National Affairs: Liquidation, Humiliation

Idle vessels of the Shipping Board will be sold at any sacrifice. This decision results from the failure of the Ship Subsidy bill to pass. It is the ” liquidation and humiliation ” President Harding mentioned in his last message to Congress.

Liquidation will mean a saving of $50,000,000 yearly cost of operation of the government-owned merchant marine. The humiliation lies in the “surrender of our aspirations and the confession of our impotence . . . before the competing world.” The ships cost $3,000,000,000; they will bring $26,000,000.