The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-11

gerated, but it is not an empty one They
 are turning out three complete subma-
 rlnes week. They have attained that | output by standardizing the type of un- | derwater vessel, and employing immense
 resources in this one direction. All over the German empire standardized parts
 are being made just as MT Ford con
 structs his motor cars, and then the va | rious parts-sections of hulls the oil i burning engines, the electric batteries,
 the guns and mountings, the torpedo | tubes and torpedoes-are assembled and rapidly put together.
 Tt would be suicidal to Ignore this l movement in Germany, or to assume that the admiralty however brilliant the officers put to study the problem, will at once find an antidote to the new long distance submarine, and that the
 government and the nation need do nothing. Let us go forward with our
 eyes open to the facts.
 German submarines can travel sub
 merged at 8 speed of eight to ten knots for matter of about IS hours. What does that mean? It means that a sub
 marine, cruising on the surface, may be
 seen at certain point, and can then i dive, and-its pursuers not knowing it's course-it can travel 100 to 15o miles at anything from 20 feet to 100 feet below
 the water, and then come to the surface
 to carry on It's depredations recharging
 it's batteries at leisure, probably by night
 That Is very different problem from the one. with which the navy dealt earlier in the war, when small short distance submarines were being employed, and combated with large measure of suc- cess.
 We are confronted with an urgent problem, because if-as the enemy hopes our merchant tonnage falls below the subsistence level, all our efforts will be in vain. We cannot fight without mer- chant ships, and If it be realized In time that that is the fundamental fact we can disappoint the enemy's most modest hopes-if they have any which are mod- est.
 Tt Is unnecessary to stress the obliga- ton resting on everyone of going with out luxuries of all kinds, because that truth is being generally enforced just now It Is patriotic duty. not merely because ships are required for the abso- lute necessaries of life, but because the money Is needed to pay for the war
 There is something else, however, quite as urgent The first claim on the skilled labor of the country must be for ship building In the last year of peace, 1913, we built the following vessels:
 Merchant vessels, 1,9532. 153 tons gross; warships. 4s, 271,S76 tons displacement
 These figures supply an index to what our shipyards and engineering establish ments can do in normal conditions There was no special pressure on the workmen The trade union rules, limit ing output were still in force, as they are not today, at any rate, to the same extent.
 Yet, in that year we completed, in addition to 49 men-o'-war, nearly 100000 tons of merchant tonnage. What is the moral to be drawn from those factors? It lies on the surface We possess fa- cilities for making good. under war pres- sure. the losses of the merchant navy IT the necessary labor is provided, and provided at once. There Is no time to lose.
 The first essential, if we are to achieve vlctory-as we must and can-is to pro- vide every man necessary to use our un- paralleled resources for building, engin- Ing. arning and equipping merchant men, At any cost the skilled workers Wno are now In the army must be got back to their tasks. These men are worth the'- weight in gold at home: they cannot be replaced in the shipyards and engine shops by substitutes. because 1t taxes years to make a filter, a ship wright, or other mechanic Substitutes can be found at the front, but they are unootainable for work at home in solving the great war problem
 If under peace conditions we could build nearly 100000 gross tons of mer- chant shipping, in addition to 49 war shlps, under the impulse of war we should be able, in the absence of trade union re- strictions, and with the advantage of the enthusiasm of the workers, to turn out Ln1S year even a IarQer aYnorpt