INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. XXXV 
For Secretary-Treasurer for the year 1917 :—Daniel H. Cox. 
All of which I trust you will approve. 
The next matter of business is the address by the president, which I will read to you. 
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the twenty-fourth annual meeting of 
The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and I appreciate highly the honor 
you have conferred upon me by again selecting me to be your president after a constitu- 
tional interim. 
PAST CONDITIONS. 
It does not seem twenty-four years since an ardent few started the organization of 
this Society, though at times, most of the time indeed, has it seemed that never would Amer- 
ican shipbuilding come into its own. We have seen moderate shipbuilding booms come to 
flourish for a short time and then wither to such proportions that shipbuilding establish- 
ments were fortunate to have the building of cars, water-wheels, water-works and other 
manufactures for the land and government navy work that they might live. 
We have seen, within half of the lifetime of our Society, at least half of our large ship- 
building companies in the hands of receivers or reorganization committees. We have also 
seen several yards starting with great promise but ending in disaster. Through these periods 
of alternate exaltation and depression, members of this Society have retained their faith 
that some day the requirements of their country would change these conditions, and that 
there would arise such a demand for an American merchant marine there would be no fal- 
tering in the future. 
It was not foreseen, however, that Europe would be almost entirely engaged in the 
fiercest war of history, bringing about unbelievable conditions, conditions with which our 
own government or citizens had nothing to do, for they are innocent of causing or partici- 
pating in the frightful destruction of life and property that at present appalls the world. 
These conditions have brought to us the long looked for opportunity to build up our own 
marine commerce as well as that of other neutral countries, and there is no reason for not 
availing ourselves to the utmost of this opportunity. 
STATISTICS. 
This address promises to be mainly one of statistics. Many sources have been ex- 
amined to determine the probable facts. It has been extremely difficult to obtain exact re- 
sults, but a careful consideration of all of the sources warrants the figures given here in 
round numbers, and these figures, though perhaps not exact in themselves, do present exist- 
ing conditions with sufficient accuracy to justify placing them on the record of your trans- 
actions. 
AVERAGE PRODUCTION OF SHIPYARDS. 
The year 1909 with a production of 1,602,057 tons represents low tide, and the year 
1913 with 3,332,882 tons the high tide, therefore the five-year period, 1910-1914 inclusive, 
fairly represents the average annual production of the shipyards of the world. This average 
was 2,740,000 tons gross. 
