President’s Tour Stumbles At Outset

President Clinton’s five-day, cross-country tour got off to a rocky start Monday after a deal to convert the Naval Shipyard to civilian use collapsed at the last minute.

Clinton had hoped to salute the takeover of the sprawling yard by a German company as a huge job saver, but the German shipbuilder pulled out three days ago.

“There can be light at the end of the tunnel,” Clinton told local officials and business and union leaders, expressing hope the project could be salvaged. Clinton said the federal government would stand by a pledge for $170 million in loan-guarantee money for the conversion.

The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard closed on Friday, putting 1,900 people out of work.

Clinton said converting the shipyard to civilian use was “an appropriate thing for our country to do … for the workers who have given their entire lives to this work.”

Philadelphia was the first stop on an eight-city trip primarily designed to pump money into Clinton’s re-election war chest.

At the first in a week of $1,000-a-plate fund-raisers, Clinton defended his stewardship of the job and presented a case for re-election, asserting to enthusiastic supporters, “Our best days are before us.”

Clinton - not expected to formally announce his candidacy until early next year - was also to visit Jacksonville, Fla., Pueblo, Colo., and San Diego.