New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-04
Lod geDennannds
Airing of ord
SEa's!,l e' Contract
49,
Cites Charge of Iron Trade
That Need less Boats
Will Cost S5O,OOO,0 900
Article Read Into Record
Estimate of Cost of Each
Submarine Chaser Is
Advanced to $685. 900
NeW York Tribune
IFGsIjn0ton Bureau

Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3.-"Millions
of dollars-fifty at the very least-is
the price the navy is going to pay for
refusing to confess publicly the failure
of Henry Fords Eagle boat programme
and abandon it,
This charge is included in an article
from the Daily Iron Trade read into
the Congressional Record to-day by SEN
ator Henry Cabot Lodge, who intro
duced q resolution calling for an in
vestigation of the whole situation by
the Senate Naval Affairs Committee.
Following is the resolution:
"Resolvcd. That the Committee on
Naval Affairs be and is hereby di-
rected to make an inve stigation of
the so-called Eagle boats, Of the CON
tracts made for the said boats with
the Ford Motor Company, and of the
character and truction Of such
boats.'
Following, in part, is the material
inserted in the Record by Senator
LODGE
"1he cost of the Eagle boats orig
inally was placed at $275,0Oo, or $3.50 a
ton, without guns. The estimate cost
row is 100000, or $500 ton. The
cost of ordnance comes to $4,000 q
boat.
$4,000 Profit on Each Bond
Under the contract agreement the
Ford Motor Company is to be paid 500
coo over the actual cost, if the cost of
the hull and machinery exceeds $275,-
coo. twenty-five per cent of any say
ing under S275, 600 is to be paid IN ad-
dition to the $4,000. The contract
reads: The contractors shall use
every endcavor to deliver the first Of
said vessels within five months from
the date Of this contract, March 1,
1918; ten boats within one month
thereafter, twenty boats within the
next following month and twenty-five
boats NORTH thcreafter.'
The article then comments on the
statement of Henry Ford that he would
not accept cent of profit out of his
war contracts. 1t continues:
millions Of dollars-fifty at the very
least-is the price the navy is going to
Fay for refusing to confess publicly
the failure Of Henry Ford's Eagle boat
programme and abandon it.
with the signing of the armistice
and the informing of the encmy's
boats in British and Italian harbors.
the primary objective Of these $3.50
600 20O-foot steel craft being built by
Ford has been attained For patrol and
gunboat duty IN peace time they are
next to impossible by reason of their
excessive. maintenance and operating
charges. In fact, high officials of the.
Navy Department themselves have adj
mltted that they will not be needed 'un-
I'll the next war;
Only 10 Per Cent Deduction
But the only concession the navv
has made so far, and the only one it
fatty declares it will make, has been to
pare the programme from sixty Eagles
to forty. On the face of it this is 4
generous deduction Of 40 per cent.
put, considering that the turbines,
boilers and auXiliaries for the entire
one hundred have been built and
practically all of the plates rolled and
punched, the apparent deduction of
40 per cent shrinks TO bare 10
ana the $33 100000 the navy is to nav
Tor submarine chasers in peace TING is
only the start
. Had the late candidate for the
senate llveu up to his contract. ninety
thfee Eagles would have been com
rleVeu ahdyIn commission by December
- e''Si VI ldci, exactly seven
mad been completed by that date-throe
BENG IN New London, Conn, and four
somewhere between Detroit and New
London--ard OF these seven six were
fnshcd to thc coast leaking and gcner-
ally incomplete to get them out before
me freeze (of Lake Eric.
Millions is the only financial term
INTO which the Eagle boats can he
lfanslated: Originally estimated to cost
only Sz'o,o00 or thereabouts, this figure
no" has been increased to $500 900. On
top of this comes $4,000 each for
armament and $4,000 for Henry Ford's
profit. .
Total Cost Is s532, 900
THUS the items Of profit, cost CT hull
and machinery and The outlay for ord
nance mount up TO $532,G
The changes that will have to he
made on the Atlantic coast before the
boats are really ready for service win
easily bring the total up to $3.50 900, it
IS estimated. The sixty thus will stand
the Navy Department S33.OOO,00O.
Bound to pay the Ford Motor Com
pany actual cost plus 10 per cent on all
material and equipment already WORKED
up and completed for the forty can
celied Eagles, the navy faces another
item which will run up into $4,000, 900
or Sl5,0O0,OOO, it is believed. Main
tenance Of machinery alone will stand
me navy $4,000 year an Eagle. In
addition IS the payroll of the crews of
seven officers and sixty-cight men"
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