The Washington herald., 1917-11-28
BIC ship YARDS
FOR U. S. STEEL
Holland Says Corporation
Prepares in North and
South for Vest Industry.

When the keel VIZ lalQ a rev
days ago for q cargo ship Of 800
ton capacity at the newly establish
ed ship yard OF the United States
Meadows, near Newark, It was an
event OF such Importance that rep
resentatives of various large sub
sidiary corporations were present
to witness this first demonstration
of the great ship-building plans of
the steel corporation.
Several hundred miles away, on
the shores Of Mobile Bay, the steel
corporation was on the same day
occupied in establishing q very
large ship-building plant. and these
two. one in the vicinity of New York
and the other near the Gulf of Mex
leo. are to be regarded as Important
from several points OF view.
In the first place they tell i'm
pressively the story OF what COM
bination, cooperation and co-or-
dination mean. Fifteen or twenty
small ship-building plants could not
begin to turn out in q single year
vessels which would be within the
capacity of the steel corporations
plants to produce within q few
months.
Looking to Future.
For the Steel Corporation has. in
addition to abundance of capital,
many subsidiary corporations, each
one of which may be called upon.
on the instant, to furnish its pro-
portionate part in labor and in man
ufacture for the construction of
vessels Of all kinds.
Then again, 1t Is clear that the Steel
corporation Is beginning to build ves-
sells with an eye to the future as well
as to present-day emergencies oc-
casioned by the war. This can have
only one meaning and that Is that the
far-sighted managers Of the corpora
ton believe that after the war is end
ed our foreign commerce will be SO
greatly expanded as to make 1t vital
that abundant ships be furnished as
commerce bearers.
Furthermore, the managers Of the
corporation apparently contemplate a
greatly enlarged use of natural and
artificial water ways for the trans
portation Of commodities because It
is in contemplation to make steel
barges even of 1000 tons capacity of
the kind which are adapted for use
upon the canals or which may be tow
ed upon the Mississippi, the Ohio,
the Tennessee or other navigable riv-
ers.
On Haekensack Meadows.
Heretofore the Hackensack mea-
dows, so called, have been regarded as
practically worthless marsh lands
They stretch for miles from that part
OF New York harbor which runs
northerly from Staten, Island and
have. been of value only for limited
use as frefght-car yards. Many have
been the suggestions for the reclama-
tion OF these fat and water soaked
lands. Newark has had in mind the
improvement Of them with intent II
that were done, to establish manu-
featuring plants upon them. for navig-
able water bounds them, at least on
the West. But all the estimates of
the ensineers have been SO large as to
make the cost Of reclamation prohibt-
tive.
Now comes the United States Steel
Corporation and, with the same clear
vision which justified the establishing
or the great plant at Gary, which the
lower end Of Lake Michigan touches,
they have selected the Hackensack
meadows for what Is to be probably as
large a shipbuilding plant as any in
the United States and perhaps the
largest
The building OF ships was not orig
inally in the contemplation Of those
who organized the United States Steel
corporation or II these men had in
the back Of their heads any idea of
that kind excepting possibly the con-
struction Of lake navigating vessels
for the transportation OF ore from Du-
luth to the various furnaces, they
made no mention Of It. The exegen-
cies Of the war and the increasing de-
mands for ships furnished by the
United States In sufficient quantities
fayorably to effect the conduct Of the
war for the allies undoubtedly turned
the managers of the Steel Corporation
to ship construction.
At Mobile Bay.
Mobile Bay il perhaps better situ-
ated 50 far as convenience and re-
duced cost Of production Of ships are
concerned than are the Hackensack
meadows. for Mobile Is within con-
venient transportation distance of the
Tennessee Coal and Iron plant. In
that plant at Birmingham and its
vicinity the Steel Corporation has re-
Gently invested 81 10000 Of new capi-
tai for improvements and probably
would have invested many millions
more were not the suit brought by
the Department Of Justice at Wash
ington for the dissolution of the Steel
Corporation still pending. For it Is
surmised that IL the Supreme Court
should order a dissolution the Tennes-
see Coal and Iron Company would be
torn away from the control Of the
United states Steel Corporation.
The presumably great increase of
commerce between the United States
and South America, which will be
one of the results of the war, makes
Mobile Bay an especially favorable
point for the construction of ships.
other cities in the South, notably
Brunswick, Georgia, have admirable
waterway facilities for building
many ships rapidly. but when the
steel corporations works are under
way at Mobile the output Of this
plant will probably exceed that Of
any other Southern ship construc-
ton plant.
) The Steel Corporation must be es-
tablishing its Hackensack plant for
the future as well as for the pres
ent because the plant is to be so
constructed that in addition to ten
ways convenient for the construc-
tion of ordinary ships there are to
be two within which ocean-going