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Show SHIPBUILDING CALLS FOR LABOR More Ships lo Transport Men, Munitions and Supplies is Our Greatest Need. " " The Secretary of the State Editorial Association of Portland. Oregon, informs in-forms us that Oregon's effort to do her part in the building of steel and wooden ships for the war is seriously crippled through lack of labor. Latest authentic information gathered gath-ered points to the necessity of employing em-ploying at once nearly 12,000 men in the shipbuilding business at Portland and between two and three thousand in the yards outside. With contracts already let and certain cer-tain to be placet! in the near future, it is stated by the shipbuilders that from 20,000 to 2i",000 men should be employed by the close of this year, or early next year. The work is on hand to give this employment and the ili maud for ships is growing greater every day. The development of an industry of this magnitude so suddenly has resulted re-sulted in drawing practically all of the available men within immediate reach, and already the shipbuilders of the sUite are urging laborers from all parts of the West to take positions in their plants. Appeals are coming from national officials and all the leail:ng business men of the East for all seaboard states to concentrate their supreme energies upon the program of building ships. This is declared to lie the greatest duty confronting the nation today and on every hand it is admitted frankly, despite the optimistic statments made of the position of the allied forces, that unless ships are built by America Amer-ica at a pace absolutely beyond the present program the effectiveness of the United States in the European War will be largely reduced. Germany Ger-many is counting implicitly upon destroying de-stroying more ships than are built to prevent America from participating extensively in the war. The submarine subma-rine program is making more rapid progress than the shipbuilding program. pro-gram. For these reasons the Federal government is putting the building of ships as the primary patriotic duty of the people of the country, and urging every person who can aid in the work to take it up with as much reverence and as much sense of duty as if they were enlisting in the army. America's food, munitions, arms and men cannot reach Europe without an adequate supply of ships. Best authorities author-ities declare these should be built of steel anil wood as rapidly as the forces of the country can be marshalled for the WO k. In the emergency evcy man who has any mechanical or artesan skill whatever is being adapted to some part of ship construction, wherever he desires to work. It has been necessary nec-essary to teach labor to do classes of work it has never undertaken before. All the facilities for such instruction are being provided by the ship yards, the government, and state, and men are having an opportunity to take up lines of employment never presented before at the best wages that have been known in the Pacific Northwest and perhaps the country. |