The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-08-30
ESTIMATES OF
$S5O,OOO,OOOFOR
DESTROYERS
Would Give United States
Greatest Flotilla of Fleet
Craft in the World
PLAN TO REACH NEW
LABOR CENTERS
Present Building Capacity
of Country In Already
Engaged
(By Associated PressO

1 10y ABSOCIhLGu HEGHh.J
Wilson has approved estimates Of the
| navy department for the expenditure
of an additional $3.50, 900. 900 for new
| destroyers to combat German sub
marines. The project will be laid be-
| fore congress Immediately by Score
| taFy Daniels. Provision will be sought
to expend $225,00O,000 of the total ap-
preparation on construction or pur-
chase and expansion OF engine and
shipbuilding plants to provide the
facilities needed. The present destroy
er building capacity of the country Is
| fully ngaged on contracts already
given. To reach new labor centers
where the skilled men can be found
to do the work quickly, It is indicated
| that the new engine building plants
proposed will be placed in the inter-
Tor of the country.
| A navy department statement an
nouncing the Presidents approval
THE general board OF the navy, the
chief of operations of the navy. and a
| special board on the submarine men
| ace, recently ordered to consider and
report upon the whole subject, are
agreed in believing that, at present.
the construction of maximum num-
Der of destroyers Is the most destr-
able material development for the
navy, and q vital military necessity,
and have so reported to Secretary
| Daniels.
arrangements have already been
made to accelerate to the utmost ex-
tent practical BILE the construction of
all destroyers under contract at the
beginning Of the war and ordered
since. The large orders for additional
destroyers under the naval emergency
fund in the last naval bill, and the
pending deficiency in this fund absorb
all the present facilities for destroyer
construction in the country, which
give promise of prompt delivery.
New Facilities Needed.
"In order to undertake with reason
able assurance of early completion,
the large number of additional de-
stroyers which the military situation
renders desirable, IL will be necessary
to provide entirely new facilities for
building the hulls and machinery and
their appurtenances. The navy de-
partment has been in conference with
various ship builders and machinery
builders of experience in destroyer
work, and is assured that II is phys
ically possible to provide these add
to locate those which are not neces-
sarily on the seaboard in the interior
of the country in order to facilitate
obtaining necessary labor, which Is In
scant supply in shipbuilding trades at
present.
Moreover, IL this project is under
taken, direct and prompt action is es-
sential, IL the desired results are TO
De obtained, and secretary Daniels
will urge early authorization and ap-
preparation by congress"
Strongest Destroyer Fleet.
The department has never made
public the number Of destroyers now
building or the additional numbers
contemplated in the new project. II
is known, however, that when vessels
now under construction have all been
completed, which will be during 1918,
the navy will have a destroyer force
comparable to that of any power
while the new project will give the
United States the strongest destroyer
hotflla in the world.
Navy designers have already work
ed out a standard type of destroyer
on which the quantity production ma
chinery proposed will be employed.
The new boats probably will not
differ materially from the latest
thirty-hve-knot oil burning type or
dered for the navy. The vessels will
be better than any now in commits
sion. They will be faster and more
seaworthy and give more room for
their crews. The new standardized
designs, itNis understood, include rec
concentrations as to equipment made
by Vice Admiral Sims and his officers,
ased on the actual experience of
American destroysrs In the North sea.