INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. 71 



mendous changes which have taken place in world shipping and ship construction and world 

 trade during the last few years. The effect of those changes in shipbuilding and ship oper- 

 ating in the United States is obviously most important. 



It will, therefore, be worth our while to note briefly some of these changes. 



From data compiled from latest reports of the U. S. Commissioner of Navigation and 

 Lloyd's Register, it appears that: 



In 1914, the world's gross tonnage in vessels of 100 tons or more was approximately 

 49,000,000 tons. Of this, more than 42,000,000 tons was steel steam tonnage. In 1921, the 

 gross steel steam tonnage alone had increased to nearly 55,000,000 tons. Of the total world 

 ship tonnage of 49,000,000 tons in 1914, the United States had, in overseas trade, only 

 1,100,000 tons, while the gross United States steam tonnage engaged in overseas trade in 

 1921 was practically ten times the 1914 figrure. Of this enormous expansion of U. S. 

 ocean-going tonnage, approximately 8,000,000 tons were contributed by the Government of 

 the United States through its authorized agency, the United States Shipping Board Emer- 

 gency Fleet Corporation, and the cost of this additional tonnage, due largely to war con- 

 ditions, was virtually equal to that of the entire pre-war world tonnage. 



As opposed to the great increase in overseas tonnage, it is worthy of note that the in- 

 crease in U. S. tonnage engaged in domestic trade in the 7-year period from 1914 to 1921 

 was comparatively insignificant, being less than 5 per cent. 



It is also interesting to note that the total increase in world tonnage in the 7-year 

 period preceding and following 1914 was approximately 10,000,000 tons, the percentage 

 increase for the 7-year period 1907-1914 being really greater than that for the 7-year period 

 which included the war expansion. 



Nor were the increases in American trade in American bottoms less significant than 

 the increases in American overseas tonnage. 



The entries and clearances of U. S. vessels in North American trade had increased 

 from 26,000,000 tons in 1914 to 46,000,000 tons in 1921, while the trans-oceanic or overseas 

 trade had increased from 1,700,000 tons in 1914 to 22,000,000 tons in 1921. The corre- 

 sponding United States trade carried in foreign bottoms decreased from 31,000,000 tons of 

 entries and clearances in 1914 to 25,000,000 tons in 1921, while the overseas entries and 

 clearances of U. S. trade in foreign vessels decreased from 48,000,000 tons to 45,000,000 

 tons in the same period. We thus had, during the 7-year period, 1914 to 1921, a tremendous 

 increase in overseas entries and clearances in U. S. vessels, with a slight decrease for foreign 

 vessels, the net result being, of course, a very great increase in U. S. world trade. 



In further illustration of the great change which has taken place in recent years in 

 American steel steam tonnage, it is worthy of note that while the increase in this tonnage 

 for the period 1907-1914 was approximately 50 per cent, the increase for the following 7- 

 year period was nearly 300 per cent. Moreover, in 1914, the U. S. had less than 10 per 

 cent of the world's steel tonnage; it now has approximately 26 per cent of the total. 



When we note the variations in quantity of steel ship construction for the period in 

 question, the facts are even more startling. In 1915, the total tonnage of ocean-going steel 

 vessels of more than 1,000 tons gross register, constructed in the U. S., was approximately 

 112,000 tons. In 1920, this had increased to nearly 2,900,000 tons, or more than 2,500 per 

 cent. Now, however, building programs are nearly completed and the actual merchant ship 

 steel steam tonnage under construction, as reported by Lloyd's Register for the quarter end- 

 ing September 30, 1921, is approximately 420,000 tons for the United States and 4,550,000 

 for the rest ©f the world. 



