252 BANQUET. 
There was more cargo offering than there were ships to carry it. Rates were on a plane 
unheard of. Anyone could make money. No attention was paid to keeping the cost of oper- 
ation down. No attention was paid to the huge claims resulting from inefficient manage- 
ment and operation, and in most cases no money was set aside for the future, with the re- 
sult, in my opinion, that the tremendous operations for American ships for the two years fol- 
lowing the war, from which we should have benefited beyond measure, were not only with- 
out value but actually detrimental to the upbuilding of our merchant marine. Only in 
adversity, in trial, does the true business sense become whetted. 
I place the period when we started to gain any real experience about June, 1920. This 
was when rates commenced to take a tumble, and it was not long before everyone in the 
shipping business became aware of the value of the dollar owing to the keenness of the 
competition. 
When Chairman Lasker assumed control of the Shipping Board’s affairs in July, 1921, 
for the first time he was able to draw about him men who had had the bitter experience of 
going through the ups and downs of the shipping business for many years. The average 
“man in the street” does not appreciate what has been accomplished. I can say to you, how- 
ever, in all sincerity and without fear of contradiction, that it has simply been marvelous. 
The country owes to Chairman Lasker the deepest debt of gratitude. 
To give some idea of the activities of the Shipping Board, it will no doubt interest you 
to know that today we have regular established services to a very large extent sailing on 
appointed dates from 40 ports of Continental United States, and serving no less than 229 
ports throughout the world. These services are performed by 83 established lines 
of steamers. Included in this number are fiye passenger, mail, and cargo service, namely : 
New York to London, New York to Bremen, New York to Brazils and River Platte, 
San Francisco to the Orient via Honolulu, Seattle to the Orient, and a sixth service, which 
will be inaugurated very shortly between the principal ports on our Pacific Coast and the 
Brazils and River Platte ports via Porto Rico. 
The figures that you get from time to time of the proportions of our export and im- 
port trade carried in American bottoms are misleading in certain respects. If they could 
be dissected to show the advances that we have made in the general cargo trades, you would 
be surprised. 
I cannot tell you what it has meant to bring these services up to their present point of 
efficiency. It has been possible only by the loyalty, determination, and cooperation of a 
small group of men. We have a long way to go yet, but the fact remains that we are 
at present well and favorably established. 
A large number of incompetent and inefficient operators have been eliminated. Dupli- 
cation of services to a large extent has been rectified. Agency arrangements and berthing 
facilities in foreign countries, while vastly improved, are not yet entirely satisfactory. Then, 
again, we have had the tremendous handicap of receiving, from underwriters, foreign and 
domestic ratings that immediately placed us at a disadvantage with our old-established for- 
eign competitors. I am glad to say on this point, however, that conditions have greatly im- 
proved, but we are more or less in the unfortunate position'of a strong and clever prize 
fighter—none of the leading lights in the profession will take him on for a championship 
contest until after he has gone out in the rough and tumble ring and made a name for him- 
self. We have got to make a reputation. While statistics show that possibly about one-third 
of our insurance is placed in foreign admitted companies, this is not a true picture, because 
