The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-08-01
Officer Says Shipping Board Has Been
Mulcted Out of Thousands of Dollars

Buenos Aires. July 3l.-The United
States Shipping Board has been de-
frauded of many thousands OF dollars
through practices which amount TO
systematic Fleeing" of shipping board
vessels in the River Plate trade, ac-
cording to reports to the board by
Captain G. l.. Garden, special rep
resentative of the shipping board
emergency fleet in Buenos Aires.
Captain Garden, accompanied by
Captain OF Engineers L. c. Farwell.
arrived here a month ago TO take
charge and protect the boards in.
terests. when / arrived here" he
said to The Associated Press cor
respondent, ship chambers, repair
men and others connected with the
shipping industry seemed to be in a
general agreement to mulct the ship
ping board vessels to the limit.
THE shipping board is rich," they
said. We will get what we can. Ac-
cordingly the board was charged for
things not received, and overcharged
|
so obvious that l was ordered to this
port to take charge. In receiving my
orders / was told that while the board
appreciated the fact that EXPENSE Of
all sorts were high in Buenos Aires
and Montevideo still, it felt that there
must be something wrong when their
vessels paid such prices, for instance,
as s4 a pound for butter.
at seems that the practice was
when shipping board vessel appear
ed In the roads and signalled its de-
sire TO enter, for those who had
hopes of selling the vessels supplies to
prepare for a plucking OF the gold
en- goose. The result was that when
the vessel cleared bills were present
ed to steamship agent, and promptly
paid, since it was shipping board
money, for every conceivable item
at prices based on nothing except a
desire to obtain easy money.
"Our arrival put quick and effe>
tive stop to all this. We now have all
shipping board vessels calling at this
port, report directly 10 us, we alone
having the right to authorize pur
chases of supplies or expenditures
for repairs. All repairs at present
must be made according TO specifica.
tions and under bond. Every bill mus!
have my signature before it will be
paid, and the result of this has been
saving Of as much as so per cent
on many items. Conditions formerly
were so bad that I have overheard
that in some cases food was thrown
overheard in order to create a short
age so that purchases could be made"
During the first four weeks OF the
supervision provided by the new ar
rangement it was officially estimated
that a saving for the shipping board,
which means for the United States
government, OF s50,OO0 for food alone
and $4,000 for repairs was made. AS
a result of this campaign at least one
arrest is expected when certain
ship arrives in New York.
There are 23 lines under the ship
ping board which have vessels calling
at ports in this jurisdiction. There
are on an average of 22 vessels on
hand at all times. The average cost
for maintaining these is from $500 to
$4,000 each per day. Before the war an
American vessel on the River Platte
was a curiosity.
Since the shipping board had no
Offices of its own to take charge
Of its vessels in ports throughout the
world" continued Captain Garden,
''it was usually necessary to entrust
the care of its ships to established
agencies. Many of these steamship
agents had already for years been the
representatives Of foreign and possi
bly, competing lines. The result has
been that in many cases American
vessels have been held back while
other ships were given the preference,
causing the expenses of American
ships to mount up through port
charges and lost time.
In all River Platte ports, losses
from this source have been very great
as we'll as those through over-charges
for supplies. repairs and so forth.
There is one case on record where