New Britain herald., 1917-06-08

NEW k1 |poration today and the final reckon
 ings made.
 Throwing Away Tonnage. The statements In which 1t was said in effect that General Goethals was throwing away 100000 or more tons of wooden ships which could be built without interfering with his steel ship program. was the direct outSrowth of tho address the general made in New York before the Iron and Steel Institute, when he characterized the wooden ships plan as hopeless" It l was made, 1t was said, without con- lsultation with Chairman William Denman of the shipping board or any other member of that board or of the executive council of the emergency fleet corporation.
 In fact, Chairman Denman, who has from time to time been reported at odds with General Goethals over the subject of wooden ships, asserted
 that he had no knowledge of the Eustice-Clark statements until they i correspondents. MT. Denman placed IC0POuSAUAlAty Y4OS LILO 6S6LesAAlSAL SAIe tirely on the men who issued them,. and responsibility for the shipbuilding programs, wooden and steel. on Gen., eraI Goethals. The latter. he said, had been invested with full and un- questioned powers when made gem
 eneral manager of the. emergency fleet
 corporation, and had not been hamp-
 cred and would not be hampered in
 any way by the shipping board. \ He did, however, renew his express
 sion of displeasure over the fact that
 General Goethals had attacked the
 wooden ship program at a public din-
 ner i'm New York. and indicated that a similar displeasure was now visited
 upon Messrs. Eustis and Clark. His
 only object, said MT. Denman. was to
 get the greatest number of ships
 built in as short a time as possible.
 That left tho controversy. for the time being, between General sGoethals and MT. Eustis and MT. Clark. It de- veloped that the final straw had beep statements made by General Goethals before congresa committees in which he said. the wooden ship program would be cut down to about 200 ships. and his reported. refusal this after noon to give consideration to offers made by firms which, MT. Clark said, were, among the biggest In the coun- try, for the construction of wooden ships on large scale. One of these firms was MacArthur Brothers cum-, pany, which offered tA build 100 wooden ships in twelve months and 200 in eighteen months. Mr. Clark said it was the firrn which did most of the construction work at the Worlds Fair in St. Louis. The presi- dent of the concern, 1t was said. had received little consideration from General Goethals, and finally had given up.
 Up to . late hour yesterday there had been a general feeling among tho1o on the, outside that the row over the SAipbuilding plan had been smoothGd over: that General Goethals was going to have his way unmolest- ed, ana that the steel ships would be the feature Of the program without further con4roversy. The house had acted favorably on the amendment to the Urgency Deficiency bill granting $76O,OO0, 900 for the immediate con- struction of ships. and while the bil: itself was held up because of other features 1t was felt that the ship program was in. a sense ae- tually under way. under . full head of steam at last.
 It was at this moment that Mr. 1 Eustis and MT. Clark notified the | newspaper offices and gave out the | stAtements. MT. Clark said later that I he had been very conservative in his | estimates of what could he done to | solve the submarine situation, and feed | tho Allies. He felt that many more l than 1000 wooden cargo ships of 3, 900 | tons could be built within eighteen months. He could not understand. | either. General Goethals' objection | to cost plus 10 per cent. basis or the l cost plus fec basis of payment, as the ! corporation had full power to inves- tigate all companies to which 1t let 1 contracts.
 My only purpose in doing what I ] have done."he said, ''is to get as | many ships anoat as possible at once | and win this war. think 1t can be | done and want to do everything II can to carry out my convictions. I l don't want by any chance to be too late, and fear that may be the case if. the wooden ship program on . large scale is dropped"
 MT. Clark's statemnt.
 MT. Clark's statement, which treat ed the situation generally, read:
 ''As far as we can learn. the pres ent program ~contemplates about B. 0o0,o00 tons of shipping in eighteen | This amount was sunk in