The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-09-04

shipping requirements for COM
merce with South America.
The United States will be pre-
pared to furnish that commerce
with an ocean delivery service OF
1O,OO0,O 600 lightweight tons.
The installation recently OF di-
rect steamship line between New
York and Chile and on the fastest
| time schedule ever known i'm the
trade with the west coast of South
America is a forerunner of the kind
Of service the Shipping Board plans
| to give from Its fleet.
Great International Delivery Service
I'VE are rapidly building the me-
| chanical equipment for regular
steamship lines all over the world.
to quote Chairman Hurley again.
The fast troop ship can lie convert
ed for combined passenger ami car
go service and placed on regular
lines, reaching the whole of Contra!
America, South America, the Pa
cific and the British colonies We
SIldll uihoubtChis navy 'hi s'"'-
lines to Great Britain. European
and Mediterranean ports. Our re-
frigerator ships, now carrying mea:
| and dairy products to feed the al
| lies, will carry meat, fruit. butter.
eggs and perishables to other coun-
| tries. Our cargo ships can be or
ganiZed on the triangular system.
which has made British and German
shipping profitable.
ITO keep this great new merclian,
| marine busy we must have Il radical
| change in American business think
ing Every manufacturer and trad
err in the United States, every bank
err, farmer, miner and consumer,
must begin to think now about
American merchant ships as n great
international delivery service. \"
longer must we be content IN let
our railroads stop ut the ocean.
They must be extended To reach
clear around the globe"
There is another problem, that OK
manning the vessels when they are
completed. When one of this vast
fleet Of ships takes the water lie
time can be measured in weeks {"
her first voyage. With hundreds Of
these maiden voyages at hand. tie
question of crews becomes the next
great consideration in the program
of bridging the Atlantic with Amer
lean vessels.
But the work OF preparing the
no more left to chance than the
building itself. For more than Il
year the Shipping Board has been
organizing training system Ivy
which skilled Americans. sailors
and engineers, could he trained 10
serve as officers on merchant ships.
and nOvices. from factory and farm,
could he given their first steps to-
ward service on deck and ip engine
room in the crews Of those ships.
Training 5000 Men a Month.
Through this system the Shipping
Board is providing young. patriotic,
ardent Americans at the rate OF
more than 5000 men month for
service on the ships that Hurley and
Schwab build.
A squadron Of training ships 10
maintained on the Atlantic, with q
base at Boston, to drill these sea.
going patriots; another on the Pa.
cific. with bases at San Francisco
~ nj 10 CHR, bpc
thOrized by the Board for both the
Gulf and the Great Lakes, to he
based at New Orleans and Cleve.
land respectively.
In referring recently 70 the train.
ing system OF the Shipping Board.
Chairman Hurley stated that it was
the ambition of himself and his col.
leagues to place 100 per cent.
American" crews on the new ves-
sells turned out for the National
fleet
"There was time" he said, mot
so very remote, when many people
thought we were no longer sea-
going people that our glory on the
seas departed with the square rig
gers. Those people were wrong
We are seasoing people. More
than 1000 experienced men have
been licensed as merchant officers
since we went into the war. Vow
from every state in the Union young
men are coming forward through
the recruiting service OF the United
States Shipping Board and Offering
themselves for service in the crews
Of our new American ships.