Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-09-28
War VIGOROUSLY Make PERMANENTLY PROkPL
Salute to Merchant
r. Marine
By HARRY M. SCHLACHT

By HARRY M. SCHLACHT
TO-DAY is victory fleet day.
i 1t commentaries the third anniversary of the
birth of the wartime merchant fleet.
1t marks the launching of the first Liberty Ship,
the "PATRICK HENRY"
1t sautes the American Flag lines successful &C.
complishments of the most complete and most
dangerous transportation task in history.
LII HONOR and glory is due the merchant
n marine.
The bridge of liberty ships constructed by and
under the direction of the United States mari
time commission is one of the miracles of
mankind.
The maintenance of this magnificent armada
under the supervision of Adm. Emory S. Land,
chairman of the United States Shipping Adj
miniStration, is a proud record Of our national
ingenuity and industry
They have been our life-lines to our battle-lines
THE ships are the finest that sail the oceans.
They have covered the four corners Of the earth.
They have traversed the stretch of the seven seas.
They have transported our troops and sinews of
war to the far-fung flaming fronts.
They have won the everlasting gratitude of the
United Nations
They will ever command the admiration of the
world.
THE navy which in peacetime is our first line of
1 defense has become the first line of offense.
But neither defense nor ofenSe can be sustained
without merchant marine.
1t has always risen to the need of the hour.
1t is doing no less now.
1t has kept open the sea lanes that will ultimately
lead to victory and the unconditional sur
render.
1t will carry on until the last man has been re-
turned from his fighting post.
"\7ICTORY fleet day means that the American
Merchant Marine has delivered the goods
and will keep doing it until the last shot
is fired" declared Frank j. Taylor, president
of the American Merchant Marine Institute
T EFT us today tender our loving tribute to the
II men and women who sail and who built our
victory ships.
Let us honor them for their unhinching courage
their sterling patriotism and their unre-
hitting labor.
They are daily facing untold dangers
Thousands of them have gone down. and thou
sands more are risking their lives plying their
ships through storms, mine fields, dive bomb
erS and other perlS of the waters.
There is no more heart-strring saga in the annals
of maritime literature than the story of the
merchant seamen.
| y ALL their Su1tellngS and pr1VatlonS these
l. gallant men are guided by one all-pervadng
thought-that our American way of life as we
have learned to cherish il, may forever endure
Into their souls has entered the love Of freedom
which no dictator's hand can crush, nor
tyrants weapons destroy.
The spirit of these intrepid seamen is the Spirit of
America.
Wherever the English tongue is spoken there will
always be the story and the glory of these un-
sung heroes of the seas.
THANK God for the Merchant Marine.
May we always have one-in war and in peace.
May it ever sail on and on to eternal glory
May the Angel of Peace yet look down upon serene
waters under smiling skies and the anguish of
the sea shall be no more.
NEW YORK, Aug. %, 1914.
w. Il. HEARST:
YOUR patriotic interest in the American Mer-
L chant Marine evidenced repeatedly over the