The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-29
6,0O0,000 TONS OF SHIPS MUST
 BE BUILT HERE
U-Boat Ravages Most Vit- al Fact" in Situation,
 England Warns.

London, Sept. 29-British shipping losses since the beginning of the un- restricted submarine campaign last February now approximate the total losses before that period, according to a statement authorized by the Con- troller of Shipping yesterday. The statement indicated 1t was reasonable to expect Germany to destroy by next spring 200 vessels more than could be built in the meantime.
 The Controller of Shipping author ized the Associated Press to make the following statement of the shipping situation and the urgent need for the United States to undertake mer- chant shipbui1dfng program on a broad scale:
 ''It is of the utmost importance that the United States should realize that the shortage of shipping is the most vital fact in the present situation and the building of merchant ships is of the utmost importance.
 ''The question the United States must face is whether, on the basis of the shipbuilding preparations she is now making, it will be possible for her to send any substantial force to France next spring without such drain on the worlds shipping as will subtract just as much from the fight ing strength of the other Allies as her own forces will add.
 However large and powerful the army which the United States trains during the winter, it may be rendered absolutely useless as an addition to the fighting forces against Germany if there are no ships to transport it except at the cost of stopping the flow of vital necessities to the present armies.
 .'The loss of shipping since the be- ginning of the ruthless U-boat war fare is now roughly equal to the total losses prior fo that time. By next spring Germany may be expected to destroy 200 vessels in excess of what are built in the meantime.
 Next spring this years harvest will be largely exhausted, and the need of supplying Italy, France and Great Britain will be largely increas- ed. At the same moment the United States will need a large increase in vessels to transport its army and to maintain it.
 What must be the program of the United States? It must be large enough to outbuild submarine de- struction. Even If this means the building of 5000, 900 tons a year, which l Is three times the best the British have done and five or six times what the United States previously has done this is not impossible if the United States puts into 1t an effort compar- able with the efforts the Allies put into creating their armies, navies and munitions To build 6,0O0,0 900 tons ot os, tons of steel, or less than ten pe1 cent. of her output. It would take not I more than a. half million men, the ma; jority unsakilled. ,a.
 The task thus outlined is small compared with the effort put forth by the principal bellfgerents in other di- rections. Great Britain, for example increased her army from quarter o1 a million to over five million, and she added a quarter of a million men to her navy and trebled it in size, while in munitions the British effort, wheth- CT measured in money, men or mate rial, has fbeen greater than what if neded for an adequate American ship. building program.
 Before the war all the shipping il the world was only worth about tht same capital as the two big Englisl railway companies. It would be th' most incongruous thing in the history of warfare if the war, in which suc1 immensely greater strength has beer exerted in other directions, should have the issue decided by failure tt solve the problem of building six mil lion tons of shipping year in 8. coun try with such vast resources as the United States.
 '4What is the present situation re garding U-boat losses? It is clea, that the submarine war will fail in 1t main intention. It will not starv, Great Britain and it win not interfer, with the adequate supply of muni tions. But British shipping strengtl istin is being constantly reduced, ant we have not yet reached the poin where building equals the losses.
 Under the circumstances Grea
 Britain's position as the supplier of tn
 allied needs is handicapped. But o
 main importance is what it means to
 ward the efforts of the United State
 in the war, and unless the situation i
 faced, the great military effort of tn
 United States will be crippled from tn start"