WOODEN STEAMERS

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 106, 4 May 1917, Page 7

WOODEN STEAMERS

200,000 TONS A MONTH

AN AMERICAN PROPOSAL,

Mr. William Denman, chairman of the United States Shipping Board, told the New York Chamber of Commerce on sth April that the nation mrxs/c convince the German Government that our forests and machine shops can turn out merchant tonnage faster than the submarines can sink it. ■ At the business meeting of the Chamber, Major-General George W. Goethals was elected to honorary membership. Honorary guests were Michitaka Sugawara, a member of, the House of Peers of the Imperial Japanese Diet, and K. J. Imanishi, a banker of Tokio. They both spoke briefly, thanking the Cham- . ber for its' expressions' of good-will towards Japan. "Ninety per cent;- of the assistance which the country can render to the Allies in the war will be of a commercial nature," said, Mr. Denman. "It is in connection with the transportation of supplies to Europe that the United States must organise its energies'to help to win the war. For two months the Shipping Board has been' considering effective measures, and we have begun to organise our forces to the end ■ of supplying transportation tonnage for the Allies from a source which would not disturb the sources of steel shipbuilding and general steel construction. "We on the West Coast are familiar with the wooden ship which has plied* up and down our coasts for many years. In this emergency all- we could turn to were the forests, the wood worker, and the smaller boiler factories, and there lies the nucleus of a great fleet of wooden ships. " Under a proper organisation, with such a man as Mr. Goethale (who was in charge of the Panama Canal works) at the head of it, we could turn out wooden ships at the rate of 200,000 tons a month, without interfering with the steel trade of the country, and within seven or eight months from the time that construction started. These ships would be of about 3000 tons each., would have-, a speed of ten knots an hour in the peaceful sections of the Atlantic Ocean, and in the submarine zone could be speeded up to twelve knots. They will be equipped as oil burners. It is possible that we could have 800 or 1000 such vessels within fourteen or sixteen months' time. " Assuming a high rate of destruction on the part of the German submarines, if this fleet could convince the German Government that the construction of our steel and wooden shipyards could keep pace with such destruction, they would begin to fear that their ruthlessness in that particular line was useless. , We could supply these boats from Ist October of this year, and 'they would have a life of eighteen to thirty-five years, and could be made of green wood as fast as it could be cut. . ■ ■ " The Shipping Board feels that such a fleet would go far' towards convincing the Central Powers that it is useless to struggle against the Wrests and machineshops of this country. If we could do this we could write off the £10,000,000 or more that they would cost and consider it spent with profit. "We feel that the great drawback to all previous attempts at shipping legislation in Congress has been the lack of interest and knowledge of ttie Middle .West in the ocean. During the last two years great interest from western' Pennsylvania to eastern Montana has been" stimulated in., the shipping proi blem. We propose to call upon the men of semi-military colleges, in that I section, bring them to the coast, train them as gunners, and place them aboard this fleet of wooden vessels. If we can do that with 2000 or more men—bring them down to the sea, and set them afloat—we may be reasonably sure that they will never/ forget the importance of; the sea. , • . • "Until you have convinced the country that there is a. direct, connection between our problems on the sea and the man who sows wheat in the Middle West, you are not going to have anything but indifference on maritime questions. They don't see that it may be to the interest of carriers of other nations to divert their shipping, and to leave the wheat sower of the Middle West high and dry. It is not ships that make overseas commerce, but the men who own the ships." ; The Board planned, Mr. Denman 'said, to work in full "ccoi-d, with organised Labour. Union carpenters and other craftsmen , would,, be taken into the fullest confidence. -They would be given to understand "that this work is for their country. The proposition, he explained, would be laid before them squarely ; they would be furnished with the plans and then be privileged to work at wages of their own making. It would be the first time in the history of the United States, he said, . that union labour would be takeri into plans of defence as an organised body. Labour leaders of national importance had already assured their full co-operation, Mr. Denman said. The Chamber passed resolutions urging the Government to devise a method of co-operation .with those 'engaged in foreign trade and shipping whereby tonnage might be conserved in the interest of economic as well as military defence, and that necessary impressments be affected- with the least withI drawal of tonnage for the shortest. I period of time consistent with national J security..