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630 can short deliver, overcharge, or even falsify these invoices is obvious under _ these practices. t (d) Overstocking of shipping board ships, an evil which has been constant and expensive, is due to three causes: One, the lack of instruction or knowl- edge of the steward as to the proper diet per man day to be provided; two, the desire to get greater "commissions" ; three, to provide surplus supplies which* can be sold at high prices at foreign or domestic ports. This practice is difficult in the navy, due to a rationing system well worked out, a proper checking and inspection system, plus an inventory system which shows at. all times very closely how much food supply each ship has. None of these systems prevails under shipping board practice. A ra- tioning system would, of course, largely prevent over-purchasing. Ohecking would prevent short deliveries. Inspection would keep up the quality of supplies pur- chased. An inventory would show how much was needed to complete stores to bring them up to the man-day-ration chart requirements. Proper invoicing would give shipping board auditors a proper basis from which to judge prices charged. 3. Deck Supplies. (a) Improper purchasing methods re- sult in as great losses in this line of ship supply as in galley supplies. The purchase of these supplies is usually left in the hands of the master or deck Officer, and frequently is performed by the steward. The same conditions of middlemen's profits, brokers' profits, and payment of gratuities prevail as in the case of galley supplies. (b) Short deliveries are common in this line of supply, as in galley supplies. The same conditions surround the two operations of supply, hence the same: evils are common to both. (c) Inferior goods are foisted upon THE MARINE REVIEW the shipping board in this line of sup- ply, due to the same laxity and im- proper practice which makes the same thing possible in galley supply. (d) Overstocking is common in this line of supply, largely because ready sale at good prices is to be found for this class of supplies. (e) Lack of proper inspection, check- ing and inventory are prominent con- tributory causes of overstocking, thefts, short deliveries, and delivery of inferior supplies in this line, as in galley sup- plies. (f) Lack of co-operation by the sup- ply and sales department of the ship- ping board results in many supplies be- ing bought at new prices when the ship- ping board is selling at other points the same supplies at 1314 per cent on the dollar. (g) The remedy would seem to be provision for proper inspection, check- ing, inventory, and an arrangement whereby these ships could be outfitted, as far as possible, from the stores now in possession of the supply and _ sales department. 4, Engine-room Supplies. f (a) Same as deck supplics--The same conditions surround the purchase of en- gine-room supplies as in the other lines of supplies, and the same evils exist. Fuel. (a) Same as deck and engine-room supplies--In addition to which, how- ever, there is a greater opportunity for losses to the shipping board, owing to the generous charts worked out in ship- ping board practice for fuel consump tion. It is not at all uncommon for the engineer to have left unconsumed fuel from a voyage amounting to from 50 tons upward, or, in case of oil-burning boats, many barrels of oil. Under the fuel-consumption charts a good margin of consumption is allowed, and there is, December, 1920 of course, no way for the chart to take into account windage or other jn- fluences, such as favorable currents, etc, The result is in many voyages, with a favorable wind on both legs of the voyage, the ship will not nearly con- sume her quota of fuel allowed by the consumption charts. A remainder in the bunkers results, and, owing to improper inventory, little, if any, account of this is taken. A common result of this is for the engineer, many times in con- junction with the master, to receipt for more fuel than he actually receives from the bunkering companies (to the exact amount of the tonnage he has in his bunkers unconsumed), and then get a rebate from the bunkering companies on this tonnage, sometimes in a division with the bunkering company and_ the master, sometimes in a division only between the chief engineer and the mas- ter, and occasionally the chief engineer taking the entire amount. (b) Excess profits to vendors, as well as unfair burdens of cost to the ship- ping board; are common in the supply of fuel. Many bunkering companies charge to the shipping board insurance on the coal in transit, which actually is not carried, and certainly is a part of the cost of transit. High freight rates, high loading charges, etc., all are passed on to the shipping board with consequent excess profit to the fuel company. Short deliveries, owing to im- proper checking, are common. (c) Theft of unconsumed fuel is dif-- ficult of detection without a system of surveillance and investigation such as the department of investigation consti- tuted. (d) Improper chart averages of con- sumplion should be checked up and probably a closer working out of these charts would to a degree remedy this evil, which costs the shipping board scores of thousands of dollars annually under the practice which it permits today. MONG other contracts made by the shipping beard which have been severely criticized is the George F, Rogers hull-removal con- tract. This contract covers gener- ally all of the hulls in an unfinished state of construction at the time of the armistice, or rather at the itme the contract with Rogers was signed. Under the terms of this contract, Rogers is to remove all of these hulls from the building ways, or is to secure from the builders of the hulls and the own- ers of the land upon which the iulls and ways rest a release froin further liability. Also the shipping Report Criticizes Payments Made in Disposing of Wooden Hulls board saw fit to make a contract with Rogers to pay him $5000 per huil for cach hull thus handled 'by hint. The result has been that in many cases the shipping board has paid an additional $5000 per hull to have Rogers sell the hull or give it away, in many cases the cost of the hull representing several thou- saud dollars: Rogers has found so little difficulty in selling these hulls to the builders or others at a very fair price, which revenues, under his contract, revert to Rogers, in addition to which he collected from the Emergency Fleet cortoration $5000 per hull fee, and in so few cases has Rogers head to remove the hulls from the ways at all that the question has arisen in the minds of a great many persons as to why, since these hulls were so easily disposed of at a return, the supply and sales department of the Fleet corporation could not have disposed of the hulls in the sanie manner m which Rogers did, con- serving to the Emergency Fleet cor- poration the $5000 per hull fee paid Rogers, and, in addition to this, reaping whatever monetary returns have accrued from the sale of these huils--From report to congressional committee.