The maintenance of a merchant marine is of the utmost importance for
national defense and the service of our commerce. We have a large number of
ships engaged in that service. We also have a surplus supply, costly to
care for, which ought to be sold. All the investigations that have been
made under my direction, and those which have been prosecuted
independently, have reached the conclusion that the fleet should be under
the direct control of a single executive head, while the Shipping Board
should exercise its judicial and regulatory functions in Accordance with
its original conception. The report of Henry G. Dalton, a business man of
broad experience, with a knowledge of shipping, made to me after careful
investigation, will be transmitted for the information of the Congress, the
studies pursued under the direction of the United States Chamber of
Commerce will also be accessible, and added to these will be the report of
the special committee of the House.
I do not advocate the elimination of regional considerations, but it has
become apparent that without centralized executive action the management of
this great business, like the management of any other great business, will
flounder in incapacity and languish under a division of council. A plain
and unmistakable reassertion of this principle of unified control, which I
have always been advised was the intention of the Congress to apply, is
necessary to increase the efficiency of our merchant fleet.