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Show I Million Tons of Shipping To Be Completed in U. S. by Marcli First CD' "WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, American r shipyards will complete 1,000,000 tons ; of ships by March 1, Chairman Hurley I' : of the shipping board today told a conference of Atlantic coast builders I . and government officials called to dis-j I cuss speeding up tho shipbuilding pro-j I ' gram. I "In tho whole of 1916." said Mr. Hur- I 1 ley, "we turned out littlo over 750,000 J I i , tons. We will achieve In the noxt four I ; months far more than we achieved in it twelve months. Tho new goal of our I ; expectations is ten times tho produc- I ; l tion of 191G. But we can't achieve this A by ordinary methods, by normal cner- I ' g'y or by average initiative. This is ; an extraordinary period In tho coun- I ii try's history. We nro confronted with I 1 an abnormal task and must apply I : abnormal methods. Every ounce of J i our energy and initiative must bo dl- Jgj rected toward the achievement of the 09 greatest task ever imposed upon a na Kj3f tion in war." 5-3 The chief subjects taken up at the vm&z. meeting wero increasing the labor Hi supply and better co-operation between the government and shipbuilders. "Tho government alone," continued Mr. Hurley, "no matter how willing and anxious it is to do its part cannot bring the production of ships io the maximum capacity of tho country. Nor can the shipyards alono do it. The labor of the country, no matter how intelligent, skillful and patriotic, cannot can-not accomplish it by Itself, J)ut working work-ing together, determined to forgot everything ev-erything but the national welfare wo can achieve the goal wo have set for ourselves. Working even n.s we are we have accomplished remarkable results. "I want to pay a tribute to tho patriotism pa-triotism of labor In this situation. Shipyard Ship-yard owners probably do not understand under-stand tho obstacles which the patriotic laborer of the country has had to ov-.ercome. ov-.ercome. Nor does labor fully understand under-stand oach other better, pull togother and speed up that Admiral Capps and I called this meeting. Great 1918 Program. "We will build six million dead weight tons of ships in 1918. I Bay wc aro going to do It rather, than that wo are going to try to do It, because anything America sets out to do sho does. As a fighting nation wo have a clean record for victory. Wc have the men, we have tho money and we have a cause that is right. In striving for this new goal wo aro cutting out red tape. Whatever help labor needs we shall give to labor. Whatever holp tho shipyards need we shall give to tho shipyards. "Wo want tbo labor representatives who are here to tell us the best way to speed up and augment tho labor supply. Wo want tho shipyards to tell us what they think will facilitate tho work of production. "Tho young Americans in tho trenches trench-es are offoring the supreme sacrifice of their lives. Thoir safety and their success suc-cess dopend on us. Much less is required re-quired of us Uian of them and I am confident that everything wo have to give will be given in tho same SDlrit of unselfishness." , |