The Washington herald., 1915-12-05

The failure of private shipyards to bid
within the authorized appropriation fof
battleships has placed in the HANDS Oh
the advocates Of government YARDS
poverful leverage which will be used IN
an effort to enlarge most Of the govern
ment yards" says the Army and Navy
Journal. I'm this they will have the
support of Secretary Daniels Inc Sec
retary has made no secret OF MS aoSo-
cacv of the construction of the navy al
government plants. He has not given up
his idea for a government armor piaht'
and this project may be revived at 'he
approaching session, as well as the plans
for eouipping the Philadelphia. Norfolk
and the two coast yards for batieship
construction. 1t is possible that the New
York Navy Yard may be enlarged so
that two battleships can be built here.
This will be very unfortunate as
while it is admitted to be good policy
to construct part Of the battleships at
government yards. the government
should encourage private concerns to en-
gage in the manufacture of warships
and all other munitions of war. The
chief advantages 'of government plants
are combinations for charging the gov
ernment unreasonable prices. 1t would
be a better plan II some system could De
developed by which prices could be con-
trolIed and have all of the new work
built at private yards.
Cannot Divorce Politics.
BY developing the private concerns
this country could so into tie world s
market and furnish at least all Of the
South American countries with NUM-
tions of war. This would make it pos
sible to increase the facilities of the
country for producing munitions of war
beyond that of government plants. A
sound policy of national defense requires
that the capacity of war material pro-
ducing plants should be above the re-
uuirements of the times of peace. The
country should be independent of all
other countries in producing its war ma
teriaIs, and this condition cannot be OBJ
tanned through the limited sources OF
government plants.
Aside from this feature of the situa-
tion, the management of government
yards cannot be entirely divorced from
politics. A few yards would have only a
limited political influence in an election.
but If yards are built in all of the large
cities and the government arsenals are
enlarged along lines advanced by Repre-
sentative Tavenner. of Illinois. the en-
ployes of government munition factories
will be political influence which must
be reckoned with by Congress.
The Navy Department will then be
powerless to carry into effect an efficient
system of management which is objected
to by the employees. Gen. Crozier. chief
of ordnance has had an experience of
this character in his attempt to inaugu-
rate scientific management IN government
plants. LEGISLATION has beeh passed by
Congress through the influence OF labor
lobbyists which is intended to prevent
Gen. Crozier from re~arding efficient and
skilled mechanics 1t has not been
question of the rate of pay. as Gen.
Crozier has shown in his testimony that
under scientific management the employees
of the arsenals could make higher wages.
II seemed To be simply a case of labor
leaders refusing TO permit Gen. Crozier TO
manage the government plants on a
scientific basis.
With an increase of government plants
il would only be a matter of time until
the depa rtments would virtually lose con-
troll of the work of producing war ma