Evening star., 1941-01-03
j. ). Will Build
200 Trade Ships
In New Program
Roosevelt Reveals
Plans; First Boots
Due Within Year
BY JOHN {. HENRY.

bN JoHN u I1E.NhI l.
President Roosevelt today an
a program for Government
of 200 merchant ships.
Cost Of the program, he told his
press conference, will be between
$500, 100000 and s350,OOO,OOO To
start the work of building new yards,
which he declared will be essential,
the President said he was allocating
s36, 900 900 from discretionary funds
available to him.
The Maritime Commission will
have supervision over the building,
Mr.. Roosevelt said with the first
ships expected to be available within
a year.
The President declined to answer
any questions as to whether this
expansion Of the existing American
merchant marine might result IN re-
lease Of cargo carriers TO British
uses or whether Britain would bene-
fit in any form from the cOntem-
plated program.
Steel Report Due Soon.
The President also announced to-
dav that he expected within a week
A detailed report on the Nations
steel production capacity. with an
expectation that an expansion OF
steel producing facilities will be
shown to be necessary. He added.
however, that he believed existing
capacity would be sufficient to turn
out the steel work needed for the
new shipping program.
In announcing the large-Scale
ship production project, the Presl-
dent pointed out that the destruc-
ton of so much merchant tonnage
at the present time makes 1t obvious
that there will be a shipping short
age when the war mas ended.
Because OF the impending short
age. he continued. the new program
is being undertaken.
Also. he went on, because there
already has been tremendous eX-
pansion of existing plants, the time
has come for building Of new yards.
The initial s36.O00,000 will be de-
voted to this purpose.
Yards of inexpensive Type.
The yards contemplated. he eX-
planned. will not be expensive in
type. AS an illustration. he spoke of
yards being built during the World
War at Squantum. Mass, which
were built in marShland by the
relatively inexpensive procedure OF
driving piles and roofing the ways
with sheet metal. Some dredging
and moving in of trains and other
apparatus provided sufficient Ia
cilitieS for construction
Actual ownership of the new
yards. Mr.. Roosevelt explained, will
be determined i'll further planning
of the program. The ships. how
ever. will be outright property Of
the Government
In expressing the opinion that
first of the new vessels will be
available within a year. the Pres
ident emphasized that they will be
of one type and about 1900 tons
each. BY simplifying the design,
to a point where he said real ship
lovers will hate the appearance of
the vessels, six to eight months Of
construction time will be saved.
AS a further means of speeding
the work. he said as much as pos
sible of the ships will be prefabri-
Gated in steel plants with the new
yards used mostly for assembly pur-
poses.
Although he said there probably
will be sufficient skilled labor avail
able for the work. the President
stressed that labor training will be
continued on an ever-increasing
scale. Already. he said, this train
ing feature is much more extensive
than is generally appreciated.
n. Y. A. Training 100000.
Pointing out that the N. Y. A. is
training about 100000 men right
now, he added that other educa-
tional work is being done by the
Labor Department. the labor unions
and private industrial plants.
The Presidents disclosure about
eventual expansion of steel capacity
came in response TO question as to
whether present defense needs are
being filled
AS background, he explained that
the Government consulted with Of
ficials of the industry last summer
and was assured that capacity was
sufficient for any need then in
(See SHIPS, Page ABB