The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-20

| eric j. HaSkin, director, Washing |
| ton, D. c., and enclose a three-cent
stamp for reply.
Washington, D. c., April 17.-As
the American merchant marine, after
to the first place among the carrying
fleets of the world, Americans are
eagerly grasping the opportunity to
return to the sea During the past
sailed deep water in years gone by
have left their dryland occupations to
offer their services to the United
States shipping board. Many of them
have sacrificed more lucrative en-
Payments to sail thru submarine
infested waters under the American
flag Many of these have frankly
given as their reason that they have
always longed to return to the sea
When the American ship building
program was first projected, the pre-
diction was commonly made that men
could not be found who were quail
fled to sail them. The event has
proved that there were thousands OF
men in the United States who mad
been deep water sailors and had re-
tired from the sea only because of the
decline of our merchant marine; that
there are thousands of fishermen and
lake and river boatmen who would
welcome the chance to go to sea;
and that in all parts of the country
there were young men who had never
been on salt water. but who had felt
the lure of it
1t is gratifying in purely senti-
mental way to know that Americans
still possess the skill and spirit that
made them once the greatest maritime
people in the world. And OF great
pra ctical as we'll as sentimental value
is the fact that the new American
merchant marine is to be truly Ameri-
can, in personnel as well as ownership,
from the stoke-hole to the bridge.
One of those who asserted from the
first that Americans would be found to
man American vessels was Henry
Howard of Boston, a New Highlander
who had spent his life in the shipping
business. and like many another New
EngIander, lived in the hope of the
day when the American flag would
again hold a foremost place in the
ports of the world. When we entered
the war Mr.. Howard went about pre-
pairing a plan for recruiting and train
ing officers and crews for American
merchant vessels. When the shipping
board was created, he laid his plan be-
| fore it. Mr.. Howard is now director OF
| the recruiting service of the United
| States shipping board and has estab-
| lished between forty and fifty training
| schools and training vessels. In ten
| months these schools have fitted to
pass the examinations of the United
States steamboat inspection service,
| 1900 deck officers and 1900 engi-
neers, and has under training on
school ships thousands of young men
who will act as sailors, firemen, coal
paSSers, oilers, water tenders, cooks
| and stewards.
| Mr. Howard has also perfected a
| recruiting service, in which he has
| been greatly aided by Louis K. Liggett
| of Boston, who is the manager of a
great chain of drug stores. The
| American drug store is peculiarly
because it is patronized by all classes
| and types, and thousands of seamen
have been enrolled thru these stores
| This program of recruiting brought
forward a surprising number OF men
who needed no training. but were able
at once to pass the examinations of
| the inspection service and obtain Ii
! censes During the first ten months
of recruiting, 5000 officers in all were
| licensed.
The first training school for marine
officers was opened in the astronom-
| ical laboratory at Harvard last June.
| There are now forty-one such schools
| in operation in the Atlantic, Gulf and
| Pacific coast states and in the Great
i Lakes region. Altho no man is &C.
| cepted for these officers schools I'M
| less he has had two years of expert
ence as a deep water sailor, appi-
| cants for entrance were numerous and
large proportion of them met the
| qualifications. This system of train
ing schools has its headquarters in
| the custom house, Boston, Mass. The
| instruction in these schools is under
the direction of Prof. Alfred E. Bur-
| ton, dean of the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology, who is a practical
| navigator as well as a scientist, and
number of well known astronomers.
| explorers and navigators are members
of his teaching staff. The course lasts
| six weeks and is designed to fit the
man for license as a second or third
mate. If the student needs additional
| experience, he is sent to sea as a re-
serve officer for two months.
| In addition to these schools for Off
GERS the recruiting service has opened
| eight schools for engineers at eight
| of the principal technical schools of
| the country. Here men with expert
| ence as oilers or water tenders or
| flremen on ocean stea mers, as en-
| gineers or assistant engineers on lake,
| bay or sound steamers, as locomotive
or stationary engineers. and men with
| certain college training are fitted to
pass the examinations for licenses as
marine engineers These schools
| have already produced about twelve
| hundred engineers, and like the deck
officers trained by the recruiting serv-
| ice, all of them are American citi-
Zens. All of these schools, of course,
are free. They offer a splendid OPP
portunity for men with a little expert
| ence or training. AMI first class abil-
ity, to win a high place in the ma
rine profession.
Mr. Howard claims for his training
; schools for officers and engineers
that they prevented a shortage of
men in these grades last year, even
| before the shipping board began
| launching vessels
| While these training schools were