The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-09

New York, July -(Specal.)-William E. Corey, president of the Midvale Steel and Ordnance company, sent. few days ago, a brief communication relating to ship building to the editor of the Manu' lecturers Record of Baltimore.
 Mr Corey is regarded here as so high and expert an authority upon the manu- facture of steel and the uses to which it may be put to commercial advantage, that the few words in which he ex- pressed an opinion respecting the use ot steel for the construction of ships, have caused considerable comment in this city. He was emphatic in his statement that it is of the utmost importance that wooden ships for ocean transporta- ton should be in the water at the earli- est possible moment. He is persuaded that we should build ships of steel, but he gives preference to wooden vessels for reason which appears to him to be unanswerable. That reason he says.
 
 steel the world can produce is urgently required for purposes that will permit no substitutes. The scarcity of steel is one of the endorsements which both the government and domestic industry find exceedingly difficult to overcome, whereas, on the other hand, there Is an unlimited supply of wood.
 of statement respecting scarcity of steel which is due to the unprecedented de- mand for it is furnished by the report, not yet officially confirmed, that the United States Steel corporation Is like ly soon to report a falling off in un- filled orders perhaps as much as 500,- 600 tons. Three years ago, when the steel company was compelled to report a falling off of thrilled orders that con- dition was due to exactly the reverse of the condition which now will in all probability compel the company to re- port a falling off in orders. Then, the demand for steel was at the lowest ebb since the steel company was organized. The ablest men of finance as well as all of the influential men of affairs pointed to the reports which showed heavy falling off in thrilled orders with the steel company in the year 1914 as indisputable evidence that prosperity in the United States was numb.
 Now, the falling off in thrilled orders is due to prosperity so great that the steel company cannot accept orders. Its management is preparing to meet the very great demands which the govern ment will make for steel and necessari- ly must sidetrack or defer orders for steel which come from American manu- facturers.
 At the time when MT. Corey sent this brief communication to the Manufactur- CTS Record the government at Washing ton was in negotiation with the manu- facturers of lumber, both in the south and on the Pacific coast Our entrance into the war and the imperative demand that ships, as many as possible and as speedily as possible, be built so that these could make good the ravages of the German submarines, changed almost in the twinkling of an eye the lumber business in the United States For some years prior to 1914 the lumber manu- facturers, especially in the northwest, were in despair. Ernest H. Wands, for merly confidential agent of the state de- partment at Washington, made an ex- haustive investigation into lumber and timber conditions in the northwest He found that in the state of Washington