The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-11-09

I@TS@EI nun III great JdSR Ol CTedlluS an
S@ adequate personnel for our new mer-
GE chant marine.
~ In years past, whenever the subject
of creating n 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 ships2'
Young Americans had got out of the way of sea-
going. The country did not think In terms of
ships. Foreign seamen chiefly manned what ves-
sells we had. Our ~shipyards could not compete
with foreign yards.
The war has changed all that. The change has
been little short of magical. The United States of
America now leads the world In shipbuilding. 1t
Will soon lead the world with its seagoing citizens.
thousands OF young Americans are turning to the
sea every month. The old era 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 our merchant marine today.
As an example of the extraordinary change going
ON in the matter of crews. may be cited a phe-
nomenal jump in Septembe recruiting for the
merchant marine reported by the United States
shipping board from Washington, in the following
bulletin:
An increase of 491 per cent in a month. in the
number Of recruits for the merchant marine signed
on the United States shipping board, was reported
by the board. The figures covering four weeks end
ing September 12, are as follows: Week ending
August q. 9S men; August 20, LTD; September 6,
26s7; September IL, 4,4S4. The figures for tile latter
week exceed by asa men tina number the board had
announced as an 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 we hear so much
about?"
Nobody need feel ashamed if he does not readily
visualize this new commercial maritime force of
the country. The nation for many years past has
been building up such an admirable navy that
many people confuse the merchant marine with
the navy, thinking that all ships are 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 1t,
and it is run as a national business organization,
much the sam as the nations great railroads are
run by the railroad administration.
The shipping board consists Of five members.
men of high training in business affairs, appointed
fromSvarious parts of the country. Its chairman
Wis Edward N. Hurley of Chicago. Its headquarters
are In a business building in Washington.
Control is exercised by this board over every
merchant ship of more than $500 tons sailing un-
der the American flag. The vast shipbuilding pro-
gram Of the COMMUNICATING in "the bridge of
ships to Europe" which enables us to send mil
lions of men 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
pOTdllOn, OIcruleu ny lHS DOaIu, anu directed by
Charles NJ. Schwab, a master mind In the steel
world and known from coast to coast as a business
genius ID the first order.
The merchant marine today is American to the
core.
American daring and ~seagOing ability are taking
our merchant ships safely across 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. A scratch of the pen is all chat
binds him to his job; yet he is as firmly fixed in
1t ms II he were there by the operation of the
~seiective service law.
Every man working for the new merchant mn.
srine knows that his is not merely a war lob. Inn
portant though his work may be as part of his
c~ountry's mighty stroke for freedom. The Job
win last after the return of peace. 1t becomes.
therefore, doubly important.
Ship manning on a much greater scale than that
of the present will begin when the war ends. for
al THAT tin. many merchant ships temporarily