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ple who set standards for railroad equipment ought to be more di- rectly concerned with performance than with design or construction or details of any sort; in other words, that railway equipment of almost any kind ought to be bought not as something like a ship model to be put on the mantel and look nice. or bought by the pound, but as a tool to do work. We are doing what we can to help stimulate the develop- ment of real performance specifica- tions in a good many classes of rail- way equipment, supplies and mate- rials, and I think we are getting somewhere with it.’’ From an ad- dress by R. L. Lockwood, director, section of purchases, federal co-ordi- nator of transportation. The above applies with equal if not greater force in shipping. [: GENERAL, we feel that the peo- Facts Stop Argume nts Arguing about qustions of fact is a waste of time. Lengthy arguments frequently arise on questions of facts which can be determined ac- curately within a few minutes, For example, how many tons of canned goods were carried in the month of November. Why argue about that, if the boss says 5000 tons, and his assistant says 7000 tons, the facts are it is either one or the other or something else, It is an easy matter by referring to the records to deter- mine accurately just how many tons of canned goods were carried. Newsprint rolls coming from the Pacific north west are now shipped with a waxed paper wrapping inside of the outer wrapper. This assures them against any moisture penetrat- ing into the paper and has been found to be very efficient in elim- inating claims on a long water trip. New Bull Line Ships HE new Bull line freighters AN- T GELINA and MANUELA described in this issue (see page 10) have a small inexpensive fitting on the strongbacks which allows them to be locked in the slots when it is nec- essary to leave one or more sections of hatch on and work through the remaining opening. It was also observed that though these are not the latest thing in a freight ship, their side ports are of the sliding type, eliminating the necessity of breasting the ship out UCT TCC CCC HIS page is being devoted to short items on all matters having to do with the more efficient turn- around of ships. These items are in- tended to be of a helpful nature. We will welcome for this page brief descriptions, illustrated if possible, of any better or safer way of perform ing any function in cargo handling. Also, any questions submitted will be answered by the editor. ALSTON DTUEASYCAT AUTEUR TAUNTED ASU GATT ETAT TATE da from the pier as is the case in some of the latter installations where the doors swing out on hinges. It also eliminates the possible damage to hinges when berthing against the piers. There are not any sounding pipe plugs or other obstruction in the center of the deck, all cleats, cargo and mooring, standing gear, and vents are set either in the upper decks or on the _ bulwarks. This leaves the deck absolutely clear for deck cargo. “Tf economizing on managerial ability means getting on with a smaller percentage of it than be- fore, it is well nigh suicidal in the lone run’ Clark, Economics of Overhead Costs. Use of Net Slings SE of net slings is almost entire- U ly avoided on a real modern terminal, The old practice of dump- ing a sling load by unhooking one side of the net and hoisting away resulted in considerable damage to cargo, However, the net sling used in conjunction with a “pie plate” as described previously in this sec- tion is effective and does not cause damage. The “pie plate’ is a large circular platform which is placed in the center of the net for-the cargo to rest on and to keep the sling from bearing hard against the car- go and damaging it. Due primarily to the necessity of having a package small enough for the Chinese, and other Eastern cool- ies, to handle by hand, the export shippers of tin plate have been pre- vented from making shipments of the larger packages to the Far Hast that has made such a large savings possible in the movement of this MARINE REview—June, 1934 commodity to the Pacific coast and the Hawaiian Islands where they are now using power equipment and taking a one ton package at a time. By attaching a tongue fitted with a suitable ring and connecting it to the automatic coupler of a pow- er driven tractor the ordinary small hand lift truck can be made _ into quite an efficient piece of equipment for the handling of large skids of paper. Your Batting Average UPPOSE you were to analyze the records of hundreds of baseball batters, if you found that they swing their bats in certain ways they in- variably struck out, flied out, or foul- ed out, the chances are you would conclude that if others were to bat the same way against the same kfhd of pitching the same things would happen. ? And if by the same token, you found out that if batters swing their bats another way, against the same pitching, they got hits—-singles, doubles, three base hits, a home run ——the chances are the way these men swing their bat could be used suc- cessfully by other men of similar ability. The rule goes, no matter the size of the gate receipts. It goes for stores, and for departments in stores, as it goes for the analysis of the ex- perience of any large group of people doing anything. You learn what not to do from the errors from the strike- outs. You learn what to do from the base hits and what to do well from the home runs and how they are made. The foregoing is quoted from Amos Parrish Magazine, March, 1933.) Wood Shavings Used OOD shavings have been found Wis be considerably more effec- tive than sawdust or sand on wet gangplanks and slippery decks, The small flat surfaces found on the shavings from a rotary planing mill take up the moisture better than the smaller cubical and square surfaces of the sawdust. They not alone take up the moisture but give more surface between the wheels of trac- tor or trailer than the round par- ticles and are far better as an ad- hesive agent. This has been found to be the case with rubber tires on iron sur- faces as well as on wooden surfaces. 33