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pe Modern Stevedoring and Dock Man “ivagoaie J Ways to to Cut Costs in Cargo Sega ul] agement iM zr Hi A aman, = L My Cut Handling Costs by Practical Use of Labor Saving Methods URING a recent discussion of D a proposed new museum, Lo- rado Taft, the famous sculptor, urged the adoption of a new plan for arranging the exhibits in chronologi- cal order. His idea was that the vis- itor could then start at one end and see exhibits dating from the earliest times in all countries, pass along through exhibits showing successive developments during the whole course of history, and finally reach the mod- ern exhibits, showing present con- ditions. No such museum exists in this country. In fact an investigator in- terested in tracing the historical de- velopment of most industrial and com- mercial arts would have difficulty in finding any “exhibits” which showed early methods and practices. There are, however, a few fields in which such exhibits could be found, and one of them is the field of cargo handling. A relatively short journey, not exceed- ing two or three hundred miles all told, would enable an investigator to see cargo handling methods dating all the way from 1000 B. C. to 1929 A; D: Cargo Handling an Old Trade Men have been loading and unload- ing ships for three thousand years and more. Almost all of the kinds of goods earried in ships three thou- sand years ago are still carried in ships, but hundreds and thousands of new kinds of items have been added 54 By R. L. Lockwood to the old ones. Handling methods, too, have changed, but the changes in methods have by no means kept pace with the changes in kind and quan- AVTVTUUUVUUVUOUOOOOOUOOUOOUOUVONOQOOQOOOOOOHOOHORUAATAUIREUUUUCUUUULULULUECDLDEUUUTRCUUUUUOCUUCUOGOOOGGOOO OODLE Analyze Your Problems FeVERY shipping executive faced with the daily problem of keep- ing expenses from eating up the profits should read Mr. Lockwood’s article. Before we can accomplish things we must have the vision of something better. In this article Mr. Lockwood points to the day when many practices now current in han- dling cargo to and from ships will seem as archaic as do the methods used in building the pyramids when compared to those used in erecting a New York skyscraper of today. In- dustrial America leads the world in mechanical efficiency. In the same manner the impetus of clear unpreju- diced thinking, untrammeled by years of static tradition will lead to better methods for loading and unloading ships; methods that will show an am- provement in every phase of cargo handling. Expense will be reduced, safety will be increased and men themselves will be saved from the hardest kind of physical labor. Progress must be initiated from above. Why shouldn’t every operation be studied with a critical eye to its efficiency? Let intelligence reign rather than blind custom and tradi- tion frozen into solid prejudice. UUUUVUHAUUUAETLTUEHLUAGETLUOGLALUULOOAUUUAAOLOAAULUUGALLOGHRUELOOUATONATAUCUAATUOOHOTILOATTTOGTITTOHTTICCOTT tity of cargo. The most striking changes in methods and equipment have been made in handling bulk car- MARINE REVIEW—June, 1929 goes such as coal, ore, and grain. A large proportion of such materials cost little or nothing in their original state and place. ‘Their final cost to the user is little more than the summa- tion of the costs of handling them. Any reduction in such costs has an. immediate effect on selling price. Handling Costs Since War For this reason, there was a strong” incentive for the development of spe- cial machinery for handling bulk ma- terials, and such machinery caused a revolution in methods and costs. Dur- ing the period from 1890 to 1910, for example, the cost of unloading iron ore from ships on the Great Lakes was reduced from one dollar a ton to less than one cent. a ton. Similar savings were made in the cost of load- ing and unloading cargoes of coal, grain, sand, and other bulk materials.. The vast field of miscellaneous cargo, however, offered a less obvious in- centive for the development of new methods and new equipment. Un- til recently, the value per ton of miscellaneous freight, and the amount of freight charges, loomed so large that the less apparent costs of han- dling, loading and unloading were comparatively neglected. é Only during and since the World war has there been any general wide- spread interest in analyzing such costs in an effort to reduce them. Dur- ing the past ten years, however, new machines and devices for handling ma-