Omaha daily bee., 1922-06-06
Eoutput of American Yards.
1,s5s.525l
Total. 1.

How did we accomplish this
miracle OF production' First, let it
be said, to the unending glory of the
spirit oi, our nation, that we gave un-
stinted of our; treasure and OF our
men 10 the building OF the much
needed merchant marine feet SO es-
sentially needed for the winning OF
the war. Had we had in pre-war
: DAYS the vision OF what such a fleet
would have meant to US in war we
never would have had to make this
great sacrifice of treasure and time.
for we would in large part have pos
sessed the ships ready for peace or
war time needs.
Disregarded Peace Time Value.
But neither the sacrifice OF money
nor the time of men could have re-
suited in the creation of so vast a
feet. in so short a time had we not
been willing to utterly disregard one
prime factor in the manufacture OF
ships-to wit: the peace-time value
Of the ships we created.
N By this I mean that our whole ef-
wort was directed-and for war pur-
poses, properly-to the creation of
the maximum tonnage in the shortest
s1ime-anything that could carry men
and goods. regardless OF cost OF con-
struction and operation. This, while
exactly right for wars pressing
necessities. left US at the conclusion
Of our building program with a vast
tonnage untitled in large measure for
peace time needs; because for peace
needs tonnage must be measured by
Two factors-economy OF operation
and fitness for varying trades and
purposes.
Fleet Sadly Balanced.
Our war built feet could obvious
" take neither factor into considera-
ton. in fact, to get the maximum
tonnage we created the fabricated
ship, which meant practically all
ships of type This, while resulting
iii the production OF ships as il by
magic, had the grave disadvantage
of creating the most sadly balanced
merchant feet the world ever knew.
That the reader may better under
stand 'balance." let me hken ships to
railroad equipment. with which all
are familiar. A railroad. to operate
successfully. must have flat cars,
must have inclosed freight cars to
take regular freight, and larger cars
to carry automobiles and the like. It
must have special cars to carry coal.
and still other cars fitted for express
purposes. 1t must have refrigerator
cars capable of taking care Of varying
types of commodities. 1t must have.
for passenger traffic, day coaches and
parlor cars. Pullman sleepers and din
ing cars. passenger equipment fitted
for the lower priced tourist trade and
passenger equipment OF higher type
for the Twentieth Century express.
Without all these types OF cars in
proper proportion no railroad could
be properly managed.
Equipment Must Be Complete.
The same sense of balance and
equipment must obviously exist in
merchant fleet. To compare the
ships which the government owns to
railroad equipment, we might say
that the l.lS0 steel ships under the
shipping board consist largely of that
type comparable to the regulation
freight car. with practically none OF
the especial equipment needed. such
as railroads have for furniture car
riaee, automobile carriage. express
aeervice and refrigerator service.
Again. to liken our ships to freight
cars. too many are of wrong sizes for
practical technical operation. We are
still sadly deficient in passenger
ships, which we can liken to Pull