Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-07-23
xEH YORK LETTER.

dicated by fkoaehss Collapse.
Special oorrespondence Of Gazstts and journal.
New YoRk, July 2O.--The topic of the |
hour is the assignment OF John Roach |
and the Republican papers naturally seek /
to attribute It to the persecution, OF the |
Democratic administration. /. do, not |
imagine that this view will obtain much,l
currency amongst men any party in
Wilmington, and especially not amongst
these Of your people who have any special
knowledge of shipbuilding. Doubtless
Roach's failure Is due to a change Of 'ad-.
ministration, but not to any disposition
to persecute the man on account of his
politics. Many Of your readers remember
well when the two iron ship yards at
Wilmington were practically the only
ones in the country. They did good
work at q fair profit and turned out
vessels, every one of which was sea
worthy. Then came the attempt 10 es-
tablish rival works at Chester which after
some years, involved its projectors in
ruin. Next came John Roach, absolutely
| without experience In ship building, who
took the wrecked Chester concern and
| apparently made it grand success. For
| years his principal place of business was
| the lobby of Congress, and yet he seemed
| more successful in the avocation he had
| suddenly picked up than were your viii
mington ship builders who had been
| trained to it from boyhood, and who gave
| TO all its details the closest personal
supervision, even the heads of firms going
their offices at O'Clock in the morning
and remaining till the 6 o'clock evening
bells rang. MIR. Roach soon began to
| take some OF their old business from
| these concerns, and did it by bidding
lower. Your Wilmington builders, !
happen to know carefully went over their
| figures on more thnn one occasion to
see whether they could make any possible
profit out of such contracts as Roach was
eagerly taking and found that, on the
contrary, they would incur q positive loss
| il they undertook to build really good
and stauncl vessels at such figures. Yet
| Roach went on taking the contracts and
launching vessels to the accompaniment
Of booming cannon, brass bands and
special trains of congressman brought 10
celebrate the launches by elaborate
lunches ut which champagne and elo-
quence adulutory of John Roach flowed
copiously.
How could Roach do all this and make
| it pay? The answer is'two-fold. First,
he distinctly lowered the standard of
American iron ship building, las established
and maintained in Wilmington where the
industry had its origin. Second, he did
not make the business pay, but depended
\ for profits on the government contracts
he was always able to secure by under
| bidding, certain that the corrupt or COM
| plant secretaries of the navy with whom
his relations were SO peculiarly intimate
would make it up to him by allowing
extras So far from being the great
leader and promoter of iron ship build
ing on this side of the Atlantic, as his adj
mirers counted him, John Roach has
been the most dangerous enemy to the
natural, healthy and honest develop
meht of the business. He has
through the unfair advantage derived
from his improper relations with the
navy department been enabled to control
business and eclipse the reputation of
establishments older, more experienced
and better equipped than his own, and
think it would be safe TO add that in the
course Of doing this he has built every
single one of the iron vessels which have
served MS texts for newspaper Jeremiads
on the inability of our American builder
, to compete in skill and excellence of work
manship with the British builders. You
readers doubtless remember the fuss ant
: furry with which the City of Picking ant
the City of Toxic were launched. ID,
they also remember that one of thes,
7 sprang aleak shortly after she went int
I service and that John Roach actually pu
! forth the preposterous plea that SOM
enemy had stolen into her hold and loos
/. ened nuts, as though that were quie
/ operation that could be performed ull
{ noticed? H'A l'f
h do not recall these things with vie,
e to striking man when he is down, bu
u simply i'll Justice to the present secretar
e of the navy, now so foolishly assailec
b and particularly in Justice to your Wi
1e mington shipbuilders who were freel
II blamed by your own people for lettin
! Roach appear TO surpass them and tab
I contracts from lines of whose work you
Ii local yards once had complete monopol,
ie The heads of your Wilmington firms ha,
If always insisted that there was no profit
| building good vessels at the prices at whic
L. Roach was glad to get contracts and thu
4 declared they preferred to do nothiu
Ie rather than work at a loss. They ais
\. felt, doubtless, what plenty of disinte
4, ested but well-informed men freely sait
colossal smash up or else his peculiar n
d lations with the navy department enable
{ him to make profits which overcame h
7. losses in other directions. The event
a. Saturday completely justiiies these stat
- ments. The probable rejection of II
T. Dolphin does not account for the CO
u lapse of Roach, for the greater part
w her contract price WIS long ago
r ROach's pocket and there is no certain
4 whatever that lie will have to surrend
T. il. No, that is not the trouble. III
~ real trouble is that Mr.. Roach sees
the attitude of Secretary Whitney Il
he end of his system, no long pursued, Iii
et of finishing one vessel with money draw
st under the prevalent system of parii
us payments, for work ON another vess
Id still On the stocks. He has gone on
q, this way for years, and the system W
y, one which made il vital necessity +
II, him 10 have contracts whether they we
ISL profitable ones or not. So much mon
d on laying the keel, so much more VIII,
D ! the water line Is reached, another inst
D ment when the deck is on, 80 much aga
p. when the vessel is launched, and the !
t's mainder when she is accepted
of l believe, the system of payne
ed for most large vessels. nj
to have forgotten some of the detail
NO but this is substantially the systoi
ias The money needed to complete vessel
Up was thus obtained by the launching of
ID. and that for the completion Of Il was o
lid tanned by launching q, and so on throlll
his each stage of advancement ON each YES
MS until u part of the money obtained frC
led the completed A served to lay the X,
hit. and bend the ribs of the new craft viii
completed the circle. A little fresh chi
,en tai fed in now and then would keep u
liz stream flowing regularly and that little
ars much, us the final audit will doubt,
cra show, came from the treasury of I
nar United States in the shape of allowan,
Iot by favor and without legal warrant,
i,Iy "oxtras,n alterations" aud ''repairs" /
ta1 included in the contracts with the COVE
a., ment, and which contractors genera
N, count on. The moment this source
lot supply is seen to be closed up, finally,
ore bubble bursts, and 1.-THE great AmeriC
NO.. ship builder" goes into bankruptcy. |
not mean to say that Mr. Roach did
private work Mt IL profit, hut it is f
iaht beyond denial that be would have c,
'or' tracts, and their resulting partial u
IN ments, whether profitable or not, and t
the his only conceivable method of making
ieaT for the losses thus incurred to insui
anu steady supply Of capital was to draw
,olu the fund yainly appropriated from Y
lee' to year for the purpose Of giving Ill
uhi United States navy. A change of
Gnu ministration has put an end to that,
the done so most properly and righteou,
,''n !n and if the New York Tribune aud
VIII other foolish papers which echo its
vi sance folly, can succeed in max