240, THE IMPORTANCE OF PORT FACILITIES IN THE 



immediately attack the item of stevedoring as a fruitful point to improve upon, and one 

 where such improvements will quickly tell on the reduction of cost. Repairs, fuel and 

 wages are the other items where improvement would show most quickly. 



Stevedoring and handling cost must be greatly reduced by the use of machinery by both 

 the ship and the port. Repairs and depreciation must be reduced by better construction of 

 vessel and port facilities and by better equipment on shipboard for the crews to effect more 

 of their own repairs and upkeep. 



Fuel cost must be reduced by using the most efficient type of machinery, both for hand- 

 ling cargo on the ship, on the piers, and in ship propulsion. Ships driven by Diesel engines 

 must be more largely used, and for certain classes of ocean commerce we must again use 

 sailing vessels, with auxiliary engines. 



The wage question is the one which is paramount, because it brings up the question of 

 the welfare of the human race, and more particularly the welfare of a small portion of our 

 own countrymen. We may rest assured that our merchant marine will not be a success until 

 there has been a radical revision of our shipping laws, to enable us to compete with En- 

 gland, France, Japan and other countries engaged in world commerce. There need be no 

 hesitancy in doing this, because in normal times American labor can find plenty of con- 

 genial and remtmerative work in other lines of endeavor. 



The major problems of port location and arrangement of facilities, together with the 

 general design of harbors, are ones which have not been given sufficient attention in the 

 United States, with the result that many of our ports are most inefficiently arranged. Some 

 of our older ports have grown by the process of accretion, and only the most drastic treat- 

 ment will make them efficient world tools ; but we may rest assured that desperate diseases 

 require desperate remedies, and in the end most severe reconstruction from start to finish will 

 prove to have been the only cure. 



Much new harbor work has been placed in inexperienced hands ; and it is only to be 

 expected in such cases that the results will be far from satisfactory and the port be far from 

 the required efficiency. The port must be specially planned for the class of ships and traffic 

 that it will attract and handle. 



The fact must not be lost sight of, that while an independent port authority has been 

 found the best and only means for economy and efficiency in handling all port and harbor 

 problems, the ships must be privately owned to effect a like result with the means of ocean 

 transportation. Such a statement may seem paradoxical, but upon reflection it will be seen 

 that a unified and independent port authority is necessary for the proper correlation of the 

 many separate land and water transportation systems. 



The task of forming a real merchant marine out of such a heterogeneous mass of land 

 transportation systems, ocean transportation systems and port or harbor facilities is a her- 

 culean one, but one worthy of the best minds among engineers, business men and statesmen. 



The President : — That ends the contributed written discussion. Is there any oral dis- 

 cussion to follow? I think we can undoubtedly get a much better conception of the sub- 

 ject and the written contributions by reading them in the Transactions later. It is a large 

 subject, most intimately bound up with the whole commercial development of the country, 

 and as we discovered very early in the transportation of troops and supplies during the 

 war, the facilities for loading and unloading were vital in facilitating quick "turn-over" dur- 

 ing those days. In fact, it is a matter of record that in some cases the time in port was cut 



