Someone who maintains that the relations between government and business in the United States during the past century have been essentially fascistic could find no better example than ocean shipping. Here we observe all the requisite elements of economic fascism: government-authorized and -supervised cartels, the semblance of private property rights without the substance, and the ever-present rationale of preparation for or actual engagement in warfare.
Because many ships historically have been capable of serving both commercial and naval or military purposes, the government always has had an interest in the oceanshipping business-between 1848 and 1858, for example, the federal government ...