Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-15

deed, high, for the design calls for size
and speed beyond anything ever before
demanded. Now, it so happens that
the costs run beyond the amount actu-
ally appropriated by Congress on the
basis of the cost estimates made a
year ago by the Navy department.
FINDING this to be SO, and because
shipbuilderS could not alter the mex
orable cost facts and reduce their bids
to point within the early estimates
of the Navy department, the prices are
called 'eXorbitant'; the Secretary of
the Navy writes u letter to the chair
man of the House Committee on Naval
Affairs, scoring the shipbuilders, and
Congress is asked to appropriate s12,-
000,0 900 with which to equip the gov
ernment navy yards to build these
ships.
'This request is made without any
assurance whatever that the govern
ment can build these ships any more
cheaply than the private shipbuild-
ers."
President Grace continued that the
Bethlehem policy is to prepare for
peace rather than increase it's ord
nance-making facilities. He mention
ed the construction program planned
by the company involving an expendi-
ture of 00,000-probably the
largest of it's kind ever undertaken by
a single industrial corporation.
In conclusion he said: But the ne
cessity to prepare for peace brings
problems as great as the problem of
preparation for war
Here are some facts underlying a
problem which makes us at Bethle-
hem do a lot of thinking:
I'm 1915 we employed $4,000 men;
now we have some 10000 men on our
payrolls.
Business More Than Trebled
"In 1915 our total payroll was $22,-
500, 900; in 1917 it is at the rate of
$72,000,000 a year, or $6,000,000 a
month.
THE average earnings of each
wage Garner were a little over $500 in
1915, whereas our figures for 1916
show average earnings of nearly
81 200 per man, an increase OF more
than 80 per cent.
When the war is over and this
country is confronted with world COM
petition, what is the effect on this in
dustrial situation to be? What prep
arations are we making to protect our
own markets, let alone to capture
world markets?
Listen to what Lloyd George, the
British Prime Minister, said about
England's preparations in speech in
London on Thursday of this week:
Before the war we had good
our commerce, our industry. The war
is settling them all right in the most
marvellous way. Old machinery is
scrapped; the newest the best and tho
latest is set up. Slipshod and waste
full methods are scrapped, and ham
pering customs are discontinued. Mil
lions are brought into the labor mar
ket to help to produce who were be-
fore purely consumers. The resources
of the nation in every direction have
been developed and directed; the ma
ton itself disciplined, raced up, quick
ened, has become a more alert people.
THAT sort of thing is going to take
place all over Europe. while we, in
our fancied security, are taking few
steps to take care of either our indus
tries or our workingmen."
Among those present were: Sena-
tor Edward E. Beidleman, Speaker OF
the House Richard j. Baldwin, Quincy
Bent, general manager of the Steelton
plant of the Bethlehem Company; At
torney General Francis Skunk Brown;
Senator William E. Crow, ]. III. Cross
man, Jr, b. Dawson Coleman, State
Treasurer-elect Harmon Kephart.
Leonard II. Kinnard, United States
Senator Philander G. Knox, William s.
Lieb, Lieutenant Governor Frank b.
McClain, United States Senator Boies
Penrose and ]. Leonard Replogle.