Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-16
By
J.

ling or cargo. Ihree OLD d~eSIrOySrs.
the Truxton, the Worden, and the
Whipple, which were retired some time
ago. have been rebuilt as merchant
ships and now ply in the fruit trade
between the United States and tropi-
| cal America. Many Of the destroyers
are fast, il-burning ships and are
easily susceptible of conversion into
passenger or cargo ships.
A modern battiesnip costs 100000
600 or more, as junk it brings not
more than one one-hundredth part of
that sum. The battleship Maine was
bid in as junk for $4,000. There are
not many persons or companies who
are in the market for second hand
battleships and the buyer must regard
as part Of the price he pays the enorm-
| Gus cost of the %wrecking. While the
seller of the second hand Citing
ships gets little in proportion to ORR
ginal cost, the ultimate cost to the
junkman is many times what he pays
for the complete vessel. Almost as
many men are required to take a ship
apart as to put one together.
American Navy are being strapped
junk is to be handled in such a way
that many people will ride in auto
mobiles, sail in ships, use electrical
appliances and use tools which form
erly constituted parts of the great
ships.
Other Junking Enterprises
1t is the greatest and most specta-
cular junking enterprise which has
others. The government bought a
tremendous quantity of material of
ali sorts and built many buildings
especially for war use. Many of these
are all being strapped. In every big
city in the country can be found i'm
portant evidences of this vast industry
which so much stimulated by the war.
Washington is a typical example. A
business man purchased or leased a
portion of Camp Meigs, the temporary
army camp where the war garrison of
Washington was quartered. Using the
camp site as a junk yard. he proceed
ed to scrap the camp buildings as well
as many other temporary buildings
erected in Washington in the emery
ency of war. In such deals, the pur-
chaser at second hand of a building
takes everything in it,-lumber, bricks,
all other materials which go to make
up a house. This results in the ac-
emulation of stock for a sort of de-
partment store of the building trade.
Builders can find in such yards almost
anything in the way Of material for
any sort of a building.
This industry is thriving in many
cities, especially those near which
great army camps were located during
the war. The process of reducing to
workable material and selling TO the
public for peaceful purposes the ships.
buildings and many other objects used
is going on constantly and will con-
tinue for some years before all the
war material will be absorbed. Many
people will be using. unconsciously, in
automobile. house, knife and fork at
table. or almost any other conceivable
object, some souvenir.
The process of destruction and Junk
ing goes on always but is a~ccentuated
by war because then it is accelerated.
John Stuart Mill. the eminent English
economist, pointed out that every five
years practically the whole tangible
wealth of a nation is destroyed. More
buildings are torn down every month,
in peaceful processes of Improvement,
in many American cities, than were
shelled down at the siege of Antwerp.
Last years wheat crop is totally de-
stroyed. Nearly all of last years cot
tor is consum ed or soon will be. The
destruction of war is more spectacular
and therefore regarded as more disas-
trous. but in an economic sense. the
loss is not greatly different from the
ordinary peace-time destruction deli
berately undertaken as a measure of
progress.