INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. xxix 



Expressed in another form, the increased capacity of oiir shipyards is even more im- 

 pressive. The actual average monthly output of steel seagoing vessels for the first eight 

 months of the year 1919 was nearly 300,000 gross tons, and the actual average monthly 

 output for the last four months of this period was more than 350,000 gross tons. For the 

 same period the average monthly total output of seagoing vessels was more than 400,000 

 tons, or at the rate of nearly 5,000,000 tons per annum. 



Comparing these monthly averages with the world's pre-war five-year annual average 

 of about 2,300,000 gross tons shows in another very explicit manner the tremendous recent 

 expansion of shipbuilding facilities and output of ships in the United States. 



The causes and purposes of this tremendous development are well known to you. It 

 is quite unnecessary to enumerate or tO' dilate upon them. America, in its tremendous effort 

 to do its share in the winning of the Great War, permitted no obstacle to interfere with the 

 fulfilment of its promises. This extraordinary development in the shipbuilding industry has 

 not been accomplished, however, without difficulty, and there has been temporary disloca- 

 tion of other activities in our industrial world. The difficulties and the dislocation were, 

 however, unavoidable, in large part, having in view the tremendous operations, of many 

 and varied character, being conducted simultaneously. Results were the goals aimed at. 

 Methods often were necessarily assigned a subordinate place. Nor has the signing of an 

 armistice more than twelve months ago very greatly lessened the strain upon many of those 

 who have been responsible for the vast undertakings in which the United States engaged 

 during the World War. As a matter of fact the return to normal conditions can only be 

 satisfactorily accomplished through the earnest effort and heartiest cooperation of all those 

 directly concerned. 



The condition so greatly desired several years ago, however, has arrived. As a nation, 

 we have the facilities for the most extensive building of ships. As a nation, we have the 

 most extraordinary opportunities for the operation of those ships. A consummation de- 

 voutly tO' be wished is that this capacity to produce and opportunity to operate ships may 

 be so assisted by wise legislation that the employment of our shipping in meeting the many 

 and complex problems of trans-oceanic transportation — so vitally important to the national 

 interest and welfare — may be undertaken and continued under laws which will produce the 

 best possible results. 



The foregoing is only a brief and inadequate presentation of some salient facts con- 

 cerning the expansion oi a great national industry whose life is inextricably linked with the 

 well-being of this Society. These facts, moreover, relate largely to material accomplish- 

 ment. 



While it is to be hoped that in producing quantity, quality has not seriously suffered, ex- 

 perience in such matters is our best guide. Tremendous expansion of personnel — artisan, 

 managerial, designing — during the past few years has necessarily made severe demands on 

 the small initial supply of such personnel. The expansion which has taken place has been 

 more than sevenfold, and it would be quite too much to expect that in such a tremendous 

 development the standard of quality could always be maintained. 



It is believed that the years of readjustment now before us present great opportunir 

 ties to those engaged in shipbuilding and ship operating. 



In this period of readjustment of business and professional life, character of perform- 

 ance will be, in the final analysis, the measure of our success. As with the individual, so 

 with professional and business life, high character ultimately compels success, and quality 

 under normal conditions will be given inevitably the precedence to which it is entitled. 



