New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-08-12
Emergency Fleet Official
Denies Transport Building
Was Retarded
Wigs Figures Disputed
Hulls Declared To Be Turned
Out as Fast rs Needed
Machinery Is Ready


ager Of the Emergency Fleet Corpor-
alton of the United States Shipping
Board, to-day issued statement defin-
ing the attitude Of the board regarding
concrete ship construction. The state
ment was evoked by an article pub
Hshcd in The Tribune last Thursday,
which was also replied to by the inter
view with Charles M. Schwab, director
general Of the Emergency Fleet Cor
poration, in to-day's Tribune.
Mr.. Piez takes practically the same
ground as Mr.. Schwab. The statement
deals with the suggested programme Of
14o ways. capable of turning out 400
to $50 ships within a year, which was
the published recommendation of r. J.
Wig, chief Of the Shipping Boards
concrete department, to Chairman Hur
ley April last, after many months
of study of the question. The question
OF equipment was considered at that
time and it was stated by an officer OF
the Shipping Board that in addition to
the wooden and steel ships programme
power equipment could be provided
during 1918 for four or five hundred
concrete ships.
Piez Explains Stand
"A statement has recently appeared
crtcising the concrete shipbuilding
policy of the United States Shipping
Board Emergency Fleet Corporation"
MIR. Piez said. "This statement is so
far from representing the actual facts
that, unless corrected, it may lead to
wholly wrong conclusions ON the part
of the public.
"That statement seems to be based
on the conception that there is
wholly untouched reservoir of both
raw materials and labor, which can be
used without burdening transportation
facilities and without imparing, in any
possible respect, the output of either
steel or wooden ships now under con-
tract. The statement is also predicat-
ed on the rather general, but wholly
erroneous, notion that ship is simply
a hull, losing sight of the fact that
the equipment of 7,500-ton concrete
cargo carrier is exactly the same as
the equipment Of 7,500-ton steel car
rier. The statement also fails to rec
| ognze that because of the limitations
in our power and ship equipment pro-
measured by the number Of vessels we
can equip, rather than by the number
OF bulls that we can launch.
More Equipment Needed
Facilities for the production Of power
equipment, deck equipment and other
ship equipment have steadily been add
ed to, and the production is constantly
increasing, but even to-day the hull
producing capacity of the country in
steel and wood ships is in excess of
what may be termed the power and
equipmet producing capacity for fitting
out these ships. The mere addition Of
t1t~ !
author suggests, from 400 to 45o con-
crete hulls, aggregating over 100000
tons, would, even if that construction
programme were possible Of execution.
add not single ship to our fleet. AS
a carrier the steel ship is admittedly
from Is to 20 per cent more effective
than q wooden or concrete ship of Sim
liar tonnage.
"The Emergency Fleet Corporation
has, therefore, been wise in concen-
trating its efforts OH the construction
OF steel tonnage and treating the wood
and concrete ships as purely emer-
gency agencies.
Output Is Increasing
"The Fleet Corporation is at present
building all the wooden ships that the
resources of raw and finished material
necessary Will permit. Its programme
Of steel ship construction is likewise
planned up to the limit of the steel,
machinery and equipment possibilities.
The output of steel ships and of
wooden ships is constantly increasing,
~ put we have not yet reached anything
like the possibilities of output in steel
construction. The output of steel
! plates and shapes of our rolling mills
is still considerably greater than the
! needs of steel shipbulding at it's pres
ent rate of production, and Mr..
Schwab's concern. in securing proper
distribution Of the available steel sup
ply, Is not that the steel output may
not meet our present needs, but that it
may, not meet the greatly expanded
bringing the subject up in time 80 that
steps may be taken to increase the
steel producing capacity in conformity
with the plans of steel shin construc
ton.
"The statement dwells on the bound
less possibilities OF the concrete ship.
and intimates that it is wholly the
product of unskilled workers-workers.
we presume, that could find no place in
either existing steel or wooden shin
yards. The writer loses sight OF the
fact that only go per cent Of the total
labor is connected with the hull con
struction and that fully 40 per cent
of the total labor input is connected
with the installation of machinery and
equipment, The labor connected with
the installation is the most highly
skilled and most difficult to secure.
and on this account any considerable
expansion OF the concrete shipbuilding
programme would interfere immedi.
ately and substantially with the pro
gramme OF ship construction now I'M
der way
"The author Of the statement is prob-
bly, unaware Of the fact that both the
material and labor resources of tho
country are being taxed to their utmost
by the wars demands; that there is no
great available reservoir Of even the
kind of labor that he thinks could hs
used in constructing concrete shins
and that any expansion of the shin,
building programme. by adding a new
type OF character Of vessel IS made
! tracts. WI
"The board of trustees If +ka r,..