The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-08
OPERATORS FIRED
 FOR OVERCHARGES
Wholesale Reduction In l. Contract Allowances Re
 ported To Committee
NOV AGREEMENT
 DEPLORED BY BOARD
Scrapping Of Part Of Idle Yes sels Recommended As EconO-
 my Measure

| t9t WAS6lNkIION. aApr1li tS.--tloy AS sociated Press. )-The House commit tee investigating shipping board affairs carried its inquiry through hmitless field of questions affecting the Ameri can merchant marine today in q six hour examination of Chairman O'Con nor. These are some of the high spots of the session:
 Advocacy by Mir. O'Connor of direct government operation of the merchant fleet, if the present managing operators agreement could not be made more beneficial to the government and pro yided Congress would authorize such direct control and back it up with as eurance that the routes would be main tained for five years or more.
 Efforts of Representative Davis, democrat, Tennessee, committee 'prose' eutor," to establish confirmation of re ports alleging that Influence" had been 7 brought to bear on the administration by Matthew Brush, president of the American International corporation, in connection with policies affecting the American merchant marine, which brought the statement from Mir. Con. nor that he was not prepared to dis cuss the reports.
 Uf8I6 Eumku4tea
 Charges by Representative Cooper republican,, Wisconsin, member oi the committee, of graft, on the part of operators during the administration of Chairman A. D. Lasker, which Mir OConnor said had been eliminated through the release of all operators found to be making "overcharges," 1" and by wholesale reduction in contract al lowances.
 Evidence that the sale of the seven
 President'' ships to the Dollar Steam. ship company on the Pacific coast has resulted in orientaldzing crews of those ships, which Represent tative Cooper as serted would he Abati'' in case of . wal with Far East country.
 With respect Go the Ofientaiizing oi crews. Mir. 0'Connor testified that that was something we can't control. He added, however, that board vessels had about S5 per cent Americans in their crews and said i've can't Americanizt any faster than we have been doing. :. h Asks Direct Control
 Questioned as to the best policy for operation of board vessels, Mir. O'Cen. nor said he was opposed to subsidy but that direct government operation
  authorized by law and backed up with assurance of some degree. of perma' nence. He added the merchant fleet was 86 per cent government operated now Representative Davis said he re- garded the MO-V contract, under which board vessels are operated, sas Illegal whereas the shipping board chairman ' maintained that the contract was the \ h@.ks on,,rca ba hnar1 oa,,lI i,N,,re,vn without going on to direct government \ operation"
 s"Well, what is the objection to that p Mir. Davis inquired.
 There is none," replied the board chairman, adding that "when this com. miftee sees the tremendous amount of work that had to be done with lioui. | dation," when the present board came into office, it will act as some excuse for any poor management in the oper- \ ating end."
 Modify MO-V Agreement The MO-V agreement, Mir. O'Connor explained, is being modified so as to eliminate allowance for husbandine fees, deck and engineroom supplies and subsistence, but raising the commissions Hive per cent on outgoing and two per
 
 three per cent, respectively. The witness agreed with. Mir. Davis \ lthat the operators now hold .'both ends \ of the string and have no personal in- terest in the losses but only the \ HNprofts."
 Questioning by Representative Coop Ter as to alleged overcharges by opera ' tors during the Lasker regime develop \ led that 35 cents ton had been charged N for water which the board chairman 4 Tsaid had been cut down to seven cents { lat the present time. Stevedoring E EIcharges, he added, had been reduced H HIfrom $1.6S, $1,S9 and $2.44 ton to Il About $1.00 and wharfage charges from 'II$2, 300 to $3,000 day to around $150 |iIto $20O.
 Would Scrap Part Of Fleet A Asked by Representative Bankhead. < democrat, Alabama, if it would not be 4 wise to scrap some of the idle fleet in I stead of paying maintenance charges, l Mr. O'Connor said he had already rec Commended to the board that from 175 Ito 400. vessels be serapped. He said they could be sold for about $3 a ton ] so be broken up, but he feared that if the ships were sold to foreign interests hey probably would fuse them" Vs Chairman O'COnnor revealed for the ' first time today that the proposal be- lore the board for consolidating the five Largo services in the North Atlantic Emitted Kingdom trade provides for the \ Ietention of the Baltimore Steamship & Eompany and w. A. Blake and com bany of Baltimore, as merged com bany, to operate southern route, with
 Fl. Winchester and company of New Fork to have charge of a, northern ervice.
 It also provides, he said, for Che Fithdrawal of II of the S1 ships in he trade.
 Section 28 Discussed
 Asked to reconcile the views express by President Palmer of the fleet brporation that in the interest of econ.
 my the number of ships would have be curtailed. and those of Commis-
 oners Thompson and Plummer that sction 2S of the merchant marine act, toviding for preferential through ex-
 brt rates to shippers using American
 pttoms would call for additional tNn-
 hge. Mir. O'Connor replied
 My personal opinion is that If wa
 kt section 2S w6Awin have to put on
 lore ships than we have at this time, though overlapping services will have K ke -vtrfaiiOdn n