The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-11-14


lSg~ States shipping board, which has in
FENI hand the great task of creating an
adequate personnel for our new mer-
| Z% chant marine.
- In years past, whenever the subject
of creating merchant marine in pro-
portion to the cOuntry's commercial Importance
came up, the question was raised How are we
going to get men for American ships?"
Young Americans had got out of the way of
going The country did not think in terms of
ships. Foreign seamen chiefly manned what
sells we had. Our shipyards could not compete
with foreign yards
The has changed all that. The change has
been little short of magical The United States of
America leads the world in shipbuilding 1t
will soon lead the world with its seagong citizens
Thousands of young Americans turning to the
every month. The old of the square-rig-
gers, to which friends of the American merchant
marine fOndly refer, is rapidly being dwarfed by
what is taking place in merchant marine today.
AS an example of the extraordinary change going
on in the matter of crews, may be cited phe-
nOmenal jump in September recruiting for the
merchant marine reported by the United States
shipping board from Washington. in the following
bulletin
An increase of 491 cent in a month. in the
number of recruits for the merchant marine signed
ny s Sentennber 10 are as fo1IoHrs io3 vel e6in
August % s13 men; August 2s 1,779; September s.
2697 September r. 4,4S4 The figures for the latter
week exceed by 4S4 the number the board had
announced expected maximum for the month
of September The men are accepted for training
as sailors fremen, coal passers. cooks and stew
ards, and will be put aboard training ships at BOs
ton. New York Norfolk New Orleans. San Fran
cisco. Seattle and Cleveland
Every little while one hears somebody ask
What is this merchant marine hear so much
abOut?"
Nobody need feel ashamed if he does not readily
visualize this commercial maritime force of
the country The nation for many years past has
been building up such admirable navy that
many people confuse the merchant marine with
the navy thinking that all ships under naval
control
The merchant marine is quite distinct from the
navy 1t is, indeed, a navy in itself-a commercial
navy-of vessels engaged in business voyages.
The United States shipping board has charge of it,
and it is a national business organization,
much the the nations great railroads are
run by the railroad administration
The shipping board consists of five members,
of high training in business affairs, appointed
from various parts of the country. It's chairman
is Edward n. Hurley of Chicago. It's headquarters
are in a business building in Washington.
Control is exercised by this board over every
merchant ship of more than $500 tons sailing IN
der the American flag The vast shipbuIding pro-
gram of the country-resulting in, 1.-THE bridge of
ships to Europe" which enables US to send mil
lions of to the fighting front and sustain them
there's in the hands of the shipping board The
shipbuilding is done by the Emergency Fleet cor
poration, operated by the board, and directed by
Charles NJ. Schwab a master mind in the steel
genius of the first order.
The merchant marine today is American to the
core.
American daring and seagoing ability are taking
our merchant ships safely the seas and
back again with shuttlelike regularity.
All this is being done by volunteers, who take
up the work because they recognize the greatness
of the opportunity to help their country in a new
epoch of expansion.
The mariner in the merchant marine is not an
enlisted man. scratch Of the pen is all that
binds him his job; yet he is as firmly fixed in
it as If he were there by the operation of the
selecti< re service law
Every man working for the merchant ma
rine knows that his is not merely job, i'm
portant though his work may be part of his
country's mighty stroke for freedom. The job
will last after the return of peace It becomes
therefore, dOubly important
Ship manning a much greater scale than that
of the present will begin when the war ends for
at that t;z1s many merchant ships temporarily