Connecticut western news., 1918-02-14
GOVERNOR ASKS
MEN TO ENROLL
FOR SH|PYARDS
every Rivet Driven Is Blow at
Kaiser" Says Connecticut
Executive.
QUOTES WIRE FROM PIEZ.
Urges Mechanics to Offer Services for
Shipbuilding and Tells Them to Re-
main at Their Present EmpIoyments
Until Government Calls Them and
Tells Them Where to Go.

Governor Marcus H. HoIcomb has
requested the newspapers of Con-
necticut to publish the following mes
sage to the people of the state:
The federal government tells us
that the submarine danger is not over.
that ships are being sunk faster than
they are being replaced, and that ship
building must be speeded up in order
that the U boat menace may be over
come
Recently 1 received a message from
Charles Pies, vice president and gen.
eral manager of the Emergency Fleet
Corporation, in which he said: With
out a great industrial army ready to
take its place as the need for labor
in the shipyards ever grows more ur-
gent, we cannot carry out the ship
building program on which hangs the
fate of our army in France, and of
our allies the world over. To win
the war our first need is ships, and
to build ships our first need is earnest
skilled labor
1.-THE United States Shipping Board.
the department of labor and state
councils of defense throughout the
country have undertaken to enroll
100000 artisans and skilled mechanics
for service in the shipyards. The men
thus enrolled will be known as the
United States Shipyard Volunteers of
the Public Service Reserve
'In Connecticut this enrolment is
to be carried on under the direction
of the Connecticut State Council of
Defense. Its central office at the
state capitol and it's war bureaus aud
town committees throughout the state
will handle this important task. The
enrolment and subsequent service in
the shipyards will he carried on with
view to avoiding disturbance of ex-
listing labor conditions within this
slate.
at should be made clear at this
time that the government asks for alb
solutely nothing except an enrolment.
Shipyards are not ready yet to re-
celYe workers, but / am advised from
Washington that many of the yards
will be ready soon.
"As soon as they can be sent out
from the councils Office, enrolment
cards will be in the hands of war
bureaus and town committees through
out the state, and the eronllment of
Connecticut men for shipyard service
Gun be undertaken. The federal ship.
ping board. which calls for this en-
rollment, has charge of the construc-
ton of Americas new merchant ma
rine. The Emergency Fleet Corpora
ton is the government organization
which will have charge of the ships
when they are completed and which
controls and operates vessels now in
the hands of the government.
SIN this grave national emergency,
[ call upon the skilled workmen of
Connecticut to consider carefully
their duty. Without question, ship
building Is a matter of vital import
ance in our fight with Germany. Skill
ed workmen have a duty in this war
which the government considers as
important as the duty Of carrying
arms is to those who are able to do
that. These men in this state who
are willing to enter the shipyards,
where every rivet driven is a blow at
1.-The Kaiser, are called upon to enroll
Tor this service. They must remem-
Der, however, that their duty now Is
to enroll and to remian at their pres
emit tasks until the government calls
them to service and directs them
where to go.
MARCUS Fl. HOLCOMB,
80 ~