The sun., 1918-06-11
U. S. FLEET TO BE
25,000,000 TONS
Hurley Says 1920 ship Total
Will Be Largest in the
Worlds History.
COST TO BE FIVE BILLIONS
Amazing Figures Cited in
Speech Before Graduating
Class at NOtre Dame.

SOUTH BEND Ind. June l0.--American
merchant ships in commission on June
1. 1918. 1900: total tonnage Of the
American merchant marine. 100000.
In 1920 the United States will have
the greatest merchant fleet ever as
sembled. It will cost $4,000. 200. 900. and
II will aggregate 25,O00.0O dead weight
| tons.
These were the inspiring figures re-
| vea!ed tonight by Edward y. Hurley.
chairman OF the United States Shipping
Board. In his address at the commence
| ment exercises Of the University OF Notre
Dame. an address which gave the first
| official detailed survey OF what has been
i and Is TO be accomplished In building up
! the American merchant marine to gi-
/ gantic proportions
| Furthermore Chairman Hurley. never
given to unreasonable predictions or
overoptimism. assured the young men
of Notre Dame that 1000. 900 additional
tons OF shipping will have been produced
by the Allies by the end Of this year.
! 100000 coming from the ways Of ma
tions other than America and 1000. 900
| by the latest calculation. coming from
American shipyards.
In fact Chairman Hurley accepts the
enthusiastic promise of Charles NJ
| Schwab. Director-General OF the Emer-
gency Fleet Corporation. that the 5000
900 tons estimate for America is too con.
! servatlve and that the expert estimate
of 5000. 900 tons will surely be exceeded
Chairman Hurley recalled that on
v,slr,
marine worthy Of the name a total Of so
per cent. Of the deadweight tonnage OF
only 2,412.3S1 being employed in coast
wise and great lakes trade. There was
only one line crossing the Atlantic. one
line crossing the Pacific. only a few trad.
ing to South America and the West In
dies and none to India, Africa. Australia
and the east coast OF South America.
BeginninE Our Destiny.
American tourists and products went
everywhere. but In foreign owned ships
He continued:
| Now we are beginning to fulfil our
| destiny. On the first of June Of this year
we had Increased the American built
tonnage to over 3500.0O0 deadweight
tons of shipping In the eleven months
| from July l, 1917. to June !, 1918. we
constructed In American shipyards a
tonnage equal to the total OUTPUT OF
American yards during the entire pre-
vious four years. In short. the Shipping
Board has added approximately 1.000.-
! 900 tons of new construction to Ameri-
can shipping In the last ten months. fol-
| It was not until August 8 of last year
that our Communicating order went into
effect. We have also added llS German
and Austrian vessels. with a total dead.
weight tonnage Of 730.176. We have
reQuisitioned from the Dutch under the
order Of the President. Sc vessels with
total deadweiSht tonnage Of 526.532
| In addition we have chartered from neu.
tral countries 215 vessels with an aggre-
gate deadweight tonnage OF 953.66l
This tonnage. together with the vessels
which we have been obliged to leave In
the coastwise and great lakes trade
gives US q total Of more than 1.40(
weight tonnage Of 100000 tons now
under the control of the United States
Shipping Board.
| "In round numbers and from al
sources We have added to the Ameri.
can flag since our war against Germany
began nearly $4,000 tons Of shipping
We are addiR& to this tonnage rapidly
and will continue to do 10. 1t has taker
us some time TO apply to the shipbuild'
| Ing industry Of this country the princi
pies OF organisation and progressive
manufacturing which have made ouI
other big institutions the marvel Of tn
world.
100000 Tons n Ons Meath.
"gince January Of the present year
when our new quantity production oi
ships may we'll be said to have JUS
begun, we have steadily risen In oul
monthly output until in ths month o.
May We turned out . total OF 3so.oot
(CeNtinvsd ~ FUfk Pass.)