The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-01-07
nsHsnHuauauHn11sa Hs u .fn uH
The South to Be Prosperous Whether
Peace Prevails or War Continues

(From Manufacturers Record

fore. The yards of this country now
have under contract nearly 1000. 900
tons, or five or six times as much
merchant marine as was usually
under contract before the war. To
this shipbuilding activity we shall add
an enormous naval expansion, and no
plans for disarmament, however
beautiful in theory, will persuade this
country to cease building battleships
and cruisers and submarines until
ours ranks as one of the worlds great
navies. Into the building OF naval
vessels and the construction of naval
yards. this country will put $500, 0o0.-
600 or $500. 900. 600 a year for several
years TO come. The demand for mer-
chant vessels must continue for many
years. TO fill up the y9Cuum created
by war and to take care of the vast
expansion OF the worlds commercial
activities.
The South, except the Chesapeake
Bay shipyards, which have been busy
to the limit OF their capacity for a
year or more. was the last section
OF the country to feel the effect of
his shiphtiildine activity Now new
yards are being established at nearly
every port in the South. Some of
these yards are for the purpose OF
buiIhihk NbphtiI siilIS biII9r pbA piiS
by one they are turning to the build
ing of steel vessels 1t has been found
that steel ship material, even If this
section had to depend upon Pitts
burg. could be laid down at Southern
shipyards at a lower cost than to the
Yards of the Pacific Coast. and on
the Pacific Coast shipbuilding Is hav-
ing a wonderful boom. Already a
number OF Southern yards have taken
contracts for big steel steamers, some
Of them for Eastern buyers and some
for foreign shipowners.
The South. therefore, whether war
Or peace prevails. has started out for
a great shiphuilding activity, This ex-
pansion OF shipping in this country
and abroad will, to a very considerable
extent, take up the slack which Will
be created when the armies of Europe
cease to pour their food OF metal into
the trenches of the war-ridden conti-
nent
Railroad building has been at n
ssaUdstilf for some years, We built
las, year only a little over 500 miles.
or less than had been built in any
year since 1862 The expansion of
population and of trade in this coun-
try will literally compel a great rail-
road building period. Economic forces
greater than man-made laws wilt
bring about these conditions. And
these very economic forces. working
out like the mills OF the gods in grind
ing slowly but grinding exceedingly
fine. will compel the wiping OFF from
statute books laws which hamper rail-
road construction. Under ordinary
growth OF business interests. as meas
ured by progress of half century to
the panic of 1907, this country should
now he consuming fully as much iron
and steel as Il Is producing had there
been no European war to bring about
the tremendous demand from Europe.
There are few better posted author
itics on iron in the United States than
James II. Green, president OF Matthew
Addy & Co. a firm which for about
half century has been leading fac
tor in the handling of iron. Dis
cussiug the outlook for this industry
after the war. MIR. Green in a letter
issued TO his customers two weeks ago
said:
OF course this week there has been
a great deal OF serious thought as TO
what is going to happen when the war
is over. \ study or economic history
shows that invariably since the Napo-
leonic era. that is since the present
modern industrial conditions have