New Tempo

President Roosevelt, who has drafted U.S. man power and industry into the undeclared U.S. war against Germany, last week drafted U.S. shipping. In a letter to Maritime Commission Chairman Emory Land he ordered him to: 1) "secure the service of at least 2,000,000 tons" of merchant shipping; 2) put the shipping in routes "useful to our defense efforts and the winning by the democracies of the battle now being waged in the Atlantic."

Where Rear Admiral Land was to get the 2,000,000 tons was the Maritime Commission's problem. Sources it could draw from: 6,500,000 tons of coastwise and foreign-trade vessels privately owned and under U.S. registry; 700,000 tons owned by the Government; 2,500,000 tons of Great Lakes vessels; 500,000 tons of foreign ships in U.S. ports. But all of that tonnage was by no means immediately or even ultimately available. While shipowners speculated on what effect the order would have on them, the Commission made its first move, called tanker operators to Washington, asked for 25 vessels immediately, 25 in the near future. Said the New York Post: "This is something like the tempo which the nation wishes to see."

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