The herald., 1919-03-20
WANTS NAVY YARD HERE
To RECEIVE MORE
ATTENTION
New Orleans business Men Think
Possibilities Are Overlooked.

Believing the New Orleans Navy
Yard despite its capacity for employ
ing about 1000 men in shops, fOUndries,
on the ways and aboard the floating
drydOck, is being neglected by the
Navy Department, New Orleans buSl-
ness men as represented in the navy
yard committee, of the Board OF Trade,
are determined to press home TO navy
officials the advantages to be derived
from full use of the facilities at Al
gieTs.
w. p. Ross, chairman of the navy
yard committee of the Board of Trade,
on this subject. said:
/ The executive committee of the
joint conference of New Orleans En-
changes has steadily been endeayoring
| to increase the Importance of the New
Orleans Naval Station, but has not
scored much recent success. Our
senators and congressman under
stand the Importance to New Orleans
of this work but have doubtless been
handicapped by other matters of i'm
pCrtance and by the fact that the
navy authorities do not seem to
think the station as important as the
other stations and yards.
1t is hoped that now. with the war
over, and a readjustment of conditions
coming, our senators and congress
men will be able TO secure added
work and equipment, which will in
crease the yards Importance. The
executive committee watches these
matters and neadeavors to secure as
favorable treatment as practical"
Bigger Payroll Wanted.
1t was also pointed out that a mat
ter of even more Importance than the
authorization of work and equipment
is the granting Of an adequate weekly
payroll appropriation to enable the
yard to work at capacity on jobs now
authorized and to use to the fullest
extent the large amount of equipment
it now possesses.
With machine shops, brass and iron
foundries, forge shops and the like
; capable Of turning out the full mate
rail and equipment for a warship Of
&, type as big as the gunboat, and with
new power plant approaching COM
pletion the yards need is believed by
t Orleanians to be Navy Department
5 sympathy and interest. 1t was learn
< ed Friday that although the yard
: could give employment to 2000 men.
. it had at most only about 1850 during
. the war period, and has now been re-
duced to the employment of about
S 1900.
o Recently completed in the machine
i shop is the engine for large tug
o which has already been launched, the
K hull also having been built at Algiers.
o Another tug of the same type is on
q the ways and another engine under
construction. Eight 110-foot submarine
4 chasers have been built at the yard
: during the war. The last of these is
now nearing completion on the ways.
Among work authorized, but not yet
, begun are five wooden coal barges of
$50 tons each and two seaplane der
: ricks.
The New Orleans yard must in
, crease rapidly in Importance, as the
government-owned merchant vessels
of the Shipping Board increase in
: number. was the opinion expressed by
Samuel A. Trufant, a member of the
Board of Trade committee. Mr.. Tru-
f., FAINT declared that steadily increasing
need for repairing, refitting and over
, hauling government vessels operating
in the gulf will come with this ex-
pansion and that New Orleans with
the excellent facilities of her navy
yard is the place for this work to be
done.
, Yard Important Here.
A point generally emphasized is
that the navy yard holds a place in
. the citys industrial life exactly equal
to that of any other industry employ
ing like number of men. If 200 men
! are employed, it means an addition of
! that many families to New Orleans,
= in all probability 5000 or 5000 men,
9 women and children. With this goes
the business connected with the pur-
4 chase of supplies, materials, and the
. like. Also important in any considera-
! ton of the navy yard is the 600-foot
> floating drydock, the second largest
of its sort in the world, the only one
larger being in the Philippine Islands.
- Vessels at the navy yard this week
; include the New Orleans, a mammoth
- dredger, belonging to the Engineer
=, Corps, L. S. A, which has just left
70 drydock; the Dolphin, flagship of
~ Rear Admiral E. A. Anderson. who is
: ill at the Naval Hospital; the Ozark,
II submarine mothership, which has
= been operating in the gulf, and the
b" gunboats Castine and Wheeling, the
=. latter a craft long famous in the old
!, navy. The tanker George Henry, re-
- Gently back from submarine ex-
periences in the war zone, is also at
= the yard, as are several smaller craft.
- New construction recently compIet-
=, ed at the navy yard includes $4,000
H. paint shop, large shell house, wash
!, houses for laborers, equipped with
~ shower baths and individual lockers
:. and the Hostess House, in connection
T., with the receiving ship, which was
y dedicated a week ago.
Wall, Olivier Wattigny, James Scott