The evening herald. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1906-1942, 1920-08-06
SHIPPING BOARD
"FLEECED" IN
S.A. DEALINGS

| BUENOS AIRES, July 2, tBy
MaiD The United States shipping
board has been defrauded OF many
thousands OF dollars through prac-
tices which amount to "syBtematic
fleeing" OF shipping board vessels
In the River Plate trade. according
to reports 10 tho board by Captain
q. l.. Garden. special representative
% the shipping board emergency
fleet In Buenos Aires.
Captain Garden. accomp panied by
Captain Of Engineers l.. &. Farweli.
arrived here a month ago to take
charge and protect the boards In
tsrssts. when I arrived here" he
said TO the Associated Press corre-
spondent. ship chambers. repair
men and others connected with the
shipping Industry seemed to be In .
general agreement to muict the ship
ping board vessels TO the limit.
The shipping board is rich they
they said. We will get what we
can Accordingly the board was
charged Ter things not received. and
joverchars-d for things received until
II became 40 obvious that ! was or
d.red to this port to take charge. In
receiving my orders I was told that
while the board appreciated the fact
that expenses Of all sorts we're high
IN Bu.nos Aires and Monteyideo.
stili. II felt that there must be some
thing wrong when their vessels paid
such prices. for instance, as 81 a
pound for butter,
1T seems that the practice was.
when a shipping board vessel APP
pcared In the roads and sisnalled It's
desire to enter. for those who had
hopes OF selling the vessels supplies
10 prepare for plucking OF the gold
en goose. The result was that when
the vessel cleared bills were present
ed TO the steamship agents. and
promptly paid. since IL was shipping
board money. for every conceivable
item Mt prices based en- nothing ex-
c.pt a desire to obtain easy money.
our arrival put q quick and ef-
fcctlve stop to all this. We now have
all shipping board vessels calling at
this port. report directly TO us. we
alone having the right to authorize
purchases OF supplies or expendi-
lures for repairs. All repairs at
present must be- made according TO
specification and under bond Every
bill must have my signature before
II will be paid. and the result Of this
has been a saving OF as much rs so
per cent on many items. Conditions
formerly ewere so bad that I have
even heard that In some cases food
was thrown overheard 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 II was officially estimated
that a saving for the shipping board,
which means for the United States
government, OF $4,000 for food
alone and $25.o00 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 23 lines under the ship
ping board which have vessels calling
At ports In this Jurisdiction. There
are on an average OF 20 vessels on
hand at all times. The average cost
for maintaining these 10 from $500
ot $4,000 each per day. Before the
war an American vessel on the River
Plate was . 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,
IL was usually necessary to sntrust
the care OF its ships to established
agencies. Many Of these steamship
eoons@ uou Shoouy yoosb uVou
the representatives Of foreign and
possibly competing lines. The result
has been that In many cases Amer
lean 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.
I'm all River Plate ports. losses
from this source have been very great
as we'll as those through over-charges
for supplies. repalrs and so forth.
There Is one case on record where an
American ship was held up for
months for repairs and charges to-
falling about 100000 were piled up
against her. But We are seeing to It