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Show CAN EVADE DRAFT BY HELPING TO BUILD SHTPS Washington, D. C, Dec. 7. Anybody Any-body who will help build ships will be excused from military service. This has been decided on by the government gov-ernment and will soon be officially announced. Also, any shipbuilders who happen to be in the cantonments can get their discharge by showing they were taken from shipbuilding and wish to go back. The government needs 250,000 men to expedite the shipbuilding program. Some must be skilled, but many need not be. There are 8,500,000 men now registered reg-istered as possible material for an additional selective service army. As the men now in camp are trained and sent abroad these other registrants regis-trants will be summoned. It is expected ex-pected many would prefer to go into the shipyards and serve their country coun-try that way. It is to he made clear by the government that no discredit will attach to the man who selects this industrial service, since there is nothing more important. If possible, possi-ble, the shipyards are to be run day and night. At several of the .yards when the time comes for assembling the parts now being constructed of the so-called "fabricated" ships as many as 15,000 men will be needed. Each shipyard will become a good sized city. Parts of the "fabricated" ships are now being constructed in every large city. These are largely steel plates, ribs, braces, etc. One firm, the American International Shipbuilding Ship-building company, has a contract for 120 ships, each of 7500 tons. The parts are being made, each part multiplied mul-tiplied by 120, and each part fitted and numbered, so when. they are assembled as-sembled at Hog Island, near Philadelphia, Phila-delphia, they will be slipped into place and will produce 120 steel ships. When the assembling of these ships begins next spring, ships will grow like magic. It is expected two ships a day will be launched. Another shipbuilding firm the Submarine Shipbuilding company of Newark, N. J., is building fifty fabricated fabri-cated ships of 5000 tons each: still another, the Merchants company, of Bristol, Pa., forty ships of 9000 tons each. Altogether, there are now more than 2,500,000 dead weight tons of shipping under construction, and next spring it Is expected an army of 500,000 men will be putting ship parts together. , . |