Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 168, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1917 — PRESIDENT WILSON SETTLES SHIP ROW [ARTICLE]

PRESIDENT WILSON SETTLES SHIP ROW

President Takes Hand in Dispute ‘ Between Denman and Goethals. VESSELS NOW BEING BUILT Both Wooden and Steel Ships Will Be Constructed for Merchant Marine to Carry Food and Supplies Across the Water. By EDWARD B. CLARK. Washington. —President Wilson has taken a hand in the controversy which has raged hotly for some time over the question as to whether steel ships or wooden ships should be built to give us a merchant marine which can carry food and supplies quickly across the water. Both steel ships and wooden ships will be constructed. Washington officials say that what the administration, and doubtless the American people with it, have desired, Is that ships shall be built as quickly as possible. Major General Goethals, who was put in charge of the shipping program, and William Denman, admiralty lawyer, who is the head of the shipping board, differed in opinion as. to whether steel or wooden ships should be built, and the controversy became so furious that the president had to take a hand. Now both steel and wooden ships are in the first stages of construction, and probably by next January many of the wooden ships will be carrying cargoes to Great Britain. France and Italy. It is no secret in Washington that the administration for a long time was pretty close to the point of anger over this row between the soldier and the admiralty lawyer. There are certain things which make it appear that in administration circles there is a feeling that the wooden ship program, as a quick-moving proposition, has appealed strongly to the president, but

it was certain he would not attempt to decide the moot question or to issue any order or to suggest that any one man “stand from under” until he knew definitely by word of mouth what General Goethals had to say, as he already had learned after the same manner what William Denman had to say. Facts Difficult to Ascertain. Washington, generally speaking, has been inclined to take sides in this shipbuilding controversy in accordance with its personal sympathies with the one man or the other man who are the chief parties thereto. The trouble in arriving at a decision concerning the merits of the case has been that few of the officials and few of the prominent nonofflclals know very much about the factors in the problems. No one has been able to find out definitely, apparently, just exactly how long it is going to take to build the ships, and how much more quickly the wooden ships can be made ready for service.

It was said at the outset of the row that the construction of wooden ships could not be begun until the timber for their building had been “seasoned by time.” Now comes the statement that the timber does not have to be seasoned by time, and that if any seasoning is necessary, it can be done by a kiln-drying process, which takes only a few hours dr days at the most. Argument of Wooden Ship Men. ♦ There has been insistence by the partisans of the wooden ship plan that it makes little or no difference whether the vessels will last a long time or not, and it is urged thati General Goethals in making the short life of the wooden vessels a factor In the controversy has weakened his case. The argument of the wooden ship men is that if vessels can be built and made staunch enough to last for 15 years, the fact should all-suffi-cient factor in the solution of the problem. It is urged also that it makes little difference, considering the critical conditions of commerce, whether the steel ship will last longer than a wooden ship or not, because the main point is to get something that will carry cargoes during the continuance of the war and to get something ready in short order. It is held by the wooden ship men that it is better for the government to lose a little money eventually on its ships than to lose the war. So far as the matter of the price of the steel is concerned, it would seem that General Goethals has been improperly blamed for his SBS-a-ton pronouncement. He fixed that, so it is said, merely .as a maximum price. In truth, he has no authority to fix prices at all, and did not do so, and it is understood that under existing regulations the government will be allowed to determine the price matter in its own behalf when it is discovered just what the profits or the lack of profits are to be. When Mr. Daniels made his contract for steel for the battleships, a low price was fixed, but It was understood that it was for the occasion only and was not to stand as a precedent. Unquestionably Mr. Denman scored a point when he contrasted the $56 price with the $95 price. A full understanding of the matter, General Goethals’ friends say, will prove that he was yielding nothing to the steel makers, and that despite his mention of the high price he knew that the government would be safeguarded against anything that looked like extortion.