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C ping board proposes February, 1918 posing as experts who profess to believe that American shipbuilding output in 1918 cannot exceed 2,500,000 tons. These estimates, however, take no account of law of increasing re- turns which applies to shipbuilding as muchastoany other manufacturing proposition. In other words, the last million tons in the Fleet corporation's eight million-ton program will come a lot easier than the first. All concerned are agreed that the labor situation lies at the root of the problem. Given a satisfactory supply of labor almost any amount of shipping could be turned out in the United states in a year. There is no lack of steel. The ship-plate rolling ca- pacity of the country, which hereto- fore has represented the neck of the bottle as far as raw materials are concerned, is now sufficient for the construction of 14,000,000 deadweight tons of ships a year. Solving the Housing Problem Underlying the labor problem, and the extensive labor turnover which has made the solution of that problem difficult, is the housing Workmen have flocked to shipyards only to find there was no place to. live and no suitable environment for their families. passed on to other jobs. The ship- to ameliorate this situation by attacking the hous- ing problem vigorously and directly. It is understood that about $35,000,- 000 will be expended during the cur- rent year to provide housing facilities. for shipyard workers. With the housing problem out of the way, and fortunately it can be solved rapidly, the present excessive labor turnover, averaging 300 per cent, will be greatly reduced. The strike situation also appears to be slowly on the mend, Raymond B. Stevens, vice chairman of the shipping board, testified in the senate com- merce committee's investigation that since the United States went to war situation. ° As a result, they soon. THE MARINE REVIEW TONS Q z q n 2 ° = = a Wl a Q 2 2 = 1914 1915 39 1916 1917 1918 FIG. 1--DIAGRAM SHOWING SHIPBUILDING CAPACITY OF UNITED STATES IN TONS PER YEAR AT END OF EACH YEAR, 1914 TO 1918, INCLUSIVE our shipyards have lost a total of 936,992 working days by strikes and other labor disputes. This represents the work of approximately 20,000 men for a month. Deplorable as_ this record. is, 1t: is. now' inthe back- ground. The most serious center of disturbance, the north Pacific coast, seems to have quieted down to busi- ness. The, Great Lakes, which now has an annual shipbuilding capacity of 350,000 tons, has had no labor troubles at any time. The situation on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts also is quiet. Proceeding on Mr... Mc- Adoo's now famous principle that contented labor in the long run is the cheapest, the shipping board has encouraged the payment of liberal wages, with the result that riveters in some isolated cases are making as much as $90 per week. The wages of the workmen in American ship- yards today are exceedingly attractive. Although the extremely liberal wage policy which the board has adopted might .be subject to severe criticism under ordinary circumstances, it can Table II WORLD'S MERCHANT SHIPBUILDING FOR FOURTEEN YEARS An analysis of the shipbuilding of the United States, Great Britain, Germany and the world since 1905, including an estimate for 1918. Lloyd's official figures used up to 1916. . United States England Germany World tons tons tons tons 1905s ee a ee 302,827 1,623,168 255,423 2,514,922 1906 ee ee a ae 441,087 1,828,343 318,230 2,919,763 1007 eee a Ne 474,675 1,607,890 275,003 2,278,088 BOU8 i a pee es i a ewe 304,543 929,669 207,777. « 1,833,286 B08 ewe ee ee ee eae 209,604 991,066 128,696 7, 1,602,057 1OIO ee ee a ee 331,318 1,143,169 4595303. .4:-~ 1,957,853 ODay ee nee 171,569 1,803,844 255,532 "«i 2,650,140 OTe ee os ee es 284,223 1,738,514 375,317, 2,901,769 BOTS ee ae ee ee ee 276,448 45952-1535 465,226 3,332,882 TONG eo oe ae eee ee 200,762 1,683,553 387,192 2,852,753 DOYS ee a 177,460 650,919 50,000 1,201,638 OIG ae a eee eae es 500,000 1,000,000 10,000 2,000,000 ~ BO oe ee ee ce eee, 750,000. »:, 14 1,800,000 none 3,250,000... DOIG ee ee ee 3,500,000 3,000,000 none 7,500,000 be defended at present on the ground that tonnage is the main desideratum and cost for the time being a de- cidedly secondary consideration. In fact, it was the lack of a full appre- ciation of this: principle that led to the retirement of Admiral Capps from the head of the Emergency Fleet cor- > ' poration. Testimony presented by both Mr. Hurley and Mr. Stevens at the senate investigation indicates that there are now about 150,000 men actually én- gaged in shipbuilding in the United States. In addition, as Mr. Hurley points out, it must be borne in mind that all the shipbuilding effort is not confined to the shipyards. A _ very large proportion of the propelling machinery, winches, steering gears and other accessories are built in "manufacturing establishments through- cut the country and these concerns are contributing thousands of oper- atives to the shipbuilding program. Must Engage More Men With 150,000 men actually engaged in shipbuilding, the annual output is estimated at 2,250,000 deadweight tons, an output of 15 tons per man_ per year being considered satisfactory under modern American conditions. In order, therefore, to reach an out- put of 3,500,000 tons in 1918 approxi- mately 235,000 men must be engaged. This represents an increase in the present force of 56.7 per cent. The shipping board has perfected an organization especially for ob--- taining these men, and for training them after they are employed if nec- essary. It is known as the industrial service division and is operating un- der the direction of Meyer Bloom- field, formerly head of the labor de-