The Chairmanship of the Shipping Board, long a conspicuous post in the Government, passed with comparatively little public notice into new hands. An oil scandal, topped by an ex-President's death, helped to crowd it out of a place in the public eye. Even more, the change in the relation between the Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation (TIME, Jan 14, 21) seemed to detract from the importance of the fact that President Coolidge last week designated T. V. O'Connor, of Buffalo—for over two years a member of the Shipping Board—as its Chairman.
Under Lasker and Farley the Shipping Board ruled over the fate of the Government's merchant fleet. Under the recent reorganization of authority, the man responsible for the conduct of the Government's shipping business is no longer the Chairman of the Shipping Board, but the President of the Emergency Fleet Corporation—Admiral Leigh C. Palmer. The change has converted the Shipping Board from a body of ship operators, to a body engaged in the general regulation of ocean-borne commerce. It is now principally a sort of Interstate Commerce Commission of the sea. And the smiling T. V. O'Connor leads it in its role.
The new head knows the shipping business literally from the engine-room up. He began as a fireman on a harbor tug, rose to marine engineer in Buffalo. In 1906 he was elected President of the Licensed Tugmen's Protective Association of the Great Lakes. In 1908 he became President of the International Longshoremen's Association. He held that post during the longshoremen's strike which lasted from March to October in 1919. He tried to bring about a peaceful settlement. He approved the ultimatum of the Shipping Board to the longshoremen, was tried by the union for favoring the shipowners—and was acquitted. About the time that the strike was settled he declared: "If everyone of the 40,000 longshoremen in the port of New York vote to remain out on strike, I will still refuse to endorse their action in any manner !"
He took an active interest in Republican politics, first in New York, then in the national arena. Soon after taking office, President Harding offered him the Assistant Secretariat of Labor, but he declined. In June of 1921, he did accept an appointment to the Shipping Board. Now he sits at its head.