Arizona republican., 1920-11-18

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 much money belonging to the govern ment they had in their possession
 Prior to the advent of MT. Tweedale, he said, the treasurer of the board was only an 'fssuer of checks" oft times without supporting claim vouch- CTS.
 On November of this year, the wit ness said, of $3,S00,O0O.000 expended there had been submitted to the treas urer vouchers to cover only $2,7O0,OOO,- 900. Vouchers representing disburse- ments of $900, 100000 had been "ex- cepted to" by the treasurer because of lack of sufficient supporting data and there was yet to be presented Vouch- CTS amounting to $1,1000.000, ,000.
 300 Men Seeking Data
 Vouchers ana data to make pos sible the accounting so far obtained, he testified, have been obtained by going out into the field, starting with bank accounts of various firms and persons with who mthe board and the Emergency Fleet corporation had transaction and tracing the accounts bak to the board In this work, he said, force of 300 me mad been en- gagged.
 In summing up his evidence, Gillen said the shipping board had gone out
 
 handle its ship construction and in op- erating divisions, but it had failed to get a man big enough to establish and carry out department of effi- | cient accounting.
 He made it plain that he had no evil dence of dishonesty on the part of any official of the board-that they had done their very best-but the ener- gies of the board had been concen- trated on getting ships and getting them into operation. He also said comptrollers of the board and the Emergency Fleet corporation operated virtually independent of the treasurer of the shipping board He further said an order of congress of July 1, 1918, for an accounting of board fluids to the national comptroller had not been complied with when MT. Tweedale took charge, because of bad ondition of the accounts. Warrants for money issued during a period of two years are still being picked up all over the United States, the witness added. He fur ther said that about $1,000,000 in pay roll vouchers are yet to come through to close up accounts.
 Testifying as to the seuries found in the vaults of a Philadelphia trust compan. he said they were intact and had been well taken care of, but he did not know why they were not in the possssion of the trasurer. The se- curities, including Liberty bonds, he said, represented, in part, guarantees of shipping contractors for faithful per formances of their work.
 : Ship Owners Made Big Profit The witness also testified owners O.
 ships commandeered b ythe government
 in 1917 were allowed to make profits AL w,ar , mitted in other industries. He sait 1. ships. regardless of their age and nat ural depreciation, were taken on { q basic contract of rental value of $4.1 ! a deadweight ton. An allowance fo : profit, interest on investment, allow ance of- depreciation, based on tn q war time earning value rather than ol actual valu, and other items made a possible for the owners to make on tn i. contract as high as 57 per cent. e He said ships 30 years old made thi c profit for their owners.
 e Compared with what Great Britai t allowed it's ship owners on com d mandeered vessels and basing tn 5. computation at $4e6 to the poun t. sterling. he said it was shown tha k American owners received from 2S e to PTS per cent more than did tn d British owners and the British figure = continued after the United States ha e entered the war. These rates, h Il added, were fixed by the shippini d board a sit then existed. Testifyin e. as to the enormous profits earned Nh " ships under war time conditions tf Id witness said he knew of one shi
 ship bought by a New York firm fC 7 S200,000 on which alterations costir N s475,0Oo were made and which earne in six months over $600,00o. III 'This ship was then sunk by suf III marine" GiIlen added.
 M Iceland will have a worlds fair ne1 III June in Refkiavik, for the edificatio