Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/162

140 of the way if I estimate the value of these plants at $300,000,000 in 1916 and at $310,000,000 in 1920.

According to a recent official statement of the Bureau of Navigation of the Department of Commerce, the total documented American merchant shipping on June 30, 1921, was 28,500 vessels of 18,350,000 gross tons, as compared with 28,184 vessels of 16,324,000 gross tons in 1920, and 26,444 vessels of 8,469,649 gross tons in 1916. Sea-going vessels of 500 gross tons or over numbered 3,723 of 13,234,401 gross tons, of which 238 of 1,271,079 gross tons are ocean passenger steamers. The U. S. Shipping Board owns 1,798 ships of 7,993,771 gross tons. The Great Lake tonnage aggregates 2,850 vessels of 2,625,000 gross tons and the remainder consists of sea-going vessels under 500 tons, river steamers and smaller miscellaneous craft. Vessels of 500 tons or over registered for foreign trade numbered 2,559 of 10,620,717 gross tons of which 2,272 were steamers aggregating 10,244,746 gross tons.

In 1916 ships were worth about $80 per gross ton. In 1918 and 1919 the value was about $200 per gross ton, and indeed costs and prices paid were even higher than that, but during 1920 the market fell to about $150 per gross ton. In 1921 there was a further and large decline. About the middle of the year an 8,000-ton ship was reported bought in London at $25 per ton. In August, 1921, tonnage was offered freely to the world’s buyers at $30 to $40, and sales as low as $18 to $20 were reported.

The tonnage of shipping constructed by the United States Government and the cost thereof is given in the