Maritime Muddle

From Washington there came a new sour note this week as Senator George Aiken laid charges on the table that cast rather unpleasant light on the Maritime Commission's wartime budget. The issue was a move, pending Senate Naval Committee approval, to promote Emory Land, chairman of the Commission, from Rear to Vice Admiral.

Despite the Commission's attempt to justify sky-high government subsidies to private ship concerns through comparison with costs in Axis-run Denmark and Italy, the figures of Comptroller General Warren on two recent shipbuilding deals reveal a loose-handed economy that can contribute little to the war effort. Using as his target reports submitted by Warren, Aiken charged that the Commission sold seven partially built ships to the Navy at two million dollars over their contract price in order to save a failing Florida concern. To this were added accusations that the Commission is issuing unwarranted subsidies, as well as failing in some cases to reclaim interest and excess profits from private shipbuilders.

Such abuses as these deserve recognition and investigation. Unless they are explained, Admiral Land, advocate of shooting all labor organizers at sunrise, should himself face a Congressional firing squad. The tendency at present, with bigger issues afoot, is likely to be one of soft-pedalling, but just such an attitude is daily barricading the progress of the war. If United States revenue is being converted in one government department to encourage the profiteering that is banned by others, an obvious leak has been left untouched.

With even the newest revenue measures falling short of actual war costs, no phase of the nation's accelerated production program can afford to lay itself open to accusations of faulty economy. Already the gap between buying power and consumer goods is of inflationary proportions. Dust on Aiken's charges can clog the war machine.