The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-05-18
SEA AGAIN CALLING
TO AMERICAN YOUTH
Recruiting of Boys and Men Is Being
Carried Out with Great Speed to
Meet Needs of American Mer-
chant Marine.
Washington, d. c., May ls.-The sea

Washington, d. c., May ls.-The ses
is calling again to American youth.
As the new ships of the merchant ma
rine glide down the ways, the need fol-
men grows more pressing Abundant OPP
portunity to aid in winning the war l:
offered the crews of the new vessels, with
the certainty that when peace come:
there will be further adventure and good
pay in carrying American commerce
throughout the world.
Recruiting of the boys and men who
must go down to the sea if America is
to regain her old place among the mari
time nations is in the hands of the ship
ping boards enlistment service, headed
by Henry Howard, with headquarters at
Boston, who has outlined to union men
and steamship companies what already
has been accomplished.
About a year ago we realized the
shortage that was going to arise when
the new fleet was finished" Mr.. Howard
said, 'and we started the training of
officers, both deck and engineer. We
established a train of schools extending
along the Atlantic coast, the Gulf of
Mexico, the Pacific coast and the Great
Lakes, to enable us to get hold of the
men who had experience at sea. We
then got the cooperation of the steam
boat inspection service. No man was
admitted to our schools for officers UNI
less he could first qualify for experience
required by the rules of the steamboat
inspection service. That obviates the
training of any dead material. after
men get their licenses we place them, as
far as possible, on board steamships as
Junior officers, to get actual bridge ex
perience, for 30 to 60 days. During that
period they get S75 month"; with no
bonus, paid by the emergency feet cor
poration, so that the only expense to the
steamship companies taking these men is
the food they eat
I'VE have turned out officers so fast
that a great many have not been finding
positions in the merchant marine, and
have gone into the navy. 1t has been,
to a certain extent, short cut to a com
mission in the navy, going through our
schools, owing to lack of cooperation in
many of the steamship lines in taking
these men on. We believe, however, in
view of the action that was taken by the
American Steamship association some
weeks ago that this win now be straight
ened out, and that we will get the places.
There have been licensed since the
first of June, something over 5000 Off
GERS. both deck and engineer
Engineers have been giving training |
in various technical institutions, the |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Boston, the Johns Hopkins in Baltimore,
Case School of Applied Science in Cleve-
land the Tulane University of Washing
ton, in Seattle. Then outside of those
institutions we have been giving special
engineering courses in Philadelphia, in
connection with the ice breaking steam
er, the Governor Weaver, loaned to us
by the city of Philadelphia for that pur-
pose. We are also giving some courses
at the Seamen's institute in New York.
We are starting an additional school in
Berkeley, Cal.
I'VE have been in touch with the Off
GERS association in England, and if any
develops here we will bring
officers over to fill the places We have
an offer of cooperation from the English
officers association. We have felt from
the very beginning that we ought to de-
velop our own material here to the ut +,
most before we call on any foreign Off /;
GERS, but it looks now as if it might be
necessary to call on the foreign officers {
to have a reserve force on hand to meet t
any emergency that may arise. IL
I'VE have started training ships for /