Republican farmer., 1919-08-08
NO SToPPAGE IN
 BUILDING UP OF U. s. SHIPPING
Federal Board, Following Hurley's Policies, Keeps
 Service Booming.
3,7OO AGENTS WORK
 TO ENROLL RECRUITS
Will Take Part in Ship Building Programs and
 Assist in Every Way.

Building Programs and
 Assist in Every Way. | Washington, Aug. 6 - The end of the war and with it the end of .the l vital need for ships to carry troops | and rations has led to the supposi- ton that the. United States Shipping l Board fs about to abandon its inter- | est in the upbuilding of the American merchant marine and in getting sail ! ors to man the ships. The cancella- | ton of numerous shipbuilding con-
 tracts has lent color to this belief. !! Officials of the Shipping Board however, say that this is far from the | truth. The board hopes to encourage i and to take part in shipbuilding in
 the future as it has in the past, ex- cept that from now on the policies will not have to be circumscribed by the necessities of war. Accordingly 1 cargo carriers and passenger ships will be built to the practical exclu- sion of transports.
 The policies inaugurated by Ed l ward N. Hurley before his resigna- | ton as chairman of the board the 1 first of this month probably will be 1 carried out without many changes. 1 Recruiting will be encouraged and | the building of giant cargo and pass | enger ships will go on, in some cases | by the Emergency Fleet Corpora tion | itself.
 No better evidence of this policy ! can be found than in the decision of i the Shipping Board to build two of l the largest steamships ever construct l ed for the transatlantic trade. As previously announced they will be 1000 feet long and will have a speed of thirty nautical miles an hour. They will be able to make the trip from New York city to Europe in four days. They will be oil burners and the last word in steamship con- struction-
 The vessels will mark a new era in shipping. Nothing like them ever be- fore has been designed by nautical engineers. They will be able to carry cargoes greater than any ever sent to sea, and with the vessels already in the American Mercantile Marine will put the United States the map as one of the great maritime nations.
 The ships will be constructed under supervision of the Navy Department and will be of 55,O00 gross tons each They will be 74 feet deep and 1O2 feet wide. They will draw thirty five feet of water and will have accommo- Gations for 5000 passengers 900 saloon passengers, 800 second cabin passengers and 1,2o0 steerage passen- gers. It will take 1000 officers and
 men to man the vessels.
 Before quitting his post at the head of the Shipping Board, MT. Hurley gave assurance that there was not go- ing to be a let up for some time to come in the efforts of the board to get new men into the merchant marine.
 '"The backbone of a merchant marine is the men who are in it, he said. we must have the best ob- tainab1e crews for our new merchant ships. The need is pressing. Ameri- can vessels in American ports today are calling for American crews-for ma ates. engineers, seamen, firemen, cooks and stewards who are Ameri- can citizens.
 Our present greatest need is to get in touch with the American boys who should man these ships. The need is so urgent that I hope every news paper in the country will take notice of it; that every preacher will men ton it from the pulpit; that every city and town, through it's officials. it's Chamber of Commerce or other civic bodies will make a canvass Of the young men in the community who might be available for training as merchant mariners, with a view of becoming officers or shipping agents or foreign trade representatives for American interests in the future.
 ''The Shipping Board will give it's fullest cooperation to any community wishing to send it's boys for the mer- chant marine. Applicants for train ing will be directed to the nearest en- rolling agent, of which the board has '3,7OO. Those accepted will proceed to seaport. They will be placed on training ships on pay, put into un1- form and taught the fundamentals Of their new trade before being sent to sea in merchant crews
 Henry Howard of Boston is still ill charge of the recruiting service of the board and it was said today that re- cruiting probably would be continued for an indefinite time-
 An official of the Shipping Board said that the attitude of the Elmer gency Fleet Corporation with respect to the future cancellation of ship con- tracts had been misunderstood. The | policy had not been one of ruthless cancellation, he asserted.
 Tn revising the construction pro- gramme to take care of 50 per cent. l of our foreign commerce, hgure l recognized by shipping men as the proper proportion of trade which we | should transport in our own ships, we are working on a plan to show the | type, size and speed of ships required | to meet the need of different trade l routeS," he said.
 During the first few months fol- | lowing the signing of the armistice, | contracts were cancelled calling ap- l proximate1y for two million tons of steel ships and about 100000 tons of | wood ships. The Emergency Fleet Corporation cancelled these contracts | because it was felt that we should not | continue building ships at high War costs under peace conditions with 1 money appropriated Tor war emcr- | gency purposes. especially where such ships were not to be delivered until 1