The Washington times., 1918-12-20

says, the payrolls were so overloaded
that men stood about idle. The labor
turnover, as a result, ranged as high
as 100 per cent q week. the data
showed.
Paid For EfKnOw How
1t is charged that, although the
American International was paid q
very substantial fee for the know
how" and was expected to be equal
to the task. IL allowed seven weeks to
elapse after signing its contract be-
fore giving attention to transporta-
tion features OF the enterprise. As
a result IL 900 cars of freight piled up
in Philadelphia, and, finally, an en-
barge had to be placed against all
freight shipments to that city. Con-
gestion in freight yards, due to the
careless methods. the report says, was
not alone in Philadelphia, but ex-
tended as far as Norfolk, Va.
"In spite of. formal warnings from
the Emergency Fleet Corporation
and the railroads." the report says,
that more freight was being or
dered than could be used, officials
OF the American International dis
regarded advice and took the posi-
ton that they were responsible for
the job and would properly handle
the situation"
Work Delayed weeks.
When shipyard officials began to
disentangle the freight congestion,
they found that little of the material
they needed at once could be had
Construction of the ways and OF the
yard, proper, thus was held up for
weeks according to the report.
Celebrating further their charAss
of mismanagement, the report says:
Having failed to make adequate
progress during the nrst twelve
weeks when the weather was good.
the corporation sought to make up
for lost time by jamming the work
through six or seven weeks of un-
usual cold. when IT was impossible
to make progress Commensurate with
the effort or expense, often trying to
work night shifts. overtime and holi-
days at enormous increase in pay
rolls, to do work that could be done
in a fraction of the time in proper
construction weather. Much OF this
work could have been postponed
without detriment to the program as
a whole,
Equipment Lay Idle.
Large quantities OF construction and
floating equipment was brought to
the island and held idle during these
weeks at a monthly rental Of 8 per
cent
"The effort at speed under such
impossible conditions resulted in
abandonment of most forms OF dredg-
ing and machine digging, forcing the
substitution of hand picking and
hand shoveling, often accompanied
by blasting or thawing frozen
ground, and involved q sudden and
horizontal increase again in the num-
Der of laborers needed without ade-
quate time to build UP the supervis-
ing force"
Amplifying their charge that tre-
mendous increases in Salaries were
authorized, and which came out Of
the Governments funds, the investi-
gators reported that thirty-seVen en-
ployes OF stone & Webster (subcon-
tractors on the job. were transfer
red to the Hog Island payroll and
their salaries raised from S3,073 each,
annually, to $3.50 each.
GMere Guexses" Excuse.
Against all of the alleged ex
travagance," officials of the fleet
CoIpOIdIion anu AhO SiiPPi"b
continuously protested, records show.
Officials Of the American Interna-
tional contended that all of these
were swept aside by the granting Of
additional contracts. But the opin-
ion was expressed in the report
that: while the allegations of waiv-
er are serious, we do not regard
them as conclusive"
As to the Jump in cost over the
original estimate, the report says:
considerable effort has been made
by officials OF the American Inter
national to stultify their own esti-
mates by claiming that they were
mere guesses that nobody could rely