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Show H I oo H BUILDING SHIPS BY H THIS COUNTRY. H , ' ' What the shipping board alms to ac- H complish by the organizing of the H corporation of which Gen. Goethals H 1 is the head is explained by the San H Francisco Chronicle: H I "The shipping board law, as It H stands, contemplates the enlistment of H private capital in the corporation, and H I ' sale or charter of all ships built to H ' private parties for operation. Obvious- H ly, private capital cannot be had for H ( the construction of hastily built wood- H en Bhips in such numbers, and at H i present costs. It may buy the ships H I at a sufficient discount at the end of H J .the war. Whether it will charter H I them during tie war will probably de- Hj pend on what investors think their chances will be of retaining any excess ex-cess profits if they get them. It may be that the world will return permanently perman-ently to the use of wooden ships. It certainly will unless there is a very material decrease in the price of steel. The cost of producing steel has greatly increased, of course, hut there is no increase in cost comparable with tho increase of price. So long as the profits were being made at the expense ex-pense of foreigners there was no great disposition to interfere with them. But since the prices have been extended ex-tended to all domestic uses and are such as to paralyze all American industries in-dustries requiring the use of metal, it may not be out of place to warn all our producers of metals that they will find it to their own Interest to take warning by what happened to the railroads as the result of extortion." oo |