The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-03-27
BUILDING OF SHIPS
IS TOLD BY HURLEY
Chairman Of Board Gf,cs GLOWING,
ACcount Of Work Done Under
Great Difficulties
nc TrANDICAPs OVERCOME
He Points Ont Necessity for Trans
poratton. to Bridge Atlantic That
Men and Munitions May Bo Carried
speedily TO Front

Ncw York March Chairman
Edward y Hurley. Of the United
States shipping board. addressing tho
National Marine league here tonigh$
d CIV glowing picture or the ship
building program and Tor the first
time made public information regard
ing new shlpyards and launching
ways already built and under con-
struc,iou.
''Nca rly as much tonnage has been
constructed IN American waters In the
past three months az IN the oths
maritime nations NJ The world com =
hinad, declared Chairman Hurley.
II by the exercise of magic a
bridge could be throwa across the
Atlantic over which our armies, their
artillery and supply trains could move
rapidly and unhampered to the bat
tie Hines OF France, would any mill.
tary man In Rome. Vienna. Paris,
London or Washington have any
doubt but what the world would be
made free for democracy before this
year goes out7 We have the men, we
have the Euus. we have the supplies
But without means of getting them
70 the front We might as we'll he
without them and unless we get our
men 10 the battle line we viii not
win this war.
80 IT all comes back to ocean
tranaportation--to the vital need of
ships Fail there and we fail utterly
Upon the shipping board has de-
VOWED the responsibility OF supplying
this need and supplying it under The
ncst extraordinary conditions that
ever existed.
when We took hol1 OF tho fob
Of shipbuilding. continued Mr.. Hur-
ley. we found that there we're no
shipyards In existence with which we
could place an order We were fac
ing n necessity Of creating an en-
tirely new industry.
There were thirty -seven steel ship
yards in America at the time we Ell
tered the war. We have located
eiRhty-one additional steel and wood
en- yards while eighty-one other yai DIS
have been expanded.
We are building in the new and
expanded yards 236 new steel ship
ways. or twenty-Six more than at
present exist in all OF the shipyarda
OF England, If we had been content
with doing the Job in a small way,
we might have built few new yards
and added 4 little to our capacity.
1T took Germany forty years to
build up her military machine. In
less than eight months we have built
up a shipbullding machine, when It
gets into full swing. will defeat the
military machine OF Germany.
'"Fhe total amount of our steel con-
struction program on March / was
s.2C5.70s dead weight tons This was
vk-
tons under contract with the Finer
gency tleet corporation, and 3,04t,
4o9 dead weight tons OF requisiuoned
vessels
"0f this total steel construction.
2.t2If5S dead weight tons, or ap-
proximRtely % per cent has been
completed That means that in add
, tion 50 building our big new yards
we have also been building new ships.
That is the program for steel shlps
NsH advanced IS per cent toward
com 1etion.
cot the amount OF steel ships I'M
der contract and under requisition.
eEE.456 dead weight tons, or approx
mately per cent were completed on
March Of this year. almost a month
kaEo.
Now TO the labor situation. II
E 80UiG N6 USELESS 10 manufacture IAl a
terial and supplies and pile up sSe
products on the wharves II there are
/ no ships TO transport them. So. un-
less our shipbuil&ars do their best
other Industries must slow down or
halt completely. with the result that
thousands OF workers throughout the
country will sTuer for lack Of employ
ment.
II believe that labor has begun to
realize this gtct, but 7 want to dre~
Il home to tHen for there are some,
regret to say, who do not yet sense
their responsibility
"As a further evidence OF the or.
rarization which has already been ~
fected let me sav that In 1919 there
were less than $4,000 men sa=spfoyed
in all of the shipyards of the country
and that on March z. 1919. we had In
creased this number Of 2sS.ooo. o.
Witch I70.5se were working on actua'
ship construction and the remainder
In ward construction and othef
branches OF the industry"