The Press., 1917-12-20
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On the last Saturday in November

On the last Saturday in November an event of great military impor- tance occurred i'll Seattle. A ship was launched-a big $500 ton mer- chant ship--of standardized steel construction with speed of II knots an hour. It was finished just 7S days after the laying of the keel and was the first ship to be completed on a contract let by the government s Emergency Fleet Corporation.
 It-or she--is only one of, 64 ves- sells of exactly her size that are under contract. In comparison with the new U. s. s. Leviathan an $500 ton ship is small, yet some 450 freight cars must be emptied into her before she is loaded, and 45O freight cars can make a train about three miles and half long.
 In the preceding three weeks of November 13 other new ships were completed for the corporation. They ranged in size from 2.900 to 1O,475 tons. They were a few of the ships being built in American yards on private account that were comman- deered on August 4 for the govern ment.
 Altogether 426 ships have been communicated in order that work on them might be hastened. Of these B have been finished. They are full sized ships, averaging 7,80O tons.
 Most of the communicated ships are in an advanced stage of construc- tion. Scarcely day passes that does not see at least one of them added to the shipping resources of the allies.
 The first of the 375 wooden ships tracted for by the fleet corporation was only few days behind the first of the steel ships in taking the water.
 As soon as a ship is finished the fleet corporation turns it over to- the parent organization, the Shipping Board. The fleet corporation is sim ply the construction agency of the board. It does not build ships itself, but it draws up plans, lets contracts and watches and hastens construc- tion. When it has done it's work the board takes control of the completed ship. Many ships it turns over to the navy or to the army. Others go to the Italian and the French govern ments to transport much needed mu- nitions and supplies to their troops. Other ships still are intrusted to pri- vate shipping companies to be oper- ated by them under an arrangement assuring excess profits to the board.
 The $1,00O,00O,OO0 steel trust is no longer the biggest business. The Shipping Board is bigger. Congress has authorized it to spend $1, ,800,- 00O,OOO. The Pennsylvania railroad is worth less than half as much. Besides the 426 ships it has com mandeered, the board is building, through it's fleet corporation, S84 ships on it's own contracts. Of these 551 are of steel construction, 375 of wood and 5S composite.
 In the four months ending March l, 1918, the fleet corporation ex. poets to complete 1000, ,O0O tons of shipping. That is as great tonnage as the Hamburg-American Line pos. sessed the year before the war, and the Hamburg Line was the wonder of the shipping world. The total program of the corporation calls for 1 ,409 ships of a dead weight ton- mage of 8.363,80S, all to be com pleted by January 1, 1919.
 Eight Hamburg-American Lines, all built in the space of two years. That, with the work of the destroy CTS, is Uncle Sam's answer to the submarine challenge.