The Wilmington morning star., 1946-09-02
Fair Enough
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1916, by King Features
Syndicate. Incl

Mead Committees investigating of the cost Of
the ceremonies with which cargo vessels, such
as Liberties and Victories, and men of war,
such as destroyers and cruisers, were launched
during the war. I doubt that much can be
made of this and tend to suspect that it is a
diversion intended to direct attention to a mock
scuffle at the far end of the car while the
fellow who has just lifted the leather out Of
the victims flash pocket slides out the door
and up the subway stairs. These ceremonies
are a tradition of the ship-building trade and
both Kaiser and Korndorff say not only that
their companies paid the expenses out of
profit but that the parties became more and
bleak until, when production was really rolling,
they were just little nip-ups and a nuisance,
at that.
The autombile and kindred industries were
MT called on to drape bunting over a pine
scatfold and take time out for speeches and
chicken salad every time a jeep or a tank
came off the line but the ship-builders were
stuck with an old custom which still was
honored by the Maritime Commission and the
Navy for purposes of that expensive phantom
called morale"
Old Henry says the maritime commission
selected some of the sponsors who invariably
are ladies, and that his company naturally
was expected to pay their freight from home
to home, usually double, because each lady
sponsor was allowed to pick a matron of honor
to travel with her, and put them up at the best
available hotel quarters, these weren't al
ways much better than a hutch in a tourist
camp, as you will recall if you were on the
road much during the war, and aren't palatial
yet, Neither, if it comes to that.
On a long haul by train, the sponsor and
her matron got a compartment or drawing
room, by contrast, to be sure, with the sit-up
and even stand-up accommodations that our
brave boys and their little brides had to make
IL ~ 49,; &~~~1,I %,~@~ 1-io- 4~I f~r H.
launching party, each girl got an orchid. Then,
in kaiser's yards, the sponsor usually got a
silver tray that cost $50 plus $3.50 tax, includ-
ing the engraving of her name, the name Of
the ship and the yard and the date. In some
cases, the souvenir was a silver cigarette box
with a glass bottm made from a true fragment
of the very bottle which the sponsor had crack
ed over the stem, giving the boat a little douse
of domestic champagne.
Henry said these guests were selected most
ly by the commission and sent to him and Il
assume we did the courteous thing and treat
ed them right" AS you will have observed
if you have talked much with Henry, in con-
he hops around like Father Divine
or Truman Arnold and I am not trying to ex-
plain how it could be that the Maritime Com
selected so many and the State De-
partment picked a lot and still Henry himself,
to recognize ladies actually employ
Gu III LIE SulpydIQS WIZ udO AdO SOuletuluS
to do with the creation of the ships they
I am not faulting him like a dis
trict attorney. He just isn't exact.
The State Department horned in when the
ships being launched were named for defunct
foreign politicians or statesmen of our gallant
allies or for heroic cities under the iron heel.
Some vessels were named for American col
leges and a few bore the names of young
Americans who had been killed in the war
ronfhnrr ~ yriua ;~Iy;foI - LII. |
en- them.
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt christened one
of Henry's carriers the Casablanca, which, as
he didn't neglect to add, did "such fine serv-
ice," but she arrived at Vancouver, Wash,
by plane and left by plane and Kaiser didn't
pay her way but just gave her the standard
silver tray. He didn't know whether the plane
was a government ship or what.
There was one launching of a ship for a
foreign government whose sponsor got a gift
of jewelry but Henry said they later with
drew the present" and rushed on to say they
didn't want cocktail parties or any liquor at all
at his yards and it's my fault that I didn't
corner him and make him say whether they
threw her down and ripped off the diamond
pin or necklace or whatever it was. But you
try it once and you will agree that it is a feat
to get two consecutive words on any subject,
or even one, out of Henry Kaiser.
Henry touched on the sallow social reputa-
ton of his launching parties which I got wind
of in San Francisco where kind friends told
me to duck them as they were generally all
choir singing by the happy workers and in
spirational speeches while I knew all about
the union rackets and the angry discomfort of
the good old common man behind his happy,
shining face SO now 1 guess he unde rstands
why I couldn't make it over there the time he
asked me at the peace conference.
He got a fee of $50, 900 each on Liberties
and his attitude is that if he shot a few nickels
of his own company's money for silver trays
and orchids that is his affair so please mind
your own business if you would be so kind.
Mr.. Korodorff says the custom of giving
presents to sponsors goes back to Helen of
Troy. who must have had a large trophy
room, but that, remembering quite a fuss
about the same thing after the first war, the
builders were more conservation this time.
Federal gave to the sponsors of destroyers a
standardized gold W. for victory which cost
$110 a copy at first but went up to 5000. Spon-
red, white and blue semi-precious stones, cost
ing $500.
Although Henry makes quite a virtue of the
fact that a person could have choked to death
for lack of a drink at his parties, Korndorff
said Federal served no liquor either because
everyone knows that knocks hell out of a
whole day and, moreover, if people know a
party is going to be dry they will find reasons
why they can't come. This was just fine for
Federal because the Navy didn't want any