The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-03
Great Work of the
 Fleet Corporation
By HOLLAND


 New York, January 2.-(special9-Upon the first of January the emergency fleet corporation service was disbanded, and one of the most remarkable of the achievements in aid of the government industry was then terminated. pr. Charles A. Eaton, who has been in charge of this service, will return to his pulpit in this city, the church having given to him a leave of absence so that he might be able to direct this important service which in fact he originated. Dr. Eaton may again within two or three months ask for and receive a leave of absence for it is presumed that he will again be called by the government as leader in an important service now under contemplation.
 The shipping board of the United States and the emergency fleet corporation, which is the legal body empowered to enter into contracts and to make pay ments, were confronted shortly after We entered the war with the necessity of greatly increasing the output of ships and also the manufacture of equipment of all kinds to be installed in the ships after they were launched and upon the water. Rapidly the government became a great ship builder and industries neces- sary to furnish equipment were expanded so that at last they reached a point which year before we entered the war would have been deemed impossible to attain.
 Dr. Eaton's plan included personal visits by himself and by others to all of the shipbuilding plants He perfected an or ganization in a short time. He himself went to the Pacific coast and visited every shipyard, where he was faced by to whom he spoke in words of encourage ment, appealing to their loyalty to their sense of honor, and showing them why 1 their service was, in it's way, fully as important, if We were to win the war, as was that of the soldiers at the front Later pr. Eaton visited every shipbuild- ing plant in the United States. His itinerary extended from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico, to the Atlantic coast, even to the shipbuilding plants in Maine. He also visited the shipbuild- ing plants upon the Great Lakes
 The addresses which pr. Eaton made have been spoken of by the Secretary of the Navy. Josephus Daniels. by Charles M Schwab and by shipbuilders as well as industrial leaders as having been of great value. They have inspired the l skilled artisans with a zeal and have 1 inculcated in them due sense of the important relation which their service bore to tho success of the war.
 A GREAT INDUSTRIAL CENTER Among those whom Dr. Eaton selected l to assist him in this work was F. F. Soaring, well known as speaker, fa- miliar with iron and other industries and occupied for some years in the de- velopment of American industries in
 Mexico. After thorough investigation it
 was learned that the so-called Ohio dis l trict and especially the cities of Gin cinnati, Toledo, Cleveland and Youngs- ! town were filled to the brim, so to speak,
 with orders for the construction of equip
 ment which was to be placed upon the
 new ships. The district also included
 Pittsburg and part of West Virginia 1 New England also, especially Hartford Springfield and Bridgeport, were cen
 ters of great industrial activity in CO., operation with the shipbuilding pro. gramme. On July 15 MT. Soaring organ
 ized the Ohio district and upon his re-
 turn to this city day or two ago al l the conclusion of his service in that dis
 the whole the true industrial leader ir the United States in the manufacture of certain kinds of commodities. Be- 1 tween July 15 and December 15. 1779 meet.