Charlevoix county herald., 1920-10-01
SHIPPING BOARD
FLEET FLEECED.
Repair Men and Food Dealers IN
Agreement to "Pluok the
Golden Goose"
81 FOR POUND OF BITTER
investigator Reveals Wide System q
MuIctIng Among Men In the
South American rrade--ls
Quickly stopped.

Buenos Aires.-The United States
shipping board has been defrauded Of
many thousands Of dollars through
practices which amount to 'systematic
fleeing" of shipping board vessels In
the River Plate trade. according to re-
ports to the board by Capt. q. L. Gar
den, special representative Of the ship
ping board emergency feet In Buenos
Aires.
Captain Garden, accompanied by
Captain OF Engineers L. @. Farwell,
arrived here month ago to take
charge and protect the boards inter-
ests. "When i arrived here" he said
to the Associated Press correspondent,
''ship chambers, repair men and others
connected with the shipping industry
seemed to be In general agreement
to mulct the shipping board vssssls
to the limit.
I'm receiving my orders I was told
that while the board appreciated the
fact that expenses Of all sorts were
high In Buenos Aires and Montevideo,
still II felt that there must be some
thing wrong when their vessels paid
such prices, for instance, as a
pound for butter.
ut seems that the practice was when
shipping board vessel appeared in
the roads and signaled its desire to
enter for those who had hopes Of sell
Ing the vessels supplies to prepare for
plucking Of the golden goose.
Food Thrown Overheard.
"Our arrival put a quick and effec-
tive stop to all this. We now have all
shipping board vessels calling at this
port report directly to us. We. alone
have the right to authorize purchases
Of supplies or expenditures for re-
pairs. All repairs at present must be
made according to specifications and
under bond. Every bill must have my
signature before It will be paid, and
the result Of this has been a saving
Of as much as so per cent on many
items. Conditions formerly were 30
had that I have even heard that In
some cases food was thrown over
hoard In order to create a shortage, 30
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 $4,000 for repairs was made. As
result Of this campaign at least one
arrest Is expected when certain ship
arrives In New York.
There are % lines under the ship
| ping board which have vessels calling
at ports In this Jurisdiction. There
are on an average % vessels on hand
at all times. The average cost for
maintaining these is from 1880 to 81
600 each per day. Before the war an
American vessel on the River Plate
was curiosity.
| $500, 900 for Repairs.
"Since the shipping board has no OF.
fees Of It's own to take charge Of Its
vessels In ports throughout the
| world" continued Captain Carden, ut
was usually necessary to intrust> the
care Of Its ships to established agen-
cies. Many Of these steamship agents
had already for years been representa-
tives Of foreign and possibly compel
ing lines. The result has been that In
many cases American vessels have
been held back, while other ships were
given the preference, causing the ex-
penses Of American ships to mount up
through port charges and lost time.
"In all River Plate ports losses from
this source have been very great, as
we'll as those through overcharges for
supplies, repairs and so forth. There
is one case on record where an Amer
lean ship was held up for months for
repairs and charges totaiing 100000
were piled up against her. But we
are seeing to II now that shipping
board vessels get into port and get
away again without unnecessary de-
lay. The saving to the shipping board
from this attention undoubtedly viii
be several hundred thousand dollars