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vessels. It is true that we had some shipbuilders and we had some shipyards, but there are 
men who, like myself, put in the first years of practical work on the old battleship Texas, 
whose designs were purchased from British architects, and although they were fair designs, 
they are just about as good as the usual design, general in character, issued by a general de- 
signer, and the design sent to the shipyard and the ship built; and at that time, no public man 
in this country, from the President down, who settled this matter, but said what a shame it 
was that there should not be in the United States men who were just as competent to da 
this work as men in any other country. 
The art of shipbuilding, which had almost died, was revived by that and other means. 
Many men not in government service went abroad to acquire knowledge of the art, and 
great hordes of men were brought here, and are still here, Scotchmen, Englishmen and Irish- 
men, and formed in many cases the nucleus of a working force, and the art of shipbuild- 
ing was revived and millions were put into these great industries, because our o ysl: wanted 
a navy and we built a navy. 
At the end of the Great War we had in materials, in equipment, in men, in skill and in 
material resources, designed for the building of capital ships of war, facilities equal to the 
combined resources of probably the rest of the whole world, and we built at that time fifteen 
capital ships. 
A conference was called in Washington for reasons perfectly proper and good to the 
President of the United States, and as the result of that conference the United States scraps 
eleven capital ships on which it has spent nearly $300,000,000, and another great country 
pledges itself to follow us in this matter and to scrap as many capital ships as we have, 
and for ten years the art of warship building is to be left alone. 
The asset on which the trade was based was the ability of this country to do that thing, 
and in ten years, gentlemen, unless means are taken to replace the building of ships of war 
by other large ships—at the end of ten years, I say, the asset on which the trade was based 
will have been lost and the United States will be left powerless and advanceless upon the sea. 
You cannot tell us, who built ships and repaired ships during the war, that we do not 
represent a vital and national industry. We know that it is vital; we know it is more vital 
than any other single industry. We know that only with ships can we communicate, in time 
of war and in time of peace, with the other countries of the world; and so I deem it our duty, 
regardless of whether we may be accused of selfish motives or not, to see to this thing—to 
see that unless the United States keeps itself in position to keep alive the art of shipbuilding 
and ship designing and marine engineering, at the end of this holiday we will have a pros- 
pect before us of a longer holiday. 
I am getting to be one of the older men of the business now. It used to be, when we met 
at the functions of this Society, which was formed in 1893, I was one of the cadets. It is 
not unlikely that some of us who build ships feel, as a matter of fact, that we do not have to, 
that we can do something else (most of us did not make enough money out of the war to 
quit altogether, and I suppose that it is a fortunate thing for us we can do something else), 
but the art of the men who design and the men in our yards who have grown up with this great 
art is great, and I tell you that these men cannot be replaced. It took twenty or thirty years 
to make them competent to do their work. 
This long holiday reminds me of my old friend Judge John Locke in Newport News, 
who had before him a bootlegger a short time ago. This bootlegger used to be a riveter 
with us, and he was caught with the goods—not light wine or beer, either—and he was 
