Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-12-22 | Page 3 | Makes Charge over Hog Island

--MAKES CHARGE OVER HOpND Former Shipping Board Chairman Seeks to Clear Position. SAX FRAXCTSCO, Dec. : I. William , Penman, former chairman of the United States Phlpptng board, telegraphed today to Senator Fletcher, chairman of the senate sen-ate committee, a statement charging responsibility re-sponsibility for the Hog Island shipyard contracts to Major General George W. Ooelhals, former adminisi rator of the shipping program. Mr. Denman paid thai in virw of tho senate's proposed investigation inves-tigation of the Hog Island conn-arts and delays,' he wished to make his own position po-sition clear in matters on which he and General Goethala disagreed. The statement deais iin part with the controversy hetwoen the two former officials of-ficials over the wooden ship program, which was advocated lv Mr. Penman, and then takes up tho, delay in con-y con-y strut-lion work on the Hog Island plant. J This delay, the statement asserts, was r - due to the failure of General Goothals to present, figures to the shipping board on the cost, of the plant. After an eight days' effort by Mr. Denman to obtain ilit'so ficures from the general, both officials of-ficials resigned t ncir positions; on the shipping hoard. "General GoethaJa ouched to mo for the character and the constructive ability abil-ity of the pentjemen of the American International In-ternational corporation and its allied associates, as-sociates, with whom he had been nego-tiat nego-tiat ing for two months," the statement says. "He insisted that we should accept their f Igures on ship construction without with-out giving to the shipping board estimates esti-mates on which they were based. He a.ked us to allow them a compensation ponrly double that finally atrreed upon by AdiniraJ Oapps. He asked us to build tho plant, which has cost over fifty-five million dollars, on the privately owned l:uid of the American International corporation. cor-poration. He asked us to give to the corporation an option on the government pl:mt. The attorney general's recent findings seem to justify our eipht days' deli titrations a-nd refusal of such a bli nd acquiescence In the undisclosed contractors' contrac-tors' figures. "In the entire period of the war," the statement continues, "General Goethals'a llo? Inland schome has not produced a ylnslo vessel, while the wooden material , which 1 sugestui usiug as an emer gency supplement to steel hns given to the nation over one-half of the new war tonnage, other than requisitionc-l vessels contracted by the Emergency I-lcet corporation."