The Course Is Charted

What will the U.S. do with its war-built merchant fleet--$17 billion worth?

For two years Virginia's aged, fussy Representative Schuyler Otis Bland and his House Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries have sawed & hammered away at a bill designed to answer this question. Last week their bill was launched in the House.

No law written by mere men could possibly reconcile the conflict of interests involved in the final disposition of the U.S. merchant fleet--half of the world's merchant tonnage. Ship owners the world over will disagree with whatever use is made of the 50,000,000 tons of bottoms. The most the Bland bill attempts is to mark a channel of compromise for the U.S. Maritime Commission to follow.

Some buoys set out by the Bland bill:

P: Since no operator can afford to pay the inflated cost of ships built during the war, and compete with the lower-priced ships soon to be launched from European yards, dry-cargo ships (Liberties, Victories and transports) will be sold at half their original price. Tankers will be held for their full cost. The terms: at least 25% cash, not more than 20 years to pay the balance (at 3 1/2% interest).

P: As an incentive for U.S. ship operators to modernize their fleets, substantial trade-in allowances will be made on obsolete tonnage. Thus by trading in two or three prewar tankers, an oil company could buy one of the new 16,000-ton tankers (cost $3,000,000) for less than $1,000,000.

P: U.S. ship operators will have first chance to buy. The Army & Navy will submit their estimates of the number of ships to be held in a reserve pool for emergency use. Remaining ships will be offered to foreign buyers.

No one expects that foreign buyers will want many high-priced U.S. ships, or that there will be any commercial use, under any flag, for more than half the 5,000 ships available. Some cargo ships have already been laid up. Hundreds more will follow soon, until the quiet estuaries along the U.S. seaboard become as cluttered with rusting ships as they were after World War I. The U.S. will simply have to write off billions spent on shipping, just as it is writing off billions spent on war plants.

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