New-York tribune., 1918-03-02

Island?
1t is America at its best and at its
worst. 1t is America in its bigness and little in
It's llttleness. 1t is the American industrial
colossus stripped for war, stumbling and fun
bling, crrng and righting, toiling nightly,
accomplishing greatly and striving for the
most grandiose goal ever set in the annals
cf shipbuildng from Tyre to the Delaware.
1t IS America slandering, gossiping, fault
finding, belittlng, vilifying talking without
knowledge and judging without light. 1t is
America the great and America the petty.
To see in its truc proportions this stupen-
dous enterprise that is called Hog Island a
trlef review is necessary.
Early in the war it was made plain that if
the united States was to bring it's full shin
building potentialitv to bear some way must
be found to build ships with the aid OF steel
Industries that were adapted to building al
most anything in steel except ships If land
lubbers were to build ships in haste they
must build them with the tools at hand-with
land tools. SO we have the fabricated ship
plan, which means that hundred-ves a
thousand-pants that can't build ships but
can make parts proceed to make them using
lhelr regular processes, machinery and men
Inc parts are then brought to a central
polnt and assembled into ships In some de.
gree great OF little, almost all Of tho ship
building yards of America are assembly
plants but under the Shipping Boards scheme
the central idea has been carried to its u1ti
mate terms in practice in three great wards.
viz, that of the Submarine Boat Company at
Newark, that of the Merchants Shipbuildjng
nt T}ric nj
American International Shpbuildng Com
pany at Hog Island, just south of Philadol
pha
How Ships Are Paid For
These fabrication assembly yards are
built and managed by the respective comna-
MES as agents of the Emergency Fleet Cor
roratlon which is the legal entity through
which the Shipping Board conducts it's build
ing operations.
The contracts between the Fleet Corpora
ton and these three fabrication yards are al,
along the same general lines The comma
MES provide the sites and the government
provides all Of the funds required for build
ing the plants and the ships The compen-
sation Of the companies as agents. adminis
traitors and directors of the work is in the
form of a variable fee per ship, this fee being
based on estimated cost of each type Of
ship, the minimum being 81 900 on one and
$4,000 on the other The size Of the fee ha,
20 relation to the cost of the wards. The less
the ship costs and the shorter the time tho
larger the fee of the agent. The Submarine
Boat is building $50 5OOO-ton ships, the
Merchants sixty 9-000-ton ships, the Ameri-
can international fifty 7,5OO-ton ten-knot
boats and seventy S,000ton fifteen knot boats
though the original contract was drawn and
the nlant designed for the construction of
200 ships of 1900 tons. The American yard
Is by far the largest OF the three.
The American international Corporation is
great financial and industrial institution of
New York, which is engaged in magnificent
enterprise of carrying American finance COM
merce, shipping, manufacturing and engineer
ing to the four quarters Of the globe It is
IN a sense union Of the greatest financial
institution in America, the National CITY
Fank of New York, and the greatest cnrineer-
IL the great exponent of America in intcrna-
tional competition in finance and trade the
world around. 1t is financially interested in
the Grace Russian Company the Interna-
tonal Mercantile Marine Company. tho New
York Shipbulding Corporation. the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company, the Rosn and Tur-
pontlne Export Company, the Stems Carey
Railway and Canal Company, the United
Fruit Company, the United States Industrial
Alcohol Company and the United States Rub
Der Company. The American International