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Show ADMIRAL HARRIS I RESIGNS POST jiF General Reorganization of ,m Fleet Corporation Is to A '? Take Place. rm : CONDITIONS EXCELLENT - M Sj . Work Progressing Everywhere ,y H - as Fast as Human Hands : M "Can Make It. Oh H WASHINGTON, Dec. 18. Further reorganization of the government's '3 shipbuilding board was announced to- . "jj day with the resignation of Rear V$ ' t Admiral Harris as general manager of IPv v'-J ! tne emergency fleet corporation and ' 'r'i j-j the appointment of Charles Piez of jg'.. 3 'j Chicago to succeed him. Kw'-' With the announcement of the $H&V't' changes, Chairman Hurley disclosed $fP' j j that the progress of building ships i ':ff' , . ; was going forward more rapidly than " W ' naa 6enerally been known l A general reorganization of the fleet- corporation will follow. Rear .-f Admiral Bowles, aide to Admiral u r i Harris, will be given an important' I.- place in the new organization. . ' , ' James Heyworth will take full f , J charge of wooden construction and J Charles Day will become manager of; Jig-, , , ; the production department. i mZ'. Admiral Harris' resignation was ac-1 0 ' i spied. Chairman Hurley announced,1 -'f' because of his insistence on moving' Plv ' lne f,ice8 of the corporation to. (! Shipping Conditions Excellent. The shipbuilding program, Chairman Chair-man Hurley announced, is In better shape than' any time since it was launched. Conditions on the Pacific coast are excellent, he declared, and work is progressing everywhere as fast'as human labor can turn it out. At present there are under construction con-struction and under contract, it was announced. 8.395.30S deadweight tons of shipping. Harris Asks to Be Reassigned. Admiral Harris has asked that he be reassigned to the post of chief of the navy bureau of yards and docks uhich he held before succeeding Rear Admiral Capps as fleet corporation j manager less .than a month ago. it was said today the cause of Rear Admiral Harris' request to be relieved from his duties as general manager of the emergency fleet corportion was a disagreement with Chairman Hurley of the shipping board, over the expenditure expendi-ture of $12,000,000 for the housing of employes at shipbuilding plants. Chairman Chair-man Hurley is aaid to have disapproved disap-proved Admiral Harris' plan of going ahead and spending the money immediately. imme-diately. He desired first to consult the council of national defense housing committee with which trustees of the fleet corporation have been working on plhns. Chairman Hurley is understood to' have made a report to the president j setting forth fully the shipbuilding! situation. This report is very opti- j mlstic, it is said, and discloses condi-' tions to be more favorable than had liROn C1llnnf-irl -. nvl.l i 1 1 Hurley Makes Statement i HE ""Admiral Harris, upon the retiro- SIE ment of Admiral Capps. on December MfW: l' 011 CC0UnL ot 111 health was desig-' WlW ' nated general manager," said Chair- Mlg; I inan Hurley In a prepared statement. Iflllli.il "While the re-organlzatlon was in HlPd) Progress he suggested to me that the 'IiIkS1 eiQcrgency fleet corporation be moved HIhRm t0 PhIlaclelPnin- I suggested that a nllgj.' matter of this kind, involving policy as ttllRH vol I as possible executive approval jSIEg would have to be submitted to the nlKl' board of trustees as it would be aub- IIiEr ' mltted in any corporation to the board Ittr of directors. Admiral Harris also want- lyiffif- ed to give his immediate approval to ah expenditure of $12,000,000 for hous- nfllB lns operations in connection with the rill Eft shipyards. This being a departure from MalBP' tlie corporation's functions of ship-' hk building, I felt thai, the trustees should I aliEj'. Pass upon it. j3Ih?- 'Admiral Harris then expressed his tgd I W: opinion that his authority was to be BIIk: limited and he would be able to render AmIhI more service elsewhere. The board of ljlrev trustees concurred in this judgment, sMfr-' feeling that their duty required careful consideration of projects apart from jSiSr piez We" Eq.u'ppcc1 for Pa3t 'gg&l' "The grasp of Mr. Piez upon the , whole shipbuilding program has been ' so strong, his knowledge of actual con- dltlons in the yards so definite as a result re-sult of his study in the field that the best results can be obtained by combining com-bining his functions with that of gen-I gen-I eral manager. J "Ab a result of reorganization there , is already a great improvement in all 1 the yards. Lloyd's has Just made a re-I re-I port which has been carefully check-' check-' ed up and which shows that there is a 1 better basis for optimism than there has been at any time since the emergency emer-gency program was launched. Records Broken on Coast "On the Pacific coast the improvement improve-ment has been so great that records have been broken in the spoed with which ships are being turned out. The reports of Admiral Bowles show that construction work is progressing as fast as human labor can turn it out The plans of last May have been translated trans-lated into hulls on the ship ways and into ships on the seas. We are close to the point where the results of what has been done will be apparent to everyone. "The carefully checked figures of Admiral Bowles show S.395.308 dead weight tons under construction and under contract." Congressional investigation or the shipping board, in view of the troubles that have developed in its organization, organiza-tion, was proposed in a resolution today to-day proposed by Representative Edmunds Ed-munds of Pennsylvania, a Republican member of the committee on merchant marine. |