ndustrial evils that had resulted from its operation in
the building of army cantonments. The contractors received the cost of
construction plus a percentage commission; obviously they had no incentive
to economize; the greater the expense the larger their commission. Hence
they willingly paid exorbitant prices for materials and agreed to "fancy"
wages. Not merely was the expense of securing the necessary tonnage
multiplied, but the cost of materials and labor in all other industries
was seriously enhanced. The high wages paid tended to destroy the
patriotic spirit of the shipworkers, who were enticed by greed rather
than by the glory of service. The effect on drafted soldiers was bound to
be unfortunate, for they could not but realize the injustice of a system
which gave them low pay for risking their lives, while their friends in
the shipyards received fabulous wages. Such aspects of the early days of
the Shipping Board were ruthlessly reformed by Schwab when he took
control of the Emergency Fleet Corporation. Appealing to the patriotism of
the workers he reduced costs and increased efficiency, according to some
critics, by thirty per cent, according to others, by no less than one
hundred and ten per cent.

By September, 1918, the Shipping Board had brought under its jurisdiction
2600 vessels with a total dead weight tonnage of more than ten millions.
Of this fleet, sixteen per cent had been built by the Emergency Fleet
Corporation. The remainder was represented by ships which the Board had
requisitioned when America entered the war, by the ships of Allied and
neutral countries which had been purchased and chartered, and by interned
enemy ships which had been seized. The last-named were damaged by their
crews at the time of the declaration of war, but were fitted for service
with little delay by a new process of electric welding. Such German boats
as the _Vaterland_, rechristened the _Leviathan_, and the _George
Washington_, together with smaller ships, furnished half a million tons
of German cargo-space. The ships which transported American soldiers were
not chiefly provided by the Shipping Board, more than fifty per cent
being represented by boats borrowed from Great Britain.[9]

[Footnote 9: In the last six months of the war over 1,500,000 men were
carried abroad as follows:
44 per cent in United States ships
51 per cent in British ships
3 per cent in Italian ships
2 per