The Cordova daily times., 1918-08-23
MERCHANT SHIPS CQME: AND GO ON
 SCHEDULE l !ME


 six minutes merchant vessels a"' riv,s and an"'her departs from an Am,i ican port. From North Atlantic scaports there Is departure every eleven minutes, and one for Europe every forty minutes. This rate of op- eration does not include vessels in the service of the army or navy.
 The merchant fleet of l.500 ships un- der the control of the Shipping Board are run as railroads, on time sched- ule. The duty of measuring ships performances with their tasks is lodged with the planning and statis- ties division of the Shipping Board, headed by E. II. Gay, formerly dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Business.
 Obviously. the division must know the tasks in details, and so 1t CO., ordinates with the war industries and war trade boarHS in determining and providing for the countrys needs from abroad It works on month to month schedules. or as far in advance as it is feasible or possible to forecast
 In planning the use of ships the division works with the food admin. istration in determining the shipping requirements for food; with the war department in correlating shipping with the requirements of the line of supplies to the western front; with the war industries board ln seeking solution of the problem ot bringing necessary raw imports into the coun- try, and with the war trade board in preparing the lists of essential i'm ports and exports.
 As the country has gone more and more on war basis. 1t has been re- garded necessary to limit the list of essential imports to less than hun dred Data on the ships and their trade provides the basis for operation of the vessels under the Shipping boards control Likewise, records are kept of neutral vessels coming to this country or linking up with it's foreign trade. Thus the division checks daily about 1000 vessels, 1.500 oi them being those of the Shipping Board, 5000 engaged directly in American commerce and 2.50O scat tered over the globe and trading for the most part with 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. VI hich show at q glance what the yes sels have to do and how they are doing it. Each set of charts Is di- vided into ten diyisions-one each for movements Of vessels, turnarOunds ships charts of commodities, indi. vdual commodity charts. summary of imports. individual trades. summary of trades, ship charts of exports, per formanCes in ports. and dock perform ances. Copies are distributed every ten days to governments which re- quire constant Information about the | movement of supplies
 By these movement charts all in formation regarding locations and movements of vessels is accessible, | and from past records one may fore | east the time of future voyages.
 The summary of shipping and trade. prepared every ten days for the war industries and war trade boards and the food administration. | helps shape the larger policies under lying the use of American ships in ! war time. The charts tell whether | the ships allocated" 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 behind 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 various trade. By com pairing import requirements against deliveries the charts show when yes trade to another or released to the or