The curious story of the American State owned and managed
merchant fleet is evidently by no means fully told. The central fact seems to be that the fleet is at present losing some £10,000,000 a year of public money. Hence the comprehensible anxiety on the part of the Government to settle the matter in some way or other. But once again the Executive has been headed back by its legal officer, the Attorney-General. A plan had been evolved by which the Government was to work the ships by means of subsidiary com- panies and be the chief shareholder in the companies. But Mr. Daugherty, as the guardian of the will of Congress, has found that that expressed will is that the ships must be worked by the Government till they are sold out- right. Purchasers, however, do not seem very eager.
Mr. Coolidge is faced with one of his first "- problems." * * * *
Previous page
