Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-01-30
j. s. CASH WASTED
At HOG G|SLANDSH|P
YARDS, EXPERTS SAY
Declare Plant On the Delaware
Will Cost 100 Per Cent Above
Estimate oe S21 100000
OUTLAWS FAR TOO HIGH
WASHINGTON. JAN. 80.

WAsHrSGTON, JAN. 30.
Investigation Of every phase If the
government contract with tho American
International Corporation for the con
struction Of the great shipyard az Hog
Island, near Philadelphia, 9nd Of seventy
fabricated steel ships there, was determIn-
ed upon late Yesterday by the Senate
commerce committee
The decision is the result OF state
ments made by General Manager Piez
of the Emergency Fleet Corporation and
others of incfficicncy and excessive cI-
penditurcs of government funds
The estimated cost of the Hog Island
yard was S2l .O00,o 900 l.zrr,s ot the
fleet corporation declared the actual cost
would be 100 per cent higher The gov
eminent is furnishing the funds under the
so-called agency contract. BY which the
contractor furnishes tho know how" as
Admiral Bowlcs explained, while the
feet corporation furnishes everything
else.
MAY MAKE s6.0OO,OO0
Ii had been declared at previous
hearing that the international Corpora
tion's commission on the ship contracts
would approximate S6,000,0O0
Senator johnson Of California asked
Carl Stern, counsel for the Shipping
Board, Yesterday, whether Frank A.
VanderIip, the W A. Hartman interests
and steel interests were not represented
in the International Corn, which was
organized last spring when the govern
ment shipping program was mapped out
Stern said he had only recently come INTO
the board and did not know details Of
the contract
Reports, requested by the committee
and submitted by Mir. Piez, have disclosed
startling conditions at the Hog Island
plant They declare that material was
ordered without regard 10 immediate
needs, that labor WAS engaged IN such
quantities as actually 10 hinder work
on the shipyard, and that the isolated
location of the plant made it difficult to
house workmen and transport supplies
promptly 1t further asserts that the
shipyard planned and undertaken was
entirely too large.
Revelations as to labor at the yard
are contained In a report of 5. NJ. Eel
ton, War Department engineer. Only
5 To 10 per cent of the men there were
busy, be asserted when he visited the
plant
NEVER SAW SUCH dizziness.
i should estimate that possibly be-
tween five and ten men out of every
gang of 100 congegated about the
plant were busy, said the FELTON, re-
port Il never saw such idleness IN
my life. Half OF the men we saw there
if properly organized would have done
more work than all the men / saw
The wages paid these workmen were
such, he declared, as TO demoralze the
neIghboring labor markets
The committee made further inquiry
into commission which, it is alleged,
Theodore f Ferris, who resigned last
week as chief designer for the feet cor
pora ton, was to receive on the price of
twelve ships, contracts for which the
Shipping Board let to the Clinchfeld
Navigation Co. of New J ork, Mr. Stone
said the fund represented by the alleged
commission would be held until it can be
determined to whom it rightfully belongs
The committee adjourned until Thurs
day, when ii will hear Maior-Gen
Goethals and Joseph Cotton, former chief
counsel for the feet corporation, in its
investigation OF the Hog Island yards