DEATH PAYS A DIVIDEND Sika ashore the Maine Commision had expended in Beer eictespconjooo”. Andes cia Ge the pcjert cam be gained from the [it that "seven plete dct ac four camtbell dredges were asembled= Peasteg cncof ic largest concentrations of such equipment in Pe ees aie tran ott ype of equoicat sed inthe Contraction ofthe Panama Canal” ‘According to the A of L. report, the Higgins system of con encsion would raluce the manchour required in the construe eae ied fa the atting verses of 500,00 10 Bppeclor lan On thea of an average labour cost of 6 Feeley Herts the Corernmene would have Bea leeeeccls ce stipentlenst a quarter ofa GeaMMRORAaed each eel acuied” Ths, on the inital Ader clap sips the Gavemitnent would have saved more than gh tohave pail for the consruction ofthe shipyard. 1a com. Darien ih othe aHinjarth He Hligecs plane could “ave Saved nation $180,000 000 anally” ad “ne Higyin yard and he Katee yatd together could have produced the entre 1,000,000 tons of shipping ordered by President Roosevelt fo the Year 1oig. Ths evidence belts this committee cab: lished eonchsively that no shipyard in the country could have empl is est, ead ox ats ring vith the Hien But i was this very efciendy that alarined the “ol tise shipe bilder, who apparently eowaldered the threat of the Hive Pepa eee sted eto he as Cas Fortunately they had a good ian “onthe iside"--Mr. Joseph W, Powel ofthe Breau of Ship--who was ifelong fseed of Admiral Land and a former vicespresident of the intimnows Beilchem Shiptildig Corporation, Powel decor! ane vo new shipyard would be opened ipo financed by the United States Government and that no yards would be financed or con- srs sent thse ih ldo der the cnt a Fogement of existing shipbuilding companies”. He got to work on his fend the Admiral, who thereupon cancelled the “Higgins contract (giving as sean the “shortage of sec!" and | | | | distributed the order for 200 Liberty ships among the “old line” builders. ‘The Admiral’ tactics are worthy of note. First, the public relations department of the Maritime Commission was instructed 10 “soft pedal on Higgins, soft pedal on Kaiser, and build up Bethlehem Steel”. He then appointed a certain Mr. Ji L. Baker to have full power of approval and rejection over all Higgins activities and expenditures. Several weeks after the project was begun, Higgins followed Baker's recommendation that Brown & Root of Texas take charge of construction. “The performance of Brown & Root on other Government projects lind been satis- factory”, reported the ALP. of L. committee, Their performance now became so unsatisfactory, and so many delays and troubles 129 ensued, that Higgins finally cancelled the deal. Prior to “the apparently obstructive tactics of Brown & Root” the construc tion of the facilites had been “proceeding speedily and satis: factorily”. Admiral Land then began artificially to create a shortage of stel plates and informed Donald M. Nelson, of the War Production Board, that “Sif the Higgins contract were cancelled 58,000 tons ofsteel could be saved”. Land exazgerated, since the total required by Higgins was only 20,000 tons, but Nelion approved Land’s recommendation and the eomtract was cancelled. Later, Donald Nelson appeared before the AF. of L. com ‘mittee and succeeded in convineing its members that he was not simply passing the buck in accusing Admiral Land ofall responsi bility for the cancellation, "Mr, Nelson stated positively that he would not have given his approval to cancellation . . . if all the facts as he knew them when he appeared before this committee . . . had been known to him at the time of Admiral Land’s request for approval. Mr, Nelson was, without doubt, misled into giving is approval. . . . Factual misrepresentations and conceal ‘ment of material facts were resorted to by Admiral Land in his fucorfilatiempt to get Donald M. Nelion to approve the cancellation,”