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pier superintendents I know is an- tagonistic to the contracting stevedore. He is disinclined to work closely with the stevedore so that there will be the minimum of handling of the cargo and the whole operation on the pier and in the ship may be coordinated and thus, all costs, pier and stevedore and .ship’s time will be reduced to a minimum. It is true that the stevedore works on fixed rates per ton of cargo handled. However, as anyone knows who has worked with contracting stevedores anything which increases the steve- dore’s costs, eventually results in in- creasing the stevedore’s rates for loading and discharging. If the steve- dore’s rates result in an average for loading and discharging of $1 a ton, and if the pier costs are 25 cents a ton, the total cargo handling costs exclusive of pier rental or wharfage amounts to $1.25 a ton. This figure is the important one; keeping the pier figure to 25 cents, by increasing the stevedore’s work, may look fine to the pier superintendent but it is bad for the company because the rates are higher by approximately the amount that the pier costs are lower. The only exception would be a case where the rates were exorbitant and to my knowledge this has existed only where there were certain monopolistic fea- tures in the arrangement between the steamship company and the stevedore. The difficulties described would be corrected materially if the steamship company had a cargo handling execu- tive, responsible for the stevedoring eosts as well as the pier costs. He should be the one to negotiate the contract with the stevedore and not a higher executive who has not the time to give the matter proper attention. A Cargo Handling Executive The objective of economical opera- tion is achieved by means of a cargo handling executive with breadth of ex- perience sufficient to prevent too nar- row a point of view which is usually accompanied by a passionate defense of one particular method. If a man can be obtained with these qualifica- tions, and then given a free rein to devote all his time to the supervision of cargo handling he will be a money maker for the company. : In the case referred too first, the executive had a multitude of duties; cargo handling being among the least. He had not had any direct experience in this important part of shipping and yet because he was a top execu- tive, made decisions on this techni- cal subject. The right kinds of cargo handling executive in this company could cut costs around $100,000 a year by coordination of the operations at all the ports served, and by selection of mechanical equipment on basis of a thorough analysis of the particular requirements necessitated by the op- erations of the company. Small organizations are more ef- fective than large ones because they are more flexible. Adjustments may be made to meet changing conditions quicker than in a large unwieldy or- ganization, and most large organiza- tions are unwieldy unless the organ- ization is so planned that authority is decentralized. The best example the author knows of, showing the ineffi- ciency of a highly centralized organ- ization, is the delay of a whole day of a 9600-ton deadweight freighter in a Cuban port because authority to work overtime had to be obtained by cable from New York. By the time the cable had been coded, transmitted, decoded, ’phoned to the chief execu- tive of the company (who does not come in to the office Saturdays) and an answer coded, transmitted, and de- coded it was too late to work the nec- essary overtime, and the ship lost a day which might just as well have been spent at sea. The rapidly changing conditions ex- perienced in the past three years have brought out so sharply the deficiencies of large organizations that General Foods, United States Steel and other large companies are remodeling their organizations by decentralizing au- thority. Henry Ford is an advocate of decentralizing manufacturing wherever feasible by having different parts manufactured in a large num- ber of small plants. The creation of the position of cargo handling executive is a decentraliza- tion move and is essentially sound for the same reason that the decentraliza- tion of General Foods and other large organizations is sound. It places men closer to their jobs, it provides for a closer supervision of the important function of cargo handling by a man especially fitted for this job. The Rex of the Italian Line arrived in New York Dec, 7 from Genoa, Ville- franche, Naples and Gibraltar bring- ing 941 passengers. Electric diesel truck handling wood- pulp at Portland, Me. MARINE REvIEw—January, 1934 U.S. Merchant Vessels, Government Record The 1933 edition of the government publication Merchant Vessels in the United States, popularly referred to as “The Blue Book of American Ship- ping,” has been released by Assistant Director A. J. Tyrer of the commerce department, bureau of navigation and steamboat inspection. The new volume contains the name of every documented merchant vessel and yacht of 5 net tons and over in the United States, approximately 29,- 000, with such descriptive data as each vessel’s official number, gross and net tonnage, dimensions, materi- als, horsepower, homeport, year and place of building, service, and number of men in the crew, together with the name and address of the owner. Steam, motor, sail, unrigged ves- sels, and yachts are listed separately, in the alphabetical order of their names. . The type of engine, and kind of fuel used by the steam and motor vessels are indicated. Vessels equipped with radio transmitting apparatus or radio compass, or both, are marked, as are those which are classed by the American Bureau of Shipping. All Shipyards Are Listed All shipyards building vessels of 100 gross tons and over, since 1900, are listed with the names and description of the vessels built by them during that period. There is also a register of owners of vessels of 100 gross tons and over with the name and other pertinent information concerning each vessel of that class owned by them. There are complete lists of oil burn- ing steamers, vessels measured under Panama and Suez canal rules, vessels belonging to the navy, war, treasury, commerce, labor, interior and agricul- tural departments, the Panama canal and Panama Railroad Co., and vessels owned in the Philippine islands. As the result of the international radio conference in 1927, the princi- pal maritime nations of the world have joined in the adoption of a uni- form radio call and visual signal sys- tem, effective Jan. 1, 1934, which sys- tem involves the use of one set of letters to represent both the visual and radio call letters on each vessel. This edition of Merchant Vessels of the United States lists these new letters at this time. Directs Welfare Activities Kermit Roosevelt, son of the. late President Theodore Roosevelt and president of the Roosevelt Steamship Inc., has accepted the chairmanship of the maritime division for partici- pation in the citizens family welfare activities among. the unemployed. 33