The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-22
PROPHECIES ERA OF FLIvvE:R IDEA
 BUILDING SHIPS {
Marine Expert Foresees th Day of Standard
 Vessels.

What Henry Ford has done with automobiles we have to do with ships. We can do it and we will do it.
 This is the future shipbuilding in the United States as seen by Ather- ton .Brownell, editor of the Navy and Merchant Marine" a technical Jour nal dealing with shipping affairs.
 MT. Brownell believes that the standardized freight ship Is the unit for the measurement of commercial sea power, and he says that we are equipped to turn out standardized steel ships in this country more rap idly and fully as cIleaply as any country in the world.
 The wooden standard ship suggest ed by the Federal Shippin Board, Ed itor Brownell says, is all right as an emergency measure. There is no req son why wooden ships should not be built; but he believes 1t would be a grave error to let the building or wooden ships close the eyes of Am erican business men to the need for standardized steel freight carriers as a permanent dependence when peace comes.
 Bridge Building Copied
 "All of us can remember when the American shipping mans reproach of English ships was that they were built by the mile and cut off by the foot,'' he said, discussing the plan for standardized ships. "This was be- cause there was a certain sameneso about the appearance Of English ships. We complained that they lacked individuality
 "In point of fact, nothing like stan dardization was approached in Bri- tish shipbuilding. But we are rapid ly approaching it in this country Our ships are going to be built by the mile and cut off by the >oot because that is the logical way to build ships.
 '"The American Bridge Company has for years built bridges in standard sections that could be put together anywhere. It has now begun build ing ships in the same way-in stand ard sections. They build the parts inland, and if you want ship they send. the parts to tidewater and as- semble then1-and thege's your ship 'The Sun Shipbui1ding Company, of Philadelphia, has designed a stan dardized freight carrier and is start ing to build that type of ship. A new S10,000,000 firm with the same idea is going to work in Philadelphia. An other $15,000,O00 shipbuilding com pany has been organized in this city for the purpose of building standard. ized ships.
 t'Every man with vision and under. standing of the needs of word ship ping must come inevitably to the standardized ship idea. The, ,Lusitan- ias and Vaterlands have individuality and all the rest of it, but they are nc the backbone of ocean trade. Seventy per cent. of sea-bprne commerce is carried in freight ships, and the ob vious idea is to build them as cheap. i 1y and efficiently as possible. "That is why I say that Henry For6 has shown the way in the shipping business as we'll as in the automobile business. His principles are just as valuable in the one business as the 1 other.
 Saves Money for Owners When you settle upon. standard design of ship and make up you1 mind to stick to that one design, yor can then organize your whole busf ness on permanent basis and grad. ually take up all the slack. You know ] just what you are going to do and you know that you are going to do it over and over again in exactly the same way.
 "All the parts, all the accessories all the equipment--everyt is without variation. No changes in per sonnel, in machinery, in patterns, il tools, are necessary. Instead of eacI new ships being a new problem, eacI new ship Is a matter of routine. And afterNit has left your hand. this wonderful saving in time ant money makes itself felt for the own CT as much as for he builder. IT. knews what his crews, fuel and sup plies will cost anw how much o1 everything he will have to have. Ht can fortelNwith reasonable surety jus what it will cost him to operate {: pew ship before she goes into tn. I water.
 1 "A breakdown of any part of the r2achinery need not worry him mucH r ere than break town worries m. owner of q Ford car. The latter ca, stop at the first garage and get { duplicate part. Similarly with ship standardized; every repair yard an, every port will have on hand dupIi cate part. And the delay that some times runs into weeks and month will be cut down todays.
 This is so plainly elemental com
 mon sense throughout that you don 1 nave to pose as a prophet to predic the standardized ship. The only won
 der is that 1t did not arrive long ago.