The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1918-07-05
Schwad Makes
July 4th Speech

3Now you wonder naturally how
your work has counted. Let me tell
you. In 1915 all the shipyards in
America turned out 215,6O2 dead
weight tons of shipping. The next
year our output jumped to 520,847
tons. In 1917 the hot pace continued
until we very nearly doubled the out
put of the previous year, completing
total of 9o1,223. We thought we were
building ships, with almost million
lightweight tons of finished vessels,
but am confident now that if we pull
together and every man stays on his
job, we will produce more than 3,000,-
900 lightweight tons in 1918-the
greatest output of any nation in the
world in a single year.
think we can point with some
pride,to May of this year, when we
not merely launched but completed
100000 tons of shipping more than
was turned out in the entire year of
1915. Five years ago, if you had been
told that this country would produce
1880 tons of shipping in single
month, you would not have believed
it, but that is mere beginning of the,
task that lies before you men in the
shipyards.
"There is one thing that we need if
we hope to reach our maximum ca
pacity of production and that is
friendly rivalry between the yards. /
have tried to encourage that because
II know that competition is dear to
American hearts and / know that you
will respond to a challenge. Now we
are going to recognize shipyard that
surpasses all others in actual produc-
ton each month. A blue flag which
this yard will be authorized to fly on
| its flagstaff will be a mark of national
recognition. It will be in the shipe
building field what an award for dis
tinguished service is on the battle
| field. Red and white flags will be pre-
Isenttd for second and third place. Any
yard which holds first place for three
consecutive months will have signal
honors, for it will be authorized to fly
this championship blue pennant per-
Imanently from its flagstaff.
sNow there are many men in the
shipyards who feel sense of embar-
rassment because, with their country
at war and liberty in danger, they are
= % Uniform of the army or the
navy. / want to say that these men,
| if they are shipbuilders, and belong in
| the yards, are entitled to just as much
recognition and just as much honor as
the brave boys on the sea or in the
trenches. And it is to give you ship
yard workers such recognition that
the government has determined upon
the awarding of service badges to the
men who give four months service to
the government in the shipyards at
building ships, and bars for additional
length of service. With these service
badges you can walk through the
crowds, meet the boys of the navy and
the army and hold your head high. To
sacrifice ones life for ones country is,
of course, the supreme sacrifice, but in
this war the highest duty is to serve
where your government tells you to
fserve.
"We are going to give special gold
and silver medals for unusual service
in the shipyards. We feel that there
should be some way of recognizing the
man who does a great thing for his
country in war time. Great things are
being done today in the shipyards.
Everyone of you has chance to win
honors in this great fight in the AM
erican shipyards against the subma-
rines--a battle of construction against
destruction.
There is nothing that / will not
sacrifice to help in winning this war,
and know that there is nothing you
will not sacrifice. Put punch in your
work and we'll put over the program.
If you stand up to your job, well
make the kaiser take his medicine W
ing down."