The Adair County news., 1920-09-22
SHIPPING BOARD
FLEET FLEECED
Repair Men and Food Dealers in
Agreement to "PIuck the
Golden Goose"
81 FOR POUND OF BITTER
Investigator Reveals Wide System OF
MuIcting Among Men In the
South American Trade-ls
Quickly Stopped.

Buenos Aires.-The United States
shipping board has been defrauded of
many thousands of dollars through
practices which amount to systematic
fleeing" of shipping board vessels in
the River Plate trade, according to re-
ports to the board by Capt. G. L. Car
den, special representative of the ship
ping board emergency fleet in BuenOs
Aires.
Captain Garden, accompanied by
Captain of Engineers L. G. Farwell,
arrived here a month ago to take
charge and protect the boards inter-
ests. when 1 arrived here" he said
to the Associated Press correspondent,
'ship chambers, repair men and others
connected with the shipping industry
seemed to be In a general agreement
to mulct the shipping board vessels
| to the limit.
"In receiving my orders was told
that while the board appreciated the
fact that expenses of all sorts were
high in Buenos Aires and MonteVideO,
still 1t felt that there must be some
thing wrong when their vessels paid
such prices, for instance, as 81 a
pound for butter. ''''"~-
ut seems that the practice was when
a shipping board vessel appeared in
the roads and signaled its desire to
enter for those who had hopes Of sell
ing the vessels supplies to prepare for
a plucking Of the golden goose.
Food Thrown Overheard.
"Our arrival put a quick and enec-
tive stop to all this. We now have all
shipping board vessels calling at this
port report directly to US. We alone
have the right to authorize purchases
Of supplies or expenditures for re-
pairs. All repairs at present must be
made according to specifications and
under bond. Every bill must have my
signature before 1t will be paid, and
the result Of this has been a saving
Of as much as 80 per cent on many
items. Conditions formerly were so
bad that I have even heard that In
some cases food was thrown over
board in order to create a shortage, so
that purchases could be made"
During the first four weeks Of the
supervision provided by the new ar
rangement 1t was officially estimated
hat a saving for the shipping board,
which means for the United States
government, Of $4,000 for food alone
and 900 for repairs was made. As
a result Of this campaign at least one
arrest is expected when a certain ship
arrives In New York.
There are % lines under the ship.
ping board which have vessels calling
at ports in this Jurisdiction. There
are on an average p vessels on hand
at all times. The average cost fol-
maintaining these is from $500 to s..
600 each per day. Before the war ar
American vessel on the River Plate
was a curiosity.
$4,000 for Repairs.
"Since the shipping board has no Of
fees Of its own to take charge Of III
vessels In ports throughout the
world" continued Captain Garden. III
was usually necessary to intrust the
care Of its ships to established agen
c1es. Many of these steamship agents
had already for years been representa-
tives Of foreign and possibly compel
ing lines. The result has been that iI
many cases American vessels have
been held back, while other ships were
given the preference, causing the ex
.. penses of American ships to mount W
through port charges and lost time.
''In all River Plate ports losses from
this source have been very great, a:
we'll as those through Overcharges FOL
supplies repairs and so forth. There
Is one case on record where an Amer
lean ship was held up for months fo1
repairs and charges totaling S3OO,OOt
were piled up against her. But W.
are seeing to it now that shippin!
board vessels get into port and ge
away again without unnecessary de
lay. The saving to the shipping boart
from this attention undoubtedly vii
be several hundred thousand dollar
annually"