Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-09-07
is SHIP LEAVING
AMERICAN PORTS
EVERY 6 MINUTES

Washington.-Eye six minutes
a merchant vessel arrives and an
other departs from American ports.
From North Atlantic seaports, there
is a departure every IL minutes;
and one for Europe every 40 min
utes. This rate of operation does
not include vessels in the service
of the army or navy.
The merchant fleet of l ,500 ships
under the control of the shipping
board are run as railroads on a
time schedule. The duty of meas
uring ships performances with
their tasks is lodged with the plan
ming and statistics division of the
shipping board, headed by f. H.
Gay, formerly dean of the Harvard
Graduate School of Business.
Obviously, the division must know
the tasks in details, and so it coor-
dinates with the war industries and
war trada boards in determining
and providing for the country's
needs from abroad. 1t works on
month to month schedules or as far
in advance as it is feasible or pos
sible to forecast.
In planning the use of ships, the
division works with the food ad-
ministratiou in determining the
shipping requirements for food;
with the war department in CORE
lating shipping with the require
ments Of the line of supplies to the
western front; with the war indus
tries board in seeking solution of
the problem of bringing necessary
raw imports into the country; and
with the war trade board in pre-
pairing the lists of essential imports
and exports.
AS the country has gone more
and more on a war basis, it has
been regarded necessary to limit
the list of essential imports to less
than a hundred Data on the ships
and their trade provides the basis
for operation of the vessels under
the shipping boards control. Like
wise, records are kept of neutral
vessels coming to this country or
linking up with its foreign trade.
Thus the division checks daily about
seven thousand vessels, 1000 of
them being those OF the shipping
board, 5000 engaged directly in
American commerce and $500 scat
tered over the globe and trading
for the most part wit the allies or
their colonies. Roughly, one-fourth
OF the merchant ships Of the world
are watched by the shipping board.
Ship performances against tasks
are recorded by progress charts, "
which show at a glance what the
vessels have to do and how they
are doing it. Each set of charts is
divided into 10 divisions-one each
tor movements of vessels, turn
arounds, ship charts OF commodi-
ties, individual commodity charts,
summary OF imports, individual
trades. summary Of trades, ship
charts Of exports. performances in
ports, and dock performances Cop
les are distributed every 10 days TO
governments which require con
slant information about the move
ment of supplies.
BY these movement charts. all In
formation regarding locations and
movements OF vessels is accessible.
ana from past records one may
forecast the time of future voyages.
The summary on shipping and
trade, prepared every 10 days for
the war industries and war trade
boards and the food administration,
help shape the larger policies un-
DERIVING the use OF American ships
In war time. The charts tell wheth-
er the ships allotted to a certain
trade are enough. too many or too
few; whether they bring in too
little or too much; whether they
are on time; ahead Of time or be-
hind time, and whether the trade
movement is too slow, too fast or
just right. The charts also serve
to guide the ship control committee
in the assignment OF vessels to va
rious trade. BY comparing import
requirements against deliveries. the
charts shown when vessels may he
transferred from one trade 10 an
other or released TO the army.
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