Selling Out

Figures are quoted con and hopes are advanced pro on the barnacle-bottomed question of whether or not the Government should stay in the shipping business and continue in that (so far) ineffective way to try to build up the U. S. merchant marine. Last week the question remained as derelict as ever, but the U. S. Shipping Board took a definite step which apparently vexed no one very much. It sold the U. S. entirely out of the shipping business on the Pacific Coast.

Of the 500 or so transoceanic merchantmen owned in the U. S., three-fifths are owned by the Government. But only 39 were on the Pacific Coast. These the Shipping Board sold for $3,743,661 in three groups:

1) The 21 ships of the American Australia Orient Line, plying between San Francisco and Los Angeles and ports in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, China, Japan--sold to a joint subsidiary of the Matson Navigation Co. and the American Hawaiian Steamship Co.

2) The eleven ships of the Oregon Oriental Line, plying from Portland to China and Japan--sold to a corporation headed by Vice President K. D. Dawson of the Columbia Pacific Shipping Co.

3) The seven cargo vessels of the American Oriental Mail Line, which famed Robert Dollar has been operating for the U. S. as lessee--sold to the Tacoma Oriental Steamship Co.

All the sales were on a basis of 2 1/4% cash down, 2 2 1/2% when the ships are transferred, the balance in seven and one-half years with interest at 4 1/4%, with guarantees by the buyers to operate the ships for at least five years.