The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1901-10-25
Delayed Naval Construction in Private
Yards
From the Scientific Americana

DELAYED Naval Construction in Private
Yards
From the Scientific Americana
On perusal of the report of the naval
bureau Of construction, recently made
public, we note with much regret that
the private yards have, as yet, done no
work whatever upon six of the most
important vessels of our navy, although
the contracts for the same were let as
long ago as last winter. The six vessels
include the four battleships Virginia"
Nebraska" ''New jersey and "Rhode
Island" each of 1920 tons and 19
knots speed, and the two armored
cruisers South Dakota" and CalifOr
MA" of 1900 tons and % knots speed.
Moreover, one of the new battleships,
Georgia" of the same class as the
'Virginia," let at the same time, is In,
practically the same condition, only
one per cent of the work being done,
while of the armored cruisers Of the
same class as the two mentioned alb
owe, the Colorado" is only seven per
cent completed, the pennsylvania"
four per cent, the "West Virginia" and
the Maryland" one per cent. The
blame for this delay is certainly not to
be laid at the door of the construction
department, to whose credit it may be
said that its work in the preparation
of plans has always been far ahead in
expeditiousness of the contractors who
undertake to build the vessels. The
record of naval construction in private
yards during the past ten years has
shown very clearly that the govern
ment work is regarded, at least in some
of these yards, merely as a kind of
stop-gap to fill in the slack times be-
tween the execution of private orders.
1t is a notorious fact that warship
construction in the United States drags
out to a weary length, and that ships
are delivered in some cases years be-
hind the contract date for completion.
1t is neither expedient nor patriotic
that this should be the case. How can
the country be expected to vote the re-
quired appropriations for warship con-
struction when the builders give prac-
tical evidence that these apprOpri-
ations are made years in advance OF
the capacity of the private shipbuild-
ing yards to complete the vessels? In
the case of the ten important vessels
referred to above, at the present rate
of construction the types will have be-
come not little out of date before the
ships can be set af1oat.
This Indifference on the part of the
private shipbuilders to the interests OF
the country is a significant common
tary upon the fact that the bitter op-
position which has prevented the con
struction of warships in government
yards has found its source and support
chiefly in and around the shipbuilding
centers. The shameful state of things
shown in the construction departments
report should prove to the country
once for all, that the desire of our ma
val constructors to have some of our
warships built in the government yards
is prompted by the very best motives
Whatever may have been the case in
the sos and early COS, the most com
pletely equipped of our navy yards
particularly the New York yard at
Brooklyn, can now build just as cheap
" and certainly as well as the best of
the private yards, and there is nc
question that decision of the govern
ment to give some Of the future ships
to the navy yards would put a stop to
the inexcusable dilatoriness which
particularly of late years, has marked
the construction Of new ships for the
United States navy.