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Show OTHS have passed since the program of one thousand wooden ships was first mooted. The first deliveries were to be within a few months. Today Washington is still discussing the merits of various types of ships. But time, tide, and submarines do not wait for lawyers and lumber men to revive wooden ships. Property owners with riparian rights called their lands ship yards, and tried to raise capital on the expectation of government orders. Construction companies that never built a ship in their existence have been given orders for ships. Little might be said about these mushrooms, did they not cause labor and material to be deflected from ship, building yards that could guarantee deliveries, de-liveries, based on experience. But the saddest phase of the situation is that not only is Europe begging for ships, but we are in desperate need of them for our army supplies. It would be moral murder to send troops to Europe without supplies. The steel ship is not an experiment, and with right co-operation steel ships can be built. The fundamental theory of transportation is to deliver supplies with the least loss. Tile solution of the submarine menace, of course, is to destroy the evil itself, it-self, but the next best thing is to build ships that have a chance of evading submarines. sub-marines. A ten-knot wooden ship would be an easy prey for submarines. Big, fast steel ships must be built; destroyers must be built. "R ,U means order wooden ships, but keep them in the coastwise, South Amern, nd Pacific services, serv-ices, and relieve steel steamers now on those routes. But whatever is to be done, don't delay. Delay is murder. Wall Street Journal. |