The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-06-24
NEW WARSHIPS
 FOR U. 5. NAVY
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Continued from Page D advance to the contractor 90 per cent of the contract price. It also imposes limits on profits from war. ship and warplane contracts of 2 and Q per cent, and grants authority to relax government labor restric- tions if such on act is deemed nec. essary.
 Is Through Today
 Edison'S resignation Is effective today. He resigned to seek the governorship of New Jersey. Presi- dent Roosevelt has nominated Col, Frank Knox, Chicago newspaper publisher, as Edison'S successor and the nomination Is pending before the senate naval affairs committee which has ordered public hearings next week.
 The vessels on which immediate contract awards will be made are three aircraft carriers, four heavy cruisers, nine light cruisers, 90 de- stroyers, and 22 submarines,
 This program, Edison said, Is in addition to contracts for g other ships valued at $3bo,0oo, ,000, which already have been announced,
 Congregational authorization to ne- gotiate contracts, Edison said, Is something for which he had been fighting during his three years In the navy department. He said that from six to eight months la con. struction time will Do saved under the new plan and that the ships would Do standardized and tho con- struction cost would be less. Tho navy, he added, actually can show S23, ,000, ,000 in savings under the $760. 900 900 program.
 Defends Boat Sale
 Edison defended the recently crit. icized sale of torpedo boats but he said that no further sales of such craft were contemplated. Only @ small number of vessels have been sold and this had been done be. cause they were constructed with i8 inch torpedo tubes while other ex- perimental vessels had shown c 2i inch torpedo was the better, he said.
 The larger missile, he said, has doubled the range of the smaller, is 2b miles an hour faster, and has e 90 per cent greater explosive power. Sale of the vessels he said, also per. mitted the manufacturers to pro- tect 6 $700,000 investment in plants and equipment.
 Edison said that the pressure to sell destroyers was greater three years ago than now. He said that he had opposed the sale then be. cause he did not believe the navy should sell anything that could float" in view of the international situation.
 Work speeded Up
 Since taking office he said the en- tire construction program has been speeded up. Then, he said, con- structlon was i8 months behind con. tract time. Now 1t Is abreast of contract time which has ben reduc- ed from six to eight months on construction of destroyers and sub- marines.
 Edison said that the navy Is pro- ducing its own skilled help and has increased employment at navy yards from 60,000 to 10000.
 Edison said that Admiral c. J. King has been placed in charge of designing new superstructures to protect battleships from aerial at- tacks and that general specifications had been completed for 29 ships in- cluding battleships, aircraft carriers and light and heavy cruisers. This development will not delay the ship building program, he added.
 He said that industry can absorb the pending s4,000, ,000.0 900 two-ocean naval program on negotiated con- tract basis.
 Tn closing, Edison suggested that congress do a bit of speeding up it. self.
 If congress did little streamlin- ing itself 1t would help a great deal" he said. "They have done great job = for congress. Our ap- propriation bill was ready in De- cember and passed on June 10. Hit Ter completed the conquest of Bell gium, Holland and France while congress was passing the navy speed-up bill.
 congress could well have con-