At Dumbarton, I once carefully went over the books of Messrs. Wm. Denny & Brothers, a member of whose firm, Mr. James Denny, now furnishes me with some statistics. It was found that to build the Parthia, a Cunard steamship of 3,000 tons, 162,500 days' labor was required; I mean with the materials already prepared.
Now, although the figures given in the tables below ought to be convincing at a glance, it is easy for any one with an ordinary knowledge of arithmetic, to make a close calculation of the labor difference in cost of British and American steamships of the same quality. I do not deny that a teakettle may be cheaply rivetted together anywhere.
Naturally, in this line of argument, I shall be met by the oft-repeated question: "Do you then advocate the reduction of the wages of our mechanics to the level of 'pauper labor'
in Scotland?" By no means but while explicitly in favor of such free trade in general as will make a dollar go as far in the United States as four shillings now go in Great Britain, I maintain that in the particular industry of ship owning, so long as the necessity for higher wages is imposed upon us, we ought to avail ourselves of any labor, "pauper" or otherwise, by which steamships are built, because other nations are so doing and are prosecuting for their manifest advantage this vastly more important business upon the ocean, which we are forbidden to engage in, because we cannot build ships. The homely illustration at the close of the parable on the concluding page, is certainly applicable. We are not allowed to whittle, because we cannot make jack-knives.
On the other hand, my friend Mr. Roach will, if he is not engaged for the moment in asking for subsidies for the very reasons I have just adduced, most confidently assert that, on account of the superiority of his machinery, and the energy of his workmen, attained by "breathing the pure air of liberty," he can overcome all the difference in wages, that he has already done so, and that he "can now build steamships cheaper and better than they can be built upon the Clyde."
Mr. Denny sends the following memorandum under date of February 5th, 1878:
"Prices of steamers of various sizes similar to those at present employed in the Atlantic passenger trade.
| 1st, | 2,000 | gross tons, | speed on trial, | 13 | knots, | cost | £44,000 |
| 2d, | 3,000 | " | " | 13¾ | " | " | 62,000 |
| 3d, | 4,000 | " | " | 14¾ | " | " | 96,000 |
| 4th, | 5,000 | " | " | 16 | " | " | 147,500 |
The whole of these prices include the builders' profit, which has been put down at the usual one we expect for our work.