Export Shake-Up

One day in November 1917, a hard, dark chunk of a man walked round & round a team of 34 dray horses at the foot of 132nd St., Manhattan, feeding each & every horse a sugar lump. On a tremendous trailer attached to the team was a submarine which had just been hoisted out of the Hudson River. The man turned and walked down the street, the 34 horses following him. Thus, while thousands jam-packed the sidewalks, did Truckman Henry Herbermann haul the German U-boat C-5 to Central Park to be used as a speaker's rostrum for the second Liberty Loan drive.

Henry Herbermann did not remain a truckman for long. For some $60.000 he bought and became president of Export Steamship Corp., which operates between New York and the Mediterranean. When after the War the Federal Government set out to restore the U. S. merchant marine to its oldtime glory by means of mail subsidies and cheap construction loans, Exporter Herbermann got the first mail contract. His subsequent activities were aired last year before the Senate committee investigating air and ocean mail contracts. Discoveries: 1) the Shipping Board spent $1,825,000 to repair 18 ships which it sold bolt and keel to -Henry Herbermann for $1,071,431; 2) Mr. Herbermann, under the Jones-White Act, borrowed from the Shipping Board $7,122,750 to build four passenger liners, got his loans extended later although Export's debts exceeded its assets 3-to-1; 3) despite large payments on mail contracts ($115,335 for a single pound in 1929) the company was worse off than in 1930, still owed the U. S. $8,000,000 of which $1,200,000 was already past due.

Last week Henry Herbermann was unceremoniously ousted from the presidency of his company. The Shipping Board's credit expert, appointed to investigate lines in debt to the Government, had decided that Export needed a thorough shakeup. Summoned was brusque William Hugh Coverdale, financial engineer, president of Canada Steamship Lines, to take the presidency of Export. Exporter Herbermann was made vice president, will cooperate with the new management in paying off the loans he contracted.

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