The United States Government fleet is transporting a large amount of
freight and reducing its drain on the Treasury. The Shipping Board is
constantly under pressure, to which it too often yields, to protect private
interests, rather than serve the public welfare. More attention should be
given to merchant ships as an auxiliary of the Navy. The possibility of
including their masters and crews in the Naval Reserve, with some
reasonable compensation, should be thoroughly explored as a method of
encouraging private operation of shipping. Public operation is not a
success. No investigation, of which I have caused several to be made, has
failed to report that it could not succeed or to recommend speedy transfer
to private ownership. Our exporters and importers are both indifferent
about using American ships. It should be our policy to keep our present
vessels in repair and dispose of them as rapidly as possible, rather than
undertake any new construction. Their operation is a burden on the National
Treasury, for which we are not receiving sufficient benefits.