Poverty Bay herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, AUG, 9, 1919. SHIPPING SUPREMACY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14983, 9 August 1919, Page 2

Poverty Bay herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, AUG, 9, 1919. SHIPPING SUPREMACY.

The returns supplied by Lloyds' Register, quoted m our cablegrams yesterday, show what a big bid America is making for supremacy of the' world's shipping. Her construction during the war period amounts to nearly seven million tons, and she owns 25 per cent of the world's tonnage, as compared with 34 per cent now owned by Britain. It is quite clear that henceforth the United States will be a close competitor with Britain not only m shipbuilding but m carrying. Last year's output of ships from American yards was as great as that of British yards before the war, and the shipbuilding plant is capable of much larger production. ' The United States has all the material needed for steel shipbuilding. American iron and steel manufacturers liave shown that they are able to compete with Ivhrope m most structural steel products. There is nothing intrinsically more difficult about building ships than about building bridges or skyscrapers or locomotives. The capital, the plant, and the skill are available. The Americans have done wonders m the construction of great State shipbuilding yards. The Hog Island shipyard has cost treble the amount of 21 million dollars,.that was estimated for its equipment, but it is mow. declared to be fully justifying expenditure. -The ; regular output at present is at least one ship a week, and for these ships the American . Government finds a ready market at ourremt prices. . From a disconsolate waste largely covered with underbrush and much of it apparently impassable marsh there has been created the greatest shipyard m the world, employing. 29,000 men. Mr «L W.'lsherwood, a British' authority on ship oonstructioni has declared that it, is a. most wonderful accomplishment, a greater revolution m shipbuilding organisation than is generally understood. "My own conclusion," he writes m the Liverpool Journal, of Commerce, "is that America will become our greatest and keenest competitor. All the facilities' which have been created < are "to- be devoted to competitive shipbuilding , on lines which will have a far-reaching effect upon the future shipping of the world. I saw everywhere evidence of pronounced competency, energy, and enterprise, coupled ■ with comniercial organisation for developing orders. Already, •as yards are relinquished from Government control, I found production costs coming down very rapidly. My own- impression is that m the' course of a few years shipbuilding competition and the rapid interchange, of products between . different nations and the general; speeding-up of industry will lead to jthe creation of mercantile marine fleets numerically beyond- anything which has ever been contemplated. Ocean highways will be- alive with thousands of freight and passenger carriers, where only hundreds exist to-day. It seems; to me that America' is out to gain a great supremacy m this direction. It is not at all an improbable thing that she will produce such a plentiful "supply of . ships as to revolutionise sea -carrying just as" her 'Fordear enterprise has achieved a similar result m another direction. America has, m my. opinidn, wisely and properly devoted herself . to . use the numerous shipbuilding potentialities .. which were established/ during :the war for commercial purposes. Her greatest 1 ally, m this direction lies with manual) workers^ That is the key-note to situation. The American shipyard workers - make j higher watr.es than the men m our yards I do. But they will produce ships quicker and cheaper. The reason is that high wages are based, upon a high level of production and efficiency, which* is an immense economic factor, while our shipbuilders — and. there ar 6 no greater or abler men m world — are stultified by "labor insisting upon a minimum of ; output and a • maximum of payment. . . . Those who predict that America will not win m the race for turning out m the next three years the tonnage that will be required because she ig paying lugber. wages are, m, my opinion, mistaken. .Those higher wages are being paid on , a•. basis of results, not only m ordinary manual, labor, but m the handling of labor-saving devices, and m this respect higher wages will .mean cheapness." It seoms that a similar experiment to that at Hog Tslanid', but on a . smaller scale, was tried by .'the British Government at Chepstow and Beachley. Here, according, to the shipping correspondent of the London Times, twelve ways were constructed and six keels laid at a cost i of four million pounds,, but at the end of .33 ;> months not ©_ye vessel had been launched. In t»«> race for shipping supremacy- , jfche United States trets a, fair starpny appropriat-. ing 700,000. t0ns of German ships which had been interned, m the ports of that country. That is more than all the other Allies obtain m this way: and a good deal of soreness has been created;-

by America's , greed m this matter.. When the United States was out of tlie war her ports were the most convenient and apparently the safest places - of refuge for German ships. These spoil, of war were acquired m time of peace. The ships were sent scuttling info' American ports by the British Navy, built and maintained at a cost of.jriajiy millions and guarding, the s eas 'for American a s well a s for British cop)merce. There are 90 such ships'" 6i v . 'a total tonnage "of 660,000. Americans shipping loss during the war wasISSJOJ--000 tons: ours was 7,700,000 tons. ..Y^t America, intends: to keep the lot—^-io scoop the pool." The President uneUous--ly announced that his country demafida no indemnity from Germany,' biit-.vfcn'e United States by this seizure of '§mp-. ping is actually receiving over tweh^y million pound's* of indemnity m . allies before other nations get anytjUiijg worth mentioning., Britain has • to -maiKe up most of her lost shipping by building new ships. The United St&te_Vh_ts her tonnage restored with a great\d6&l more. But the United States has,-siu a long way to go to create a mercantile navy like that of Great Britain.": : 'She has to find and train ' the ' m£n to-Vman • her ships, and also to find uprofjiaSle trades for the vessels. Undoubtedly, there will be a , very, r-great'^expan-sion of the American coastwise particularly between United ' St&t^M. South American ports, but to ifindvoecjk .nation for all their sHijps ■ > Arrifertcail . owners will require to go abi'dad/i.Md «ut into trade routes where ' ihfeVitfd Jack of Britain has hitherto been vpiid Idominant. From New Zealand's ataotlpoinfc shipping competition isto^bfr. jy>lcomed as it should surely giVe^che^fcer carriage for the produce of this -country and for such materials as it reqttifes to import- from abroad. .. The presettt freight charges on merchandise frtim Britain or America undoubtedly : ate; • a big factor m the high cost of living. There is no reason to fear th&t BHfcfsh shipping will be (driven from ; ; ourV'p^rfe by vessels flying, the Stars /rtnd.'Stri'^ejj; for the British shipowner m the'-pa^t has shown himself well able to v.hold liis own against foreign competition, and the huge amalgamations of British steamship lines that have^ recently • be"en effected have all been with a ,VieW iorf • meeting the new " : conditions. ' probability is when u ,things , settle do\fh it will be- '; found .thaj Britain 'and tlie United States rule • ihe ■' tfaves : m abo'vi.equal partnership and that' their shifts will be employed m furthering a vjnst trade development.