Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1918 — U. S. KEEPS TAB ON 7,000 SHIPS [ARTICLE]

U. S. KEEPS TAB ON 7,000 SHIPS

Every Six Minutes a Merchant Vessel Moves at an American Port. TRAFFIC CHARTS ARE USED Every Minute of Time and Pound of Cargo Noted and Thus Each Veesel la Used to Utmost to Speed War Plan. Washington.—Every six minutes a merchant vessel arrives and another departs from Amercan ports. From north Atlantic seaports there is a departure every eleven minutes —one for Europe every forty minutes. This rate of operation does not Include vessels in the service of the army or navy. ’ 1 > s ' The .merchant fleet of 1,500 ships under the control of the United States shipping board is run as a railroad, on a time schedule. The duty of measuring ships’ performances, with their tasks, is lodged with the planning and statistics division of the shipping board, headed by E. H. Gay, formerly dean of the Harvard Graduate School of business. Obviously the division must know the tasks in defall, and so it co-ordi-nates with the war industries and war trade boards in determining and providing for the country’s needs from abroad. It works on month to month schedules, or as far .in advance as it is feasible or possible to forecast.

Works With All Departments. In planning the use of, ships the division works with the food administration in determining the shipping requirements for food; with the war department in correlating shipping with the requirements of the line of supplies for the western front; with the war industries board in seeking solution of the problem of bringing necessary raw imports into the country, and with the war trade board in preparing the lists of essential imports and exports. As the country has gone more and more on a war basis, it has been regarded necessary to limit the list of essential Imports to less thari 100. Data on the ships and their trade provide the basis for operation of the vessels under the shipping board’s control. Likewise records are kept of neutral vessels coming to this country or linking up with its foreign trade. Thus the division checks daily about 7,000 vessels, 1,500 of them being those of the shipping board, 8,000 engaged

directly in American commerce and 2,500 scattered over the globe and trading for the most part with the allies or their colonies. Roughly, onefourth of the merchant ships of the world are watched by the shipping board.

Ship performances against tasks are recorded'*by “progress charts," which show at a glance what the vessels have to do and how they are doing it Each set of charts Is divided Into ten divisions—one each for movements of vessels, turn-arounds, ships’ charts of commodities, individual commodity charts, summary of imports, individual trades, summary of trades, ship charts ’of exports, performances in ports and dock performances. Copies are distributed every ten days to govern-

ments which require constant lufomatlon about the movement of supplies. By these movement charts tcy information regarding locations and movements of vessels is accessible, and from past performances one may forecast the time of future voyages. The summary on shipping and trade, prepared every ten days for the war Industries and war trade boards and the food administration, helps shape the larger policies underlying the use of American ships in war time. The charts tell whether the ships allocated to a certain trade are enough, too many or too few; whether they bring in too little or too much; whether they are on time, ahead' of time or behind time, and whether the trade movement is too slow, too fast or just right. The charts also serve to guide the ship control committee in the assignment of vessels to various trades. By comparing import requirements against deliveries the chiarts show when vessels may be transferred from one trade to another or released to the army.