The Washington times., 1936-02-06
ECONOMY SEEN
IFU. 5. BUILDS
OWN SHIPS
International News Service
The United States Government

International news service
The United States Government
can save millions Of dollars an
nually building its own ships and
making some Of its other imple-
ments of war, with an initial ex-
pendtture of less than $50, ,00O! 600.
the Senate Munitions Committee
was told today.
Interstate Commerce Commits
sion Engineers Charles Spencer
and F. w. Amadon testified, pre-
senting the result Of months OF
study determining comparative
costs of Government and prt-
vately built boats and munitions.
The reports presented con-
templated an annual building pro
gram Of four major ships, 10 de-
Stroyers and three submarines.
The engineers said that careful
survey had revealed that plenty
of space was available in existing
navy yards for nOClerniEations
and equipment additions neces-
Sary.
Sl5,OOO,00O Saving Seen
In the Shipbuilding phases Of
the report. Spencer pointed out
that against an average cost Of
$14,994, ,667 for boats in the New
York Shipbuilding yards, which
he termed cheap" for private
yards, the Government with
proper equipment could build the
boats at an average Of $14y06S ,2O4,
or a saving of $909, ,463 per ship.
With a program of II boats a
year, this alone would produce q
saving of about Is million dollars,
he said.
The cost of undermining Navy
ShipyardS to a point where they
could handle the Government
business, said the experts. would
be about "a million dollars.
Estimating equipment costs to
reproduce the existing private ia
cilitieS for the manufacture Of
small arms and machine guns,
the experts gave a figure Of
SIS, ,686, ,585, with material savings
in manufacture assured when the
government plan was in operation.
Going into the airplane engine
manufacturing field, the I: C. C.
engineers estimated that the Gov
ernment could reproduce the three
plants of the Pratt-Whitney Air
craft Corporation, the Chance
Coughy Company and the United
Aircrafts, for about $9,751,716.
For powder manufacture, the
experts declared the great DUPONT
plant, plus an acid plant-the
duPontS buy acid from a subsid
iary-would cost only $2,409, 100.
Basis of Figures
All these figures were based on
reproduction of existing plants,
less certain depreciation estimates.
Spencer and Amadon said the
Government savings would come
from the difference between costs
of manufacture IN private plants
and profit. He said these savings
would still be effected in spite of
the fact that overhead IN Govern
ment plants must necessarily run
higher than in the private plants,
due to higher pay for workmen,
longer leave, and other regula-
! tionS.
Included in the theoretical pro
gram for equipping the Navy ship
yards to build American boats was
a full moderniZation program. For
the approximately $24, 4,OO0, 600 es-
innate, the experts planned addi.
tional shipbuilding ways, repairs
to existing ways, additional facih-
ties, new tools and miscellaneous
items that would necessarily have
to be included.
Going into the details Of the
theoretical ship program, the ex-
pertS promised a fleet of 325 war
ships within 81 years, which they
called a "state of equilibrium"
with enough ships constantly on
the ways to maintain the status.