Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-01
MERCHANT FLEET
| CUT WILL AFFECT
FOOD. c. WORKERS
Administration Head Ayers
$50 Employees Over Coun-
try viii Be Dropped.
OFFICES TO BE GROUPED.
INTO THREE DISTRICTS
Boards Primary Concern Will Be
Limited to Efficiency of
Services.

Officials of the Merchant Fleet Cor.
poration today said its personnel grad
ually would be reduced as a result o
putting into effect the lump sum agree.
ment with operators of the Shipping
Board lines. The corporation is a sub
sidiary of the Shipping Board.
The reduction will affect 200 Wash.
ingtonians, mostly clerks, according tt
j. Caldwell jenkins, vice president ir
charge of administration, who said that
about $50 employees over the country
would be affected in the reduction.
Oficials explained that employees in
the fleet corporation are without civil
service status. Mr.. Jenkins said that
because of the introduction of the lump
sum agreement plan vii mean that cal
almost everything that the fleet cor
poration has been doing in the past In
the way of detailed aid and supervision
in the conduct of the lines Will be
shifted to the operator"
The corporation now has grand
total of 1885 employees, 500 of them
on duty here.
Grouping OF OnceS.
The reduction will cause the group.
ing of domestic offices under three dis.
trictS: North Atlantic, at New York
comprising the present offices at Bor.
ton, New York and Philadelphia; Mid
die Atlantic, at Norfolk, including the
Baltimore and Norfolk offices, and the
Gulf district, at New orleans. COM
prising the offices at New Orleans
Galveston, Mobile and Houston.
The staff of Is at Boston will be re-
duced to !; Philadelphia from 25 to /
New York from approximately so to
district director and 5 or inspectors
Baltimore from IL to /; Norfolk from
IS to 8: New Orleans from ga to about
10; Galveston from 20 to about A.
Fourteen persons will be affected
when the Mobile Office is closed, as vii
two others when the Houston Office II
closed. Work of the personnel remain
ing will be confined to inspection only
in repair.
jenkins Outlines Plan.
Mr.. Jenkins In outlining the fieet
corporations program said, lin the
future our primary concern will 81
limited to the character and genera
efficiency of the steamship services con
Quoted by the operator and the physica
condition and upkeep of the vessel:
which steamship services and vessels
| are the property of the Shipping Board
The readjustment in the work of the
Merchant Fleet Corporation made neces.
Sary by this change should proceed II
as orderly a manner as possible.
1.-THE Fleet Corporation will still have
important work to do. In the case of al
least one department and some divi-
sions In other departments, the work
will continue under the lump sum plar
with very little change. In other case:
the need in the future will be primarily
for a few advisory experts In other
cases, the work of departments or diVi-
sions will practically be eliminated.
1T is desired to set forth as nearly as
may be anticipated the responsibilities o.
the organization and will be required In
the various Offices of the corporation
when the new agreements are in full
working order soon after the first OF
1881. Between now and then the tranSi-
ton should be well under way"
Mr.. Jenkins asserted that the lump
sum agreement places on the operators
of the ships all responsibilities for the
purchasing of supplies.
Under the reorganization the corpora
tons domestic districts are to be re-
ment of the work of the corporation
field representatives are to be sharply
reduced, the London ofice will be like
wise cut and the South American dis
trict will be abolished.