Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-18
RIVER BARGE LINE
 ILL HAVE USE OF
 ARMY EQUIPMENT
Rrigadier General Hines Plans x Coordination of Facil-
 S ties

Washington, April 17-Brigadier- General Frank T. Hines, recently designated by Secretary of War Baker as head of the Government lriand waterways services, brings to 2 his new job the same keen determ;- : nation to get things done that marx. ed his handling of the big task of shipping troops overseas during the war.
 The people of the Mississippi Valley,' said Gen. Hines on assum- ing his new duties this week, "may rest assured that no effort will be spared to make the Mississippi barge line success. If I find that I can not make it a success, I will be the first man to recommend to Secretary Baker that someone else be picked for the work"
 sThe first immediate effect of the s passing of the barge line to the con- 8 trol of the War Department will be the coordination of the line with the @ other transportation facilities of the army. Gen. Hines is chief of all the transportation services of the army with the exception of the Motor Transport Corps. It will now be possible, he explained, for surplus equipment at other points to be di- Fg verted to the river service if it can be utilized to advantage there. Need Tug at. New Orleans. For instance" said Gen. Hines, "I am told by Manager Sanders that they need tug at New Orleans. The army can spare tug from New York or some other point, and so the need will be filled"
 For the present, said Gen. Hines, there will be no change in the opera ting personnel. His attention being called to the published criticism of Col. Curtis McD. Townsend that the barge line carries top-heavy salary list, Gen. Hines said that he intended to go thoroughly into all the details of operation and initiate policy, H long established in his office, of the gteatest possible economy consistent with efficient operation. He believed the most pressing problem to be that of providing adequate terminal facil- ities. As soon as possible, probably within the month, he said, he would make personal inspection of the Z whole line with view to working out a detailed policy for it's improve ment.
 Army Engineers to Improve River
 The waterways will be administer ed by Gen. Hines through an Inland Waterway and Port Terminal Divi- sion, which he has set up in his of flee. The army engineers, under Major General Lansing H. Beach, will have charge of the improvement ot the river, as at present. Gen. Hines said that his own work, that of oper- ating the transportation lines, would dovetail into the work of the engi- neers and be. expected to act ir CO., | operation with them
 Regarding funds for the barge J line, Gen. Hines said that suffi- cient sum to meet the contractual ob- ligations for new equipment now building would be turned over by the Railroad Administration. For any other money necessary to carry on OperatiOn, he said that he would not hesitate to go before Congress. He sasW no reason, he said, why the eX- ercise of good business methods should not eventually put the line on paying basis.
 Gen. Hines has had rapid rise in2sthe army. Born in Utah in 1879. he enlisted in 1898 and saw service inSthe Spanish-American war and the Philippines. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in 1899, having