The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-01-22
PIEz CONTRADICTS
CILLEN CRITICISM OF
SHIPPING BOARD WORK
DIV Associate. Press)


Shipping Board Operations by Charles
Piez, former. director general. United
States Shipping Board Emergency
Fleet Corporation.
In this statement Mr.. PieZ claims
that statements in Mr.. Gillen's report
do not square with the facts in
single vital case in which he INDUCED
in criticism concerning the division of
construction; that Mr.. Gillen's state
ment that there was interference be-
tween management and trustees in
placing of contracts is wholly untrue;
that Mr.. Gillen is guilty of gross mis-
statement of facts regarding the Fleet
Corporations $250,000.000 mortgages
and securities and that Mr.. Gillen's
statement of lack of an accounting
system is wholly wrong.
Asserts Gilien Is Wrong.
Mr.. Piez's statement further claims
that Mr.. Gillen's report regarding the
Fleet Corporations check against au-
thorizations and appropriations is abb
solutely wrong; that his statement on
Control and Imprest fund has no foun-
dation in fact and that the destructive
effect of Mr.. Gillen's testimony has
seriously impaired public interest in
the Establishment of an American Mer-
chant Marine, and practically destroy
ed the market for shipping securities.
Mr.. Piez's statement says that ships
were built to meet the necessities OF
war, not to establish a merchant mar
inc; that. the emergency feet corpora
ton delivered 479 ships before the
armistice was signed; that the task
was to build ships faster than sub
marines could sink them which was
war assignment and not peace under
taking, and that the building of ships
was conducted in a systematic and
business-like manner.
Mr.. PieZ contends in his statement
they had to build wooden ships know
ing they would be scrapped when con-
ditions got back to normal; that be-
cause of the demand of the war de-
partment for more ships that Mr.. E. n.
Hurley, cambridge Colby and himself
requested Charles M. Schwab to join
the organization and that General
George w. Goethals inaugurated the
accounting system.
Public Required Wood Ships.
Mr.. Piez's statement says that he
suggested in December, 1917, that no
further cont1Acts for wood ships be
let, but the board of trustees was
obliged to keep on building when pres
sure for anything that would float be-
came so intense in the early spring of
1918. The claim says that there was
not voice in or out of congress that
was raised in protest at that time
against a continuation of the wood
ship building program.
Wood ships represent legitimate
war expense, according to his state
ment, which adds: They should be
junked and the cost written Off This
tn sol
wage of 100 per cent on war construc-
ton. We must recognize that ships.
like merchandise, become shop worn
when held too long" -r'
The statement says there was some
payroll padding, some petty dishon-
esty, but no more than there would
be in yards under private control.
Mr.. Piez's statement begins by ad-
dressing Mr.. Joseph Walsh, chairman,
and says:
THE effect of the testimony thus
far presented before your committee
has been to seriously impair public
interest in he establishment of an
American merchant marine, to prac-
tically destroy the market for shipping
securities, and to make the already
difficult task of the United States
Shipping board much more difficult.
Admits Petty Graft.
This inference on the part of the
public is in large measure the result
of wild statements made by Mr., Gillen
concerning the methods of the fleet
corporation and to the general state
ments of graft and corruption contain
ed in the Decentralization report
The public does not d1fferentate the
division of construction from that of
operations, and concludes that be.
cause there was petty graft among
minor ships officers in the victualling
and repairing of ships in operation
that the entire structure of the corpo-
ration, from top to bottom, was honey
combed by a like condition.
Graft in ship operations has from
time to time beennoaoveoinh eff
time immemorial been considered as
one of the perquisites of the petty Of
ficers and is a difficult disease to
eradicate. 1t has no place in the OPP
Grafton of an American fleet, and
should be treated with an iron hand.
But it is to be regretted that the
Fisher-Richardson charges are couch
ed in sluch general terms that they
have besmeared the whole structure
of the shipping board and fleet cor
poration with the slime of suspicion.
Many of the charges should have been
made in the police courts rather than
in a report of such Importance.
Takes Up Diesel Engine.
"Mr. Denman, said Mr.. PieZ, lin
some recent utterances has dwelt on
advantages of the Diesel engine. l
need only say that Mr.. Hurley, Mr..
SChwab, Mr.. Rossiter and all of the
men in our technical department were
as consolotous of that as Mr.. Den
man.
Mr. Schwab's plants We're complet-
ing very large twocycle engine
about the time of the armistice, and
expected to try it out in one Of the
Bethlehem ore ships.
1T is we'll TO bear in mind that only
Il very few engines of a size large en-
ough for even a 5000 ton cargo ship,
had up to that time been built; that
10 ships in the United States were
prepared 10 deliver anything over $50