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Show WASHINGTON NEiWS SmBm FROM OUR CONGRESSMAN W. K. GRANGER The Greatest Ship Building Pro-tram Pro-tram the World Has Ever Seen Goes Ahead at Full Speed In my article last week, I explained that our ihip building program Is divided into three divisions, normal, emergency emer-gency and naval. The emergency program means merchant ships of a standardized .design; war freighters freight-ers of a slower speed, but designed for mass production. Naval building: In order to double the size of our present navy, an unprecendented program of ship building has begun. By 1944 we ex-Dect ex-Dect to have finished mast of our program, which wi'.l mean 206 destroyers, de-stroyers, 17 huge battleships, 12 airplane air-plane curriers, 81 submarines and 54 cruisers. In addition, the navy Is building around 400 patrol and torpedo tor-pedo boats. For the next three yeais the naval program will take .up more than half of our available ship yards. Our normal merchant ship program Is 50 ships a year, but this has been speeded up to such an extent ex-tent that instead of 50 by the -nd of the year, we will have 100; and the emergency program will add another 260 ships to this total by June 1942. At this rate our ship building program will turn out 400 ships a year. This in itself is an undertaking of gigantic proportions. Yet, In addition, we are producing 770 fighting ships. American Ship Aid to Britain Over 1,200.000 Tons The United States has supplied Breat Britain with more than 755,000 tons of cargo ships since October 1939. Of this total, 60,985 tons have been transferred trans-ferred to Canadian registry. Including In-cluding ships going to alien registry regis-try friendly to Great Britain, American Ameri-can tranfers affecting the British overseas lifeline total about 1,200,- uuu ions, iTansierrea to Kngjana were 199 ships and to neutral nations na-tions friendly to Britain, 85. The transfers to foreign registry have netted the Maritime Commission about $9,000,000 and American private pri-vate owners about $50,000,000, of which $25,000,000 has been turned ovar to the commission to finance new ships. Farmers Seek To Solve Agricultural Agricul-tural Problems Thousands of farmers the country over are studying study-ing and planning the solution of agricultural social and economic problems posed by the impact of war and national defense. Grassroots Grass-roots planning committees working with state and federal agricultural research and action agencies are reported functioning in more than 1,500 agricultural counties. Cooperative planning by farmers and public officials was started two years ago by agreement between the land grant colleges, state and federal agricultural extension serv- ices and the United States Department Depart-ment -of Agriculture. At the end of the first year of operation more than 7,000 community planning committees com-mittees composed of farmers were in operation. The significance of the land use planning effort is national defense is threefold: .1 Its outstanding possibility as a means for effective participation by farmers themselves in action to deal with problems of emergency. 2 Its usefulness as a means of welding diverse elements of a national na-tional effort, so far as agriculture is concerned, into a single effective whole. 3 Its usefulness as a means of fitting a national effort to local conditions. Studies have been made of the behavior of farm-commodity prices at the outbreak of the European war, and the spread between farm and retail prices of foods, as contrasted con-trasted with the current situation. Civilian Conservation Corps Congress will be asked to authorize the Civilian Conservation Corps to use $3,000,000 of its funds for operation and maintenance of les motor repair division. Army-Navy Board To Determine Priorities A new working agreement agree-ment for the operation of the priorities pri-orities system under which the Army and Navy Board will determine deter-mine priority ratings for a critical list of military items, such as guns, tanks, airplanes and ammunition, was announced by the office of production management. Authority over priority ratings for all raw materials and extensions of ratings below the first sub-contractor will be in the hands of the priorities division. Defense Program Stimulates Industry In-dustry Industrial activity during; the first year of operation of the defense program has been strongly stimulated by the construction . of new defense plants and by the direct orders for military equipment, but a more important factor in thp rise has been forward buying by business men and consumers who have anticipated later shortages or higher prices. |