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42 trained staff of technical and me- chanical employes who are _ leaving the shipbuilding industry. These men he pointed out, once lost cannot be replaced except by years of training and experience. J. Harry Mull, presi:- dent of William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co. and also presi- dent of the Atlantic Coast Ship Builders association declared that the higher wage level is maintained by ‘the tariff and that shipbuilders can- not import the component parts of the ship but must use such component parts as are constructed here at a high cost maintained by the tariff. William Francis Gibbs, also appeared before the committee and said “I be- lieve that in this bill Senator Pepper has gone, and in a most practical way, to the root of the question of the American merchant marine problem. He has laid down in legislative form the fundamental principles on which this country is now operating. Ships cannot be built in the United States as cheaply as they can be built abroad. Practically everything that enters into the construction of a ship is affected by our tariff laws. These tariff laws were intended to protect MARINE REVIEW American industry and shipbuilding is and should be a natural American industry. I believe the Pepper bill will go far toward putting any American ships built under its provi- sion on a par with the cheaper ships of other nations.” Homer L. Ferguson pointed out that this is a bad time to be un- prepared with the United States possessing so much of the wealth of the world. He referred to the high tariff wall which the nation has built up but called attention to the fact that the shipping interests have not been able to get behind it. In closing he pointed out that there cannot be any preparedness without ships and without shipping and that this has been recognized in the history of every great country the world has ever seen. Rear Admiral D. W. Taylor spoke of the need for new and modern vessels to replace our obsolete ships and he especially emphasized the advantages of diesel propulsion and that a great amount of the world’s tonnage is now being fitted with this economical type of power. The de- velopment of the diesel engine has accellerated the obsolesence of vessels December, 1926 ro built during the war and which are usually referred to’ as first class. Three reasons were given by Clin- ton L. Bardo, vice president of the American Brown Boveri Electric Corp. why the shipbuilding industry cannot maintain itself on the present avail- able business, 1. Curtailment of con- struction in private yards for the navy; 2. Curtailment of building for coastwise trade due to surplus of shipping board tonnage; 3. Inability to replace shrinkage of tonnage re- ferred to because of higher cost of constructing ships here than abroad. James Swan, editor of the Marine Engi- neering and Shipping Age who has recently devoted much time to the study of shipbuilding costs abroad as compared with those in this country, said that the higher cost in this country is due directly to our pro- tective tariff which induces a higher standard of wages and imposes greater expense for the material that goes to make up the component parts of the ship, but that this tariff does not offer the same compensating advan- tages to shipbuilding that it does to other industries. Serious considera- tion should be given these opinions. Channel Steel Barges Are Economical - Thirty-five Completed or Under Construction YEAR ago the New York Cen- A tral railroad replaced a portion of its wooden fleet of deck barges with Ellis channel steel barges for use in New York harbor. After a thorough .tryout of these barges their generally satisfactory behavior and low maintenance cost caused the New York Central to place an addi- tional order for 10 barges. Others have also recognized the advantages of this type of construction. Shortly after the New York Cen- tral had placed their second order, the Raymond Concrete Pile Co. New York whose pile driving barges re- quire greater strength for a given weight than any other type of float- ing craft, ordered eight barges to be shipped, knocked down, for work on Lake Maracaibo in South America. Like the New York Central orders, these barges for South America were built by the Atlantic Works, Inc., at Boston. These barges shipped in large sections required only about 15 per cent of the total amount of riveting to be done at place of: final erection. The speed with which the Ellis chan- nel type of construction can be put together is shown by the fact that from the date of the signing of the contract to the date when the first COVERED BARGES OF THE ELLIS TYPE UNDER CONSTRUCTION AT THE ATLANTIC WORKS INC., FOR THE NEW YORK CENTRAL