Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-06-23
were taken Immediately but no bot
tom found at 20 fathOms.
ENGLAND's DECLINE.
Trouble on the Clyde---Americans Can
Build Ships Cheaper than
the English.
London Daily Telegraph.

Twenty-Five thousand wOrkmen
employed in the ship building yards
ON the Clyde were locked out on
Saturday conformably to the de-
cision of the masters, who have
unanimously determined to resist
the demands recently made by the
men for higher wages. We trust
this unhappy labor dispute may not
result in driving away another inn
pOrtant industry from our shores.
If recent intelligence from the
United States may be believed,
British supremacy in the construc-
ton of iron vessels appears now to
beseriously threatened by American
competition. lit is affirmed by the
transatlantic press that the iron
ship builders of Pennsylvania and
Delaware are now building better
and cheaper ships than can be pro-
duced on the Clyde; and if that
assertion can be SubStantiated, an
industry in which we have been
accustomed to regard ourselves as
unrivaled is unqueStiOnably placed
in grave jeopardy. Iron ship build
ing is, as yet, comparatively in its
infancy in America. Nevertheless,
the annual aggregate of iron vessels
now built in the United States is
over thirty, representing a total
value of from $l2,000,000 to I5,000,-
600, and the business rapidly in
creases. Five years ago England
undoubtedly possessed, in respect to
raw material and labor, advantages
which America could not pretend to
acquire. But the marvellous skill OF
the people of the United States in
inventing labor saving machinery
now places them in a position more
favorable than that which we enjoy
as regards this particular branch OF
industry.
They have mills for rolling iron
plates, furnaces and various kind of
efficient machinery of American in
ventiOn in their building yards, and
the price of pig iron has been so re-
duced during the last few years that
upon three-thouSand-tOn ship there
is now a saving to Americans of
$4,000 in the manufactured iron
alone. So rapid has been the de-
VelOpment of iron manufacture in
the United States that to-day iron
is as cheap there as in any other
country. A leading element of eX-
pense in building a ship is labor,
which constitutes about 60 per cent.
of her entire cost. This has been
cheapened in the States by the in
PRODUCTION of labOr-SaVing appliances
not to be met with in England; be-
sides, the price of manual labor has
of late been almost brought to level
in both countries. The cost of cop
per has so declined in America that
the States have not only almost
ceased to purchase that metal, but
are now able to export it. The
facilities of America for obtaining
timber are known to be immensely
superior to those possessed by Eng
land. The average price of iron
sailing ships in the Clyde is said to
be e13 los. to e14 per ton, and one
of the largest American iron ship
builders has announced that he is
prepared, within the present year,
to complete from one to six large
iron vessels, and deliver them in an
English port, at a considerably
lower price than that, provided he
is allowed to convey cargo in them.
He will also undertake to guarantee
that they shall receive from English
and American underwriters the
highest "class." Considering in
how many ways America has
already encroached upon our manu-
features, and excluded us from her
own and other markets, the facts we
have stated are not calculated to
enliven the outlook of the ship
builders on the Clyde, the Tyne and
the Thames.