The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-16

the government complete cOHIIOl OA tuo
 cargo bottoms going in and out of ports
 IL will mean radical checking of bothsex
 ports and imports of nonessentials and
 will endeavor to carry out the plan laid
 before President Wilson by Chairman
 Hurley this week of taking 100000 tons
 of shipping now in neutral and merchant
 trade for army use.
 4. Steps have already been taken to
 put all shipping of the army under one
 man control; all under the shipping
 board under one man and expert control.
 On top of this there has been organized
 the supreme allied shipping control com
 mittee to get better coordination in the
 use of all shipping, allied or American
 going in and out of ports. This central
 ization of control and direction of ships
 is to be steadily developed, it is an
 nounced.
 5. 1t is probable that the actual man. ming of the ships may be turned over to the navy department through the naval reserve crews. The navy now mans only army transports But there is un- der consideration plan to put all ships going lover there" under naval crews and naval operation.
 6. Important negotiations, which have dragged for weeks and months, are still in progress to obtain the use of
 more neutral shipping and also to ob- tain some additional Japanese shipping in the Atlantic trade.
 Further indicative of the stress that is being put on the ship question right now Secretary of War Baker has issued a public statement addressed to the parents of the boys in the army In | 1t he stated that the number of soldiers that get over to France and can be supplied and maintained there depends entirely upon the shipping. He asked that they take it on themselves as duty to assist their localities in getting labor for the ship board-that the ship | ping programme may be met. It was the official admission of the war sec- . retary that the whole crux of the situa- ton, as far as it pertained to the army, was the question of shipping
 The naming of thesadvisory committees for each building zone that has been set up is not a reorganization of the ship ping board Rather it is but develop ment in the continuous reorganization that Chairman Hurley has had underway every since he had the muddled and bungled shipping situation left at his doorstep to solve. It is designed to bring to the assistance of the government some of the shipbuilding brains Of the country They will advise with the gov ernment agents on the pressing problems that come up weekly in the particular districts in which they are engaged in shipbuilding. It has been one of the mys- teries about the entire shipbuilding pro gramme from the outset that men who had had success in shipbuilding and knew the game from years of experience haven't been called in to assist the gov ernment in any large measure Men who knew nothing whatever about the indus l try were given positions of responsibil- l ity and power; men who knew were ig- nored.
 | Recently in the Senate investigation two l of the biggest and most successful ship builders in the country testified that the committee had asked their advice on the | situation for the first time. One of the men a successful builder himself, said | that the bottom of most of the trouble l in the ship programme-and it has been continuous trouble and disappointment 1 from the outset-was that the govern | ment seemed to want anybody to ad- I wise and run the big venture except those who had had some experience Hur- l lev and Piez, his general manager, are | trying to get the experience of these men l into service now. In fact, Hurley and Piez have been doing their best to over come the bad start the programme got, and in which it was handed them. The biggest thing on the building pro- gramme right now. of course, Is the ia- | bor drive and the agreement on unirorm prices. for that work is part or the | N~DS~ The public doubtless has had the opinion that with the great demand existing for ships. shifts have worked night and day 1 getting them out. But the facts are, ! that with the outcome of the war pos :, sibly hinging on ships and ships alone, l the best that had been done up to the l first of the year was to keep one shift working eight hours day and many or l the shipyards haven't been able to keep full shifts at that. That was because everybody was going on the assumptloii l that the ships would be built because ] the contracts had been let ana there l wasn't big sentiment back home pound l ing for more action. But since snippihs I has come to the fore and the big labor drive has got under way some few plants now are working two shifts day,
 and one, at Los Angeles, three shirts. 1 Rut the big percentage of the plants are 1 still going only eight hours day
 1 Much of the greater part or the 1 shipping now under contract won ! I he out during the summer and carry fall. There will be lots of the cora mandeered ships finished and sent to 'i,sea. But they won't be enough to | send the big army that the United 1 States has promised. The allies, as 1 Secretary Baker testified the other l day. have agreed to allot us all the l shipping they can possibly spare. But l even that isn't enough. So the uni- | ted States is securing the world Tor
 bottoms today, anywhere 1t can get l them Tho new export and import l licenses will mean that the govern
 ment will pass upon every ton of
 1 freight that is shipped. out of or into Isthe United States. It will thus be in l a position to put war needs first and
 l cut off at least half the nonessentials.
 For example, silk from Japan; mahog-