cut down to 71-1/2 hours. The average yardage was, for
the earlier period, 152 an hour, of actual excavation; and for the
later period, 445 an hour--an increase of almost 200 per cent. The
situation had been met.

This was the period when the cost of labor and material began to jump.
Employers were bidding against each other for men, and the government's
work practically fixed the price of supplies.

George M. Wells, consulting engineer, in his report of December 9,
1918, to the Dock Board, summarized labor increases over the scale when
the work was begun, as follows: Unskilled labor, 54%; pile driver men,
40%; machinists, 40%; blacksmiths, 40%; foremen and monthly, 15 to
40%--an average increase of 40%. Materials had advanced, he went on to
show, as follows: Gravel, 72%; sand, 25%; cement, 10%; lumber (form),
70%; timber, 40%; piles, untreated, 40%; piles, treated, 25%. These
increases, together with the expansion of the plans requiring a canal
of maximum depth, instead of the pilot cut of fifteen feet, as
originally planned; the insistence of the Levee Board that levees in
the back areas must be raised to elevation 30; development of
unforeseen and unforeseeable quicksand conditions in the various
excavations; requirements of railroads for bridges of greater capacity
and strength than needed; building of a power line to the Foundation
Company's plant--not a Dock Board job, but one that the conditions
required it should finance then; and other expenses, besides delaying
the work, made another bond issue necessary to finish the job.

At its meeting of February 26, 1919, President Thompson laid the matter
before the board. It decided to issue $6,000,000 of bonds, for which
the same syndicate of bankers that had taken the other two offered 96.
Liberty bonds were then selling at a big discount, and this seemed the
best terms on which the money could be secured.

This gave a total issue of $12,000,000 to date, the interest on which
amounted to $600,000 a year. The Levee Board raised its share of the
"rental" to $550,000, to guarantee the interest; the Public Belt
Railroad's $50,000 made the total complete.

In the meantime ships were beginning to bulk large on the ways of the
Foundation and the Doullut & Williams yards. The Foundation company
launched its first, the Gauchy--a 4,200-ton non-sinkable steel ship,
built for the French government--in September, 1919; and the Doullut &
Williams company launched its first, th