The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1901-04-14
DECLINE IN sH1PBuLDTNG.

Seattle Post-Inteligencer.
There has been sudden and marked
decline in the volume of work being
dome in British ship yards after 10 years
of almost uninterrupted prosperity The
heavy advances in ocean freight rates,
due to the chartering of large number
of vessels for the transport service,
both by this country and Great Britain,
made great demand for new vessels
in the last three years and kept the
ship yards busy to their fun capacity.
Vessels already in commission sold dur
4 ing this period Of high freight rates at
prices 80 per cent more than their ac-
tual cost, The Liverpool Steamship
Owners Association. one OF the greatest
trusts in the world. which owns in its
membership an aggregate tonnage Of
s,542O7O tons. pro>rered beyond oil pre-
cedent The ship yards all over the
kingdom were flooded with orders.
Now. according to an English CORE
spondent OF the New York Sun, the stu
alton has changed. Freights and prices
are on a severe decline. Builders are
not getting new orders. Iron and steel
manufacturers find their works idle for
want OF orders, for shipbuiding has
been the life of the steel industry in
Great Britain of recent years. and the
outlook is particularly black.
i is not alone the falling of in freight
rates which is responsible for the de-
cline in British shipbuilding that has
set in. The British ship yards are no
longer doing the building Of the world.
Germany has become an active COM
petitor. Not only are the German yards
building vessels for German owners
who formerly were patrons of the Brit
ish yards, but they are building for 9th
er countries. The slovenly. aimless and
incompetent habits Of British workmen.
their refusal to permit the adoption Of
better methods which result in the saw
ing Of both time and labor. make the
British shipbuilder dependent on such
labor peculiarly open to competition:
and the industry which has reached
its greatest growth in Great Britain
is apparently doomed to pass to other
countries.
The United States has not heretofore
seriously entered in.o the list of ship
building nations. but the time Is near at
hand when it will do so; and the de-
! feline in the British industry will be still
more marked after that date. This
country has now reached the stage in
/ industrial development when Il can pro-
duce the material which enters into
the building Of ships more cheaply than
it can he produced in Great Britain.
American ship plates were exported to
/ the Clvde during the shipbunding boom
Of last year in large quantities. When
American skill in organization and in
substitution Of machinery for hand Ia
Dor reaches the development in ship
, building that it has in other Industrial
arts, ships can be laid down cheaper
here than in any country on earth. But
to develop the industry there must be a
market for its product. British capital
has for years gone freely into vessel
owning. American capital has kept
away from it, owing to the greater cost
Of operating American than British
ships
With any substantial encouragement
10 the merchant marine, American capt.
tai. now abundant and satisfied with as
low rate Of interest as is asked in
any country, viii go into vessels for the
ocean carrying trade. The market thus
afforded for American-built ships will
carry the shipbuilding industry to a high
stage Of development; and in the appn-
cation to it Of new and improved meth
DDS which American mechanical genius
has brought to bear upon every indus
try In which it emharks upon a large
scale. The inevitable result Is that this
country will become again not only one
of the leading maritime nations Of the
world. but one Of the foremost ship
building countries Of the world. The
supremacy Of the Clyde will disappear
with the active commencement of the
work of building up the merchant ma
rine.