New-York tribune., 1920-11-20
Foreign Ring
Said to Rule
Ship Board
(Conilnued from mage one)

saips from the Shipping Board az
total cost Of $4,000 900 This, he said,
was more than any other operator hao
bought. Many of these ships, he said
are poor of construction. necessitat-
ing frequent repairs. and docking be-
cause of leaky rivets, leaky decks ana
other faulty construction. 1e assert
ed that more than 50 per cent OF .he
ships purchased from the Shipping
Board needed repairs. He attributed
this to faulty shipbuilding, saying that
in several cases bad work WAS covered
by paint
The board, he said, paid no atten-
ton to him, despite repeated offers of
his aid.
Efficiency does not count with he
Slipping Board,'" he said. at is in
efficiency they want"
The witness testified that ne pur
chased back from the Shipping Board
eight vessels which had peen comman
dcered from his company by the gov
ernment for war purposes when they
were under construction by the Fore
River Company and were IS per cent
completed. He said the government
charged him an excess of $3792.2l6 on
these ships, run I'D in oyercharges and
estimates under the cost plus plan. He
complained that although these ships
were purchased by rim two years ago
he has not vet been able TO obtain
from the Shipping BOARD IN count
ing on the overchargcs he alleged. lie
added, however, that he has been able
to ascertain that statement of these
charges will include:
"One thousand dollars toward base
ball team, 81 O0o for a band, 81 Oo0
J toward a ncighbcrhood society. selling
of Liberty bonds and moving expenses
of officials.
"And ! have never seen the baseball
team l contributed to play . said Mr..
. Luckenbach. with smile
Charges Profteering
Mr.. Luckenbach charged the govern
ment with prohteering on his ships.
For one of his ships, he said, the gov
ernment paid $44,3S7 in charter at a
time when the vessel earned S356,0OO
for the government. Another Lucken-
bach steamship, he said chartered for
S377,781, earned for the government 3
profit of 81 ,159 024.
Asked to testify on recent state
ment made public b. him in The Nau-
tical Gazette, shipping publication,
in which he demanded a new deal in
the Shipping Board, Mr.. Luckenbach
said that he stood by every word of that
Especially did he emphasize the con-
cludlng part of the statement, in which
he said:
'7What is the remedy for these condi-
tions? A complete new deal in Wash
ington. Eliminate the persons on the
pay roll of the board who are there to
hold their. jobs instead of to serve the
best interests of the whole country
Put in full membership of the board
,lO tol- c+op Il
ard stick to it-of maintaining the
American flag permanently on the seas
Eliminate politics partisan politics
and Office politics the boards af
fairs. When you've done that. you'll
have eliminated favoritism as we'll. Put
the allocated tonnage on a time charte,
basis, payable monthly in advance, tt
responsible concerns, into the hands o.
trained men competent and willing tt
operate economically and capably, ane
who have the capital to purchase then
on terms which will be equitable ant
in the interest of the whole country.
Surely this is a program which non,
can differ with, but let it be under
taken and let us see who the objector
are"
R. II. Gregory, the Shipping Board'
5 port steward for the North Atlanti
= district, told the committee at tn
). HiOl HllS StSSlOH tndJ II now costs Tn
f United States government $24 900 da
? more to feed the sixty thousand me
on Shipping Board vessels, under tn
existing system Of supplies, than i
did during the war, when the ship
$ were in direct charge of the govern
ment and had not yet been allocate
= tc private operators.
S The greater part of the morning ses
q SION was devoted to the testimony @
c onetime special agents of the Treas
n ury Department, nearly all OF whol
had been withdrawn from investigato
= OF Shipping Board purchases and &C
h counts after they had devoted som
0 time to this task
= Peter j. Sullivan, one Of thes
o agents, who was transferred to Ar
h zona after month on the job, tol
the committee of Shipping Boar
h NJ = ...<>..,+y Ax mmw