The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-09-15

anchor or tied to the wharves In
several gulf ports, which can't be
unloaded because there is no place
to store the sugar.
There Is an embargo against load
ing this sugar on freight cars at
these southern ports, for rail ship
ment to the eastern refinerieS. This
embargo was slapped down on Aug.
AZ by the Association Of American
Railroads, on order or with the ape
prevail Of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, to prevent the use Of
freight cars for shortage Of raw
sugar at eastern terminals near the
principal reiineries in Savannah,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, Jersey City,
New York and Boston. All these
refineries previously received their
raw sugar by boat directly from the
West Indies. But because Of the
submarine menace this direct ship.
ment has been somewhat restrict
ed, making 1t encessary for the east.
ern refineries to get their raw sugar
by rail from the gulf ports.
MANPOWER SHORTAGES
Hee the sugar shipping ran into
q manpower shortage. Several man.
power shortages. The railroads were
short on rnanpower to handle
switching. The refineries were short
on manpower to handle unloading
from box cars, unloading from ship
side normally being handled by
mechanical conveyors. The sugar
boats used to bring In cargoeS Of
from 1000 TO 1000 tons. The aver
age freight car will handle 80 tons,
meaning that from 10 to $50 cars
had to be used to carry each boat
load Of sugar up the Atlantic coast
to the refinerieS. In all, this began
to tie up some 1900 to 1900 freight
cars every day.
The refineries were apparent by
willing to pay demurrage charges
for storage, but that began to clut.
ter up the railroad yards which
were already jammed to capacity
with other war freight. The railroads
were also under obligation to get the
maximum use Of their equipment,
and the use Of freight cars for stor-
age simply could not be permitted.
An embargo on shipments, which
railroads have a common law right
to impose at any time, was the only
answer to keep their cars rolling.
That solution threw the burden
right back on the shipping interests,
who thus found that they couldn't
unload. Shipping space being at .
premium too, the ship operators are
faced with the alternatives Of leav.
ing their ships in port, loaded, or
sending them back where they came
from to unload their sugar and take
on other cargo.
AGENCIES INTERVENE
This kind Of headache would be
funny II 1t weren't so serious. AS
1t Is, 1t has involved half dozen
government agencieS-the Com
modify Credit Corporation, which
supervises sugar imports! the War
Shipping Administration, the Office
OF Defense Transportation, War
Manpower Commission, Interstate
Commerce Commission, and the
rationing division Of the Office OF
Price Administration, which in final
analysis has to dole out whatever
sugar supplies are available.
All these outfits have been hud-
ding on the problem daily for the
last couple of weeks and eventually
hope to bring order out Of the con-
fusion. A permit system Is in force
now. If a refiner has manpower and
storage space for handing so many
cars of sugar, he can get permit
to have that many cars shipped to
him, to arrive on specified dates.
ODT is also trying to find places
to store some OF the sugar In tran
sit, but that's tough because ware
houses are all bursting.
There isn't any sugar shortage
threatened by this pile-up. There's
million and half ton surplus of
refined sugar already in storage.
This is normal for this time Of year
and enough to carry the country
over till the new crop begins to
come in early in the winter. But II
this transportation bottleneck can't
be broken, those increased sugar al
lowances might have to be delayed
still further.