New Britain Herald Newspaper, March 27, 1918, Page 5

HURLEY TALKS 0UT ON SHIPBUILDING Gives Frank Account of What Was Done and Not Done March 27.—America's German New York, effort to meet war, whose full menace hg reffealed in British admiralty figures on sinkings of ships was outlined here Iast night by Chairman Hurley, of the shipping board, in a frank statement setting forth the shipbuilding situa- tion in the United States. Before the National Marine league, Mr. Hurley disclosed that despite de lays, the country soon will have 730 steel and wooden ways turning out siips and that the government's mammoth steel shipbuilding program of eight million tons on March 1 was 28 per cent on Its way to completion. This does not mean that 28 per cent sve in the water, but tbat construc- tion as a whole had advanced that far. Eight per cent of the vesscly actually have been put into service, Mr. Hurley said The three government fabricating yards near Philadeiphia, when in full operation, will be able to produce, MTY. Hurley 1, more ships in a year than all the yards of England, here- tofore the greatest shipbuilding couns try in the world. High Point Delayed. The high point in the curve of pro- duction hag been delayed, Mr. Hurley pointed out, by a number of causes. Sradually, these are being overcome, e declared, and before many months the peak will have been reached. “When the high point of the curve finally has been reached and the mag- nitude of America’s shipbuilding pro gram is realized,” he sald. “it will be a continuous performance of pro- iuction and launching.” Inless we men to the hattle front, we will not win the war, and therefore it all comes hack to ships,” said Mr. Hurley. ‘“Upon the rd has devolved the re- sibility of supplying this need and supplying it under the most ex- sraordinary conditions that ever ex- 1sted, n overy other y taxed to its utmos capacity in the matter of materials and labor to provide war necessities. “The handicaps have been We were not a maritime nation. W the exception of a few widely sca erod yards, merchant marine con- struction had almost become a lost art with us. Then came this sudden cell at a moment when the navy was undergolng the greatest expansion in its history—when most, if not all, of _Ahe established vards were feverishly engaged in rush construction on dreadnaughts, destroyers, submarines, fuel ships, tend nd ather auxiliary craft and when munition makers were absorbing that part of skilled labor which not been called to government r ards or private shipbuilding pla So it was a case —af not only working from the ground up, but of first securing the ground upon which to make a start, some of it marshland which had to be filled in before launching ways would be lald. Therefore, we who are engaged Jir the work appreciate the magni- tude of the task. I doubt if the mag- nitude of the task is generally appre- ciated. I am not here to emphasize that magnitude. T am here to tell you of the situation as it is. bl Ships Not Built Overnight. “I wish to remind vou that ships are not built overnight. When we took hold of this job of shipbuilding, we found therc was no shipyard in existence with which we could place an order. The old yards were filled to capacity. We were faced with the necessity of creating an en- tirely new indust We had to es tablish the vards first, get the ship- builders to take charge of them, and train the men to build the shi “There were 37 steel shipyards in America at the time of our entrance into the war. We have located 81 additional steel and wood yards while 18 other yards have been expanded. We are bullding in the new and ex- panded steel yards 35 new steel ship- ways, or 26 more than at present exist in all the shipyards of England. If we had been content with doing the job in a small way, we might have built a few new yards and added 8 little to our capacity. A few ships might have been finished more quick- 1y; but it was the spirit and will of America to do the job in a big way end the judgment of the country will be vindicated by the results when ali these new ways are completed and are turning out ships. Many of these vays have actually been finished. The new industry we have created will ¥ make America the greatest maritime nation in the history of the world. “It took Germany 40 vears to build pp her mighty military machine. In less than eight months we have bullt up a shipbuilding machi WhIRh when it gets into full swing, will qe- feat the military machine of Germany “It took Henry Ford, with all } zenius for organization and stand- ardization, 16 vears in which to de- velop his enormo: has required 20 s for the United States Steel corporation to its activities to the point where they gentlemen, For Infants and Children submarine | Just been | production. Tt develop ! | | puting In Use For Over 30 Years | Always bears M———— the Signature of LA M‘ 4 Acres .. 400 Acres . .. .. 4,000 ! 27 Acres of Woedand 1,800 H. N. LOCKWOOD, ROOM 107 CITY HALL. ] | | completed. { ships. {to the industry which supports CASTORIA NEW BRITAIN DAILT HERALD, WEDNESDAY. MARCI] 27. ¢ e represent an organization one-half as arge as has been undertaken by the Imergency Fleet corporation “Jt has been an uphill struggle. I am willing to confess there have been times when we have been discouraged, not at the magnitude of the task, but through a doubt of human ability to accomplish the stupendous work in the short time allowed How to Show Results. “There are two methods for com- the construction of tonnage ta show what is accomplished. One is by showing the tonnage in the water; the other is by showing the tonnage under construction. But when a great many ships are put under construction at the same tire, the question that should be asked is, how are thev all progressing: how near to completian is the vast pro- sram. Here is the answer. ‘“The total amount of our steel con- struction program on March 1 was 8,205,708 deadweight tons. This 18 made up of 5,160,300 deadweight tons under contract with the Emergency | Fleet corporation and 3,045,408 dead- welght tans of requisition vessels. “Of this total stecl construction, 2,121,568 deadweight tons, or ap- proximately 28 per cent. has been That means that in addi- | tions to the building of our big new | vards, we have also been building That is, the program for stecl ships has advanced 28 per cent. to- ward completion. Of the amount of steel ships under contract and under requisiti 655,456 deadweight tons, or approximately 8 per cent. were ac- tually completed and in service on March 1 of this year, nearly a month ago. This amaunt of floating tonnage exceeds our total output in 1916, in- cluding steel, wooden and sailing ves- sels, but approximately 50 per cent. “In the yards which we have al- Teady completed and those which are nearing completion the prograss will he cumulative from this time on. Thus while we have been building the yards and training the new forces necessary to canstruction, we have also been building the ships. | “Notwithstanding the difficulties of | organization, the handicaps of bad weather conditions, transportation embargoes and railroad congestion, | nearly as much tonnage has been constructed in American shipyards in | the past three manths as by all the | cther maritime nations of the world combined. “I have referred to the necessity of providing additional facilities for the building of shi At the outset the 37 ola steel yards began increasing their capacity until they now have 195 ways as against 162 eight months ago. Other parts of their plants have increased in proportion. We then made provision for additional steel yards, some of which have been given financial assistance. Thirty addition- al new steel shipyards are thus being erected with a total of 203 shipbuild- ing ways. Thus we now have in the aggregate 67 steel shipyards either wholly or partly engaged in Fleet corperation work. These yards will have a total of 398 steel building ways. Of these, 35 yards with 258 ways, are on the Atlantic and Gulf coast. Nineteen vards with 66 ways are on | the Pacific, while 13 yards, with 74 ways, are on the Great Lakes. Handicaps of Program. ““Our program for building ships has been beset with ficulties and handicaps which could | not well be foreseen. A year ago, waoden shipbuilding in the Unitcl States was almost a lost art. We found 24 old wooden shipyards with 73 shipways. The capacity for wooden shipbuilding has been increased until we now have 81 wooden shipbuilding vards with 332 ways completed or nearing completion. “Assuming that these ways will each produce twa standard ships per year, we should turn out about 2,300,- 000 deadweight tons of wooden ship- ping annually. These 332 wooden shipbuilding ways, now nearing com- pletion, added to our 398 steel build- ing ways, will give us a total of 730 berths upan which to build steel and wooden vessels. When you consider that we had only 162 steel building ways a few months ago and 73 wooden ship building ways—a total of 235— an increase is shown of 495 wooden and steel berths on which we can build ships. “With our total of 730 wood and steel ways, we will have 521 more berths than Sir Eric Geddes in his re- cent speech stated England has at the present time. “Our program on wooden ships was delayed by the fact that we were unable to provide the necessary big timber in sufficient quantities from the forests east of the Mississippl river. This situation, which has been a serious handicap, I am happv to say, steadily improving. The situation giving us the most concern is the completion of tur- bines and engines. The very rapid expansion of the shipbuilding pro- gram caught the turbine and engine manufacturers totally unprepared. Building Concrete Ships. “The proposal to build ships of concrete was at first regarded as a fascinating absurdity. On March 14 there was launched from the yards of the San Francisco Company the first concrete steamship, a vessci which the builders christened TFaith, We e will exemplify the name. ow as to labor:—our strong | right arm! There has been muck talk of conscripting labor, of fore- ing it into shipyards as ow soldiers have been brought into the camps. 1 am fully aware that I am fiying in the face of a growing popular senti- ment that men should be drafted in- the attle lines, but T wish to put myself on record as being opposed to ihe conscription of labor. I do not be- lieve conscription necessary, for I be- lieve labor itself will produce condi- tions which will render idle all thought of conscripting workmen. The vast majority of our workmen are men of intelligence and when they come to a full realization of the fact that any defection on their part now will not only imperil the nation, but will injure their fellow workers in al- most every field of industrial sc- tivity, I feel sure they will respond to all demands made upon them. Uniess they fully do their part, their broth- wooden many dif- i labor will render for this increase of ‘ready at the yards of the Submarine will suffer. L would be useless fo manufac- ture material and supplies and pile np the products on the wharves if there are no ships to transport them. So, unless our ship workers do their best, other industries must siow down or halt completely with the result that thousands of workers through- out the country will suffer for lock of employment. “I believe that labor has begun to | realize that fact, but I want to drive it home to them; for there are some, I regret to regret to say, who do not yet sense their responsibility. There are many who are not working to their full capacity. There are many who, because of the high wages they are earning, are prone to take too many hoelidays. Labor generally throughout our shipyards is today re- celving the highest rate of wages ever paid for similar work in the his- | tory of the world. The additional | cost of our ships, due to increased wages in shipyards covering the pro- gram we have mapped out, will be in excess of $300,000,000. We expect, and we have a right to expect; the country has a right to expect, that increase in output of wages a corresponding production—that is, the ships. Handicaps of Labor. “All has not gone smoothly in the labor situation and there have been times when this phase of the problem was enough to cause discouragement. The vast majority of laboring men arve patriotic; the leaders, whom I have known through close contact in Washington, especially Mr, Gompers and his immediate assoclates, have my confidence and the country rec- ognizes their patriotism. With only one exception, the leaders of the shipyards crafts generally bave shown a spirit of co-operation, ready to sink their personal differences In the common pool of patriotism. “We have established a labor ad- justment board whose complete fair- ness cannot be questioned. The scale of wages awarded by this board has been most liberal. We have not blamed labor for the reduced aver- age output in various yards. There are some labor restrictions which we would like to have removed—restric- tions against output. We would like to see the whole body of labor put forth its maximum effort, encourag- ing each individual workman to do his best, without any fear of estab- lishing new average standards when they increase the output. When all the leaders and all the men take this view of the national emergency, the efficiency of all the yards will be measurably increased. “There have been inefficient ship- yard owners as well as inefficient workmen. Where there 18 an inef- ficient awner who does not understand the viewpoint of labor and who thinks only of his profits, labor has a right to complain. In the speed that was necessary in the early days when the plans were being made and the first contracts were being let, some of the work was given the men who have not proved their ability ta get re- sults. As we have strengthened our contracts and distributed the work with greater deliberation and care, we have likewise had in mind the weed- ing out of the emplovers who are get- ting the results which, experience has shown us, we could get from efficient men. We intend to know what the costs and the profits are in every yard. We feel that the public is entitled to this information. “In 1916 there were less than 45,000 men employed in all the shipyards of the country, and on March 2. 1918, we had increased this number to 236,000, of which 170,689 were working on ac- tual ship construction and the remain- der in yard construction and other branches of the industry. Thousanids of others are employed in taking out the timbers for our wooden constrec- tion and at the scores af inland steel plants which are fabricating the parts for steel vessels. “I desire to make a brief reference to what have been popularly called our three fabricating shipyards. The so-called fabricated ship is almost a new method of ship construction—al- most as new to England as it is to us. But from the progress of the work as it has thus far developed, we are con- fident that it will be the means of add- ing millions of tons to our merchant warine. ““These three assembling plants, with their 50 ways at Hog Island, 28« at Newark Bay and 12 at Bristol, will, when they are in full operation, pro- duce in a single year more ships than Bngland has ever been able to turn out in the same length of time. Al- Boat corporation, at Newark Bay, 15 keels have been laid and 13 more will{ be put down as soon as the remaining ways, now in course of construction, are completed. By the time the last way is finished, the vessel on the first way will be well on toward comple- tion; and as soon as it has slipped into the water, another keel will be laid in its place and we will thus have a continuous series of vessels drop- ping into the water from this yard at the rate of two a week. Even greater tonnage will be praduced at Hog Is- land with its larger number of ways and the bigger type of vessls that are being constructed there. “There is no doubt but that we are destined to be one of the leading ship- bullding nations of the world. We will have the largest number of ship- yards, the materials and the labor and when our shipbuilding plants are com- pleted and are well organized an sound business lines so as to produce ships cheaply and rapidly, we will not only produce sufficient ships to become the leader in the commerce of the world by furnishing transportation at reasonable rates, thereby performing a serviee ta the rest of the world, but we will build ships {n such large num- bers and at such fair prices that we will become the mecca of the ship- bullding trade of the world. “I have outlined the entire situation —in utmost frankness—concealing nothing, for we have nothing to con- ceal. Shipping is the essence of the struggle in which the world is now engaged-—the central beam of the whale war structure. If that fails, all else fails. We are engaged in a race with the submarine. The whole gov- ernment in Washington is now alive to it and there is complete co-opera- tion to bring success in this greatest ! task to which America has set her- selt.” Copyright, 1018 The House of Kuppenheimer By THE HOUSE of KUPPENHEIME HERE'S only one way to insure clothes economy and that’s to buy quality clothes—honest fabrics and expert tailoring. You can’t have a lasting, satisfactory fit without them. Good fabrics are scarcer than ever this Spring. They’re hard to get. The select{on is important. Play safe. Go to the Kuppenheimer store and rely on the reputation of The House of Kuppenheimer for top quality fabrics and fine tailoring. The best interpretation of Fractional sizes and speci»’ ve ~very man a fit. the season’s styles. Pricc §1€ to $37.50 THE HOUSE OF KUPPENHEIMER, CHICAGO CONNOR:-HALLORAN CO. “ALWAY35 RELIABLE” 248 MAIN STREET, NEW BRITAIN, CON