the latter part of 1917 and 1918 General Dalton served as general superintendent of the army transport service at New York, including the supervision of activi- ties pertaining to the chartering conversion, equipping and operation of vessels of the army transport service and allied water transportation activities, including the opera- tion of docks, railway terminals, and storage facilities utilized by the embarkation service in the New York area. From 1922 to 1924 he was chief of the transportation service of the quartermaster department of the army in- cluding the army transport service. General Dalton was also the war department representative in the hear- ings on the ship subsidy bill and he was assistant to Secretary of War, Weeks, in the work of the President’s merchant marine committee in 1924. General Dalton was awarded the distinguished service medal for his work during the war. “A majority of the United States shipping board felt,” said Chairman O’Connor at the time General Dalton was appointed president, “that we required the services of a big executive trained in organization on a large scale, a man who had had long experience in important execu- tive work. At the same time we wanted a man who had been actively engaged in ocean transportation. Gen- eral Dalton seemed to us to fill the bill, His experience while in charge of the army transport service and in handling of water transportation during the war is common knowledge.” General Dalton has had a vast experience in con- shipping depot at 70 MARINE REVIEW—November, 1927