Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-03-05
ANDREW earn EGIE,
Believes Shipyard at New York
Would Pay--Can Underbid English
Ship Bullders-.-Differenc in Cost
Of Material.

Cleveland, Ohio, March 4.-This
weeks issue Of the Iron Trade Review
has the following important letter
from Mr.. Andrew Carnegie:
Cannes. France, February 10, 1898.
| To the Editor:
| May | call attention, through your
| columns to the field, which is open for
first class shipbuilding yard upon
| the Hudson, East river or Lower bay,
| near New York
The price paid for steel by British
and German shipyards are so much
higher than ship builders in New York
would lie required to pay that the diff
ference would make, in itself, an eX-
| cellent profit. Plates are worth about
| S22 or $23 per ton in New York. The
quoted price at Glasgow is nearly 800.
Other prices are in proportion and all
the wook work of ships is also much
cheaper with us. If yard were built
to-day with the newest appliances, the
total cost of labor, even at much high
er wages, would be less than in any
shipyard | know Of either in Britain
or Germany.
| name near New York as the best
for several reasons:
IA shipyard there would get re-
pair work, which is always profitable.
"A dry dock could be part of the
equipment, which would also be highly
profitable.
3-Two years hence the cost Of
transport upon steel, delivered A the
shipyard at New York from Pittsburg.
will not exceed 81 per ton via Con-
neaut and the deepened Erie canal.
Indeed it will be less, since it will
cost nothing to send steel to Conneaut
in cars which otherwise must return
to the lake empty for ore. The pres
ent seaboard shipyards are so usefully
occupied with domestic business that
they cannot give foreign business
proper attention The New York yard
should be constructed on a larger
scale and with special reference to the
| foreign demand.
am satisfied that the United States
can readily regain the supremacy in
shipbuilding it had when wooden ships
were in vogue. 1t only needs an enter
prising western shipbuilding concern
to establish yard near New York
and manage it with the skill and
energy winch nave CHdL dctSi lACtt tLCSS
| on the lakes This is the only proml-
| nent department Of manufacturing IN
which our country is behind, nd it is
| one in which it easily can obtain front
rank. It would justify steel ilanufac-
turers to guarantee to such ship
| building concern continuance of the
| present extremely low rates upon steel
| for a term of years, and also that steel
| of all kinds. and armor and guns
| should always be furnished at the low
! est price paid by European shipbuild-
ers. But there is nothing to fear from
| the prices of steel. for these hence
| forth are to rule lower in our country
| than in any other country of Europe.
| 1t will not be long before larger por-
| ton of it's steel supply must be drawn
by Europe from the United States.
| If were younger man, or rather,
! if I did not belong to concern which
| employs all my capital. | should be
greatly inclined to enter upon the
| building of ships somewhere near New
| York harbor. There would be no war
ships or Atlantic liners open for bids
| in any part of the world which the
| New York yard would not have some
thing to say about. Every needed ele-
ment is present for regaining our SUI
nremacy as the principal ship-building