The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-01-02

FORCES AHEAD
Sign New Contracts Instead of
Dropping Work When Gov
ernment Cancelled
DOUBLE BRITISH CAPACITY
American Yards Produce More
and Better Vessels. Way for
Way, Than English Can
DOUBLE BRITISH CAPACITY

New York. Jan. 1.-"American ship
yards. instead of falling back as gov
ernment contracts are suspended, cam
celled or completed, are forging stead
lly ahead" says a statement just is
sued by the Atlantic Coast Shipbuild-
ers' association. Work for private
accounts is replacing that which was
being done for the shipping board
and although a number of orders for
American industries have been COM
pleted or withdrawn during the past
few weeks, the shipyards today are
building over a quarter of a million
gross tons more than they were
month ago and nearly half a million
tons more than in October The total
now under construction, exclusive of
all government work, is S05, 900 gross
tons, the equivalent of more than l.
100000 deadweight tons of sea going
vessels.
This steady advance is only one
of the encourag ging features in the de-
velopment of the American shipbuild-
ing industry. The shipbuilders them
selves. continue to show faith in the
future of the American merchant
marine by taking over contracts given
up by the shipping board and will
complete the partially constructed
a market for them. Conditions indi-
cate that they are Justified in the be-
lief that there will be continued de-
mand for American tonnage.
AS matters stand today, the Unit
ed States is the only nation in the
world in position to supply mer-
chant vessels quickly and in quantity.
The British shipyards are tied up
with orders for two years to come.
Other foreign countries are unable to
supply the home demand. and are
seeking tonnage elsewhere. There is
nowhere to place orders for prompt
delivery but in the United States, and
only the unfavorable position of the
exchange and the insistence upon long
term credits are keeping back a flood
of foreign orders. While American
tonnage prices are stIll only about ten
Per cent aDove the TSrftfsh on basis
of currency parity, the high value of
the dollar in comparison to the none
tary units OF other countries, due to
the abnormal exchange situation, tenn
porarily- imposes upon the buyer of
American products a handicap of
twenty per cent. As soon as the ex-
change begins to right itself however,
European shipowners are expected to
place contracts in this country.
''The factor of speedy delivery is a
powerful asset for American ship
yards. Leading British shipbuiIders
who have visited the principal plants
in the United States frankly admit
that the output here is at the rate
of two or three times that of the Brit ]
ish yards. This means that shipway
for shipway, this country can pro-
duce double to treble the tonnage that
Great Britain can. Furthermore, with /
the great rapidity of turnover, the
American shipbuilding industry is
getting so much more service out of
its plants that this factor will result
in a marked lessening of production
costs that will enable the United
States to meet England's prices, which
are at present lower because of cheap |
er labor.
That speed of production. due I
largely to the employment of more
modern methods and the greater use
of labor-saving devices than in Brit j
ain, has not 1essened the quality of
built ships, is plainly mani I
fest. Since the armistice, Lloyd's +
register of shipping, a British insti- +
tuition, has supervised the complete
of nearly six hundred
steel steamers in United States yards
and has rated every one of them 100 I
Al, the highest class given.