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| Experts in This Country and Abroad ROTO S OUR UN aE SE REE NT Sera Te ROM Te Hot aeh to word received from abroad, the Germans have offered the use of Bremen and Hamburg as ports of debarkation for the American troops. This, it is believed, would facilitate the: return of soldiers. The wooden ships built by the Emergency Fleet corporation, of course, are still available, but there is not much demand for this type of craft. The shipping board, however, intends to impress several of these vessels in the overseas service. During the month an interesting advertisement appeared in Amer- ican newspapers over the signature of the secretary of the United States shipping board, asking for bids on some of these wooden ships. Bids were to be submitted not later than March 1. The longer the sale of these ships is postponed, the more difficulty will probably be met in selling them. Although there is sufficient evidence that ship ton- nage is today much easier than a month ago, the ship- ping board apparently is trying to make it appear that the demand is tremendous. Chairman Hurley is re- ported to have made a demand on the navy depart- ment to return immediately 500,000 tons of ships so that our export trade may be facilitated. Naturally the owners would desire to have their ships returned at the earliest moment because the sooner they get them back the sooner they can be put into trade and earn a little profit. : Foreign lines are speeding up their shipping that they may earn To Meet freights before the rates are fur- Nac ther reduced. During the past month the French line cut its rates Demands from American ports to Bordeaux and Havre from $56 to $45 per ton on general merchandise. This being a government-controlled line, however, only about one-third of its cargo space is available for commercial purposes. At the same time this cut was announced the Fabre line was booking freight to Marseilles on the basis of $70 a ton and the agent reported no difficulty in obtaining cargoes. It would appear, there- fore, that whereas ship- ping on many routes has eased up con- siderably, there is still an enor- mous demand for cargo space on others. Ships which can fit into the trades Wire nh ta. crowded are lucky. The re- adjustment to a peace basis is bringing out demands for new vessels. Much _ interest has been taken in the new type of boat which World Ship Output HIP production throughout the entire world in 1918 aggre- gated 5,447,444 gross tons, a figure never beiore approached. The total is 63 per cent higher than the output of 1913, record prewar year. The records compiled by Lloyd’s Register show the production in the United States was 3,033,030 gross tons. a total greater than the entire output of the United States during the 10 years, 1907- 1916, three times greater than the 1917 record and 25 per cent above the combined output of the rest of the woild in 1918. Production in the United Kirgdom was l,- 348,120 tons; in Japan, 489,924 gross tons; in Canada, 258,i91 tons. 171 MORE TONNAGE American Government to Obtain Many German Vessels Which Can be Used to Transport Troops the Cunard line is to put into service. “The out- standing feature of the new boats,” said Sir T. Ashley Sparks, head of the company, “will be a combina- tion passenger and cargo-carrying capacity. It is difficult to say more than this just now. Probably the new boats will be oil burners. Not only that but there is'a possibility of our converting our other vessels into oil burners.” Lloyds reported that the mercantile shipbuilding throughout the world in 1918 showed that the total merchant output of the allied and neutral countries for that year was 5,447,444 gross tons. This figure has never previously been approached. It is more than 62 per cent higher than the output for 1913, the record year prior to the war, which included the construc- tion of the central. powers. The British lines gen- erally are making rapid progress. Plans have been drawn for the building of approximately 100 liners in England. These plans of the British are most interesting in view of the announced plans of the United States shipping board to alter the types of merchant ships which are being built for the Emergency Fleet cor- poration. The peace time program of the board was worked out by a committee of experts drafted for this particular purpose. Larger vessels, it is believed by American experts, can be operated with more success because the operation of such vessels becomes largely a matter of executive ability, where- as with small ships the strictest economy of wages, etc., must be secured to compete with the British and other foreign operators. Chairman Hurley had not re- turned to the United States but a Must Lower few hours before it was clear that O . he had altered some of his opinions perauay in regard to the shipping question. Costs He is believed at last to realize that the problem of wages is a most important one and that our hope of competing with foreign vessels is not so easily realized as he thought when he set out for Europe. After giving one or two interviews, however, he set about to attempt to correct some of the high costs of operation. The first was to engage in a verbal battle with the marine insurance companies, giving the impression that marine rates are too high. As a--matter of fact, the marine: tisk oo the wooden ships is great and the charges for insurance on this class of vessels must of necessity be sufficient to meet that:risk. With the great influx of marine insurance business, coincident with the aban- donment of the government war risk insurance bureau, the private insurance companies have been swamped with business. The many recent: losses at sea was . Ris a ck ec anc