W

HEN the United States set for itself the task of building the mightiest mercantile marine in history, and this in the shortest possible time, it was confronted with obstacles seemingly insurmountable.

To begin with the United States has long since ceased to be a maritime nation, and in order to fulfill its contract hundreds of thousands of ship yard workers, not only had to be recruited, but trained for the work ahead. Another obstacle, and this even more formidable, was the lack of shipyards.

The United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, face to face with the most titanic undertaking in all time, soon rallied to its colors men from all ranks; each an expert in his line. Long before the public awoke to the realization of the crying need of ships, ground was being broken for the most extensive ship yards in the world. Better still, the ship yards already in existence, were instructed to enlarge their plants, which they did, and within a few weeks contracts had been let for more tonnage than this Nation ever dreamed of possessing. The clatter of hammers and the rattle of the riveters resounded from ocean to ocean, and this din proved far more ominous to the Kaiser than the roar of the big guns at the battle front.

In an incredibly short time these ship yards, old and new, were actually engaged in the building of ships. Each was working under conditions unparalleled in this country. Domestic and expert commerce had reached such proportions that the railroads were literally choked to death with accumulated freight.

While materials destined for ship yards were given the right of way in the majority of instances, railroad freight transfer stations and their terminals were so completely blocked with loaded cars that in many cases weeks

were consumed by tracers in locating missing shipments.

Then, too, the climatic conditions were more cruelly adverse than the oldest inhabitant could recall. Men engaged in constructing ship yards suffered so acutely that in many of these yards Hog Island for instance the men worked in such short shifts, that sometimes five men were required to do the work of one. Yet despite this bitter weather there was no cessation in the work of making the yards and ways ready for the influx for the army of shipbuilders that was being recruited.

When the actual work of building ships began ship yard workers, like their brothers in other trades, looked upon the program ahead as a harvest for artisan and laborer. Some, it is true, were fired with that patriotic spirit which swept this country when war was declared, but unfortunately the great majority regarded this as their one opportunity, and they were determined to make all possible out of this chance.

The high rate of wages that was being paid made it possible for these shipworkers to work three full days, crowd in two or three hours of over-time, and then loaf the remaining three days of the working week. They figured that their full time plus over-time netted them a full pay envelope, and as long as Uncle Sam was rich, and there were plenty of men to do the work, why worry!

This spirit and practice grew to such alarming proportions that the Emergency Fleet Corporation saw the necessity of making direct and personal appeals to the men on the ships. To this end the National Service Section was organized.

Dr. Charles A. Eaton, pastor of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church, New York City, in the course of an address before the Naval

Architects placed his finger directly on the pulse of ship yard labor, and there described the sole remedy for the ailment. His address so impressed the architects and members of the Shipping Board, that he was summoned to Washington for a conference, with the result that he accepted the post of head of the National Service Section, and set to work with a will to effect an organization, and bring it into being.

On February 1st the National Service Section was installed in a beautiful suite of offices in the Manhattan Hotel, donated for the period of the war through the patriotism and generosity of Mr. John MacE. Bowman, president of the Biltmore Hotel Company, who also owns the Manhattan.

This organization consists of Dr. Charles A. Eaton, head, a secretary and manager of the Publicity Department; Horace L. Day, a wellknown business man of New York, as business secretary, and Lieut.-Col. I. Thord Gray of the British Army, who set to work to reIcruit British and Canadian officers to his speaking staff in order to visit all the ship yards and spread the speed-up gospel therein.

This organization has grown to large proportions. Now there is a large corps of speakers and service men who are rendering valuable services in the ship yards.

It is the purpose of the Section to so extend its services that by May 1st, one or more speakers will visit each of the 132 ship yards on the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, Puget Sound and Great Lakes shores. The visits of the speakers will be made weekly, so that always the fires of patriotism will be kept burning, and the lagging spirits of the workmen nourished and stimulated to their best efforts.

It is also proposed to have one of the Section's own service men in each of these 132 yards, where he will daily and hourly mingle with the superintendents, foremen, key and leading men, as well as with the workmen. themselves. In this way these service men will establish personal relations with each yard, whereby his propaganda, and that of the Section, can be spread throughout the length and breadth of the plant. In each case these men are tried and true experts in their line. Many

of them have had long experience in dealing with men in industrial plants. Others have been Y. M. C. A. workers, while not a few are ministers of various denominations, picked for this work because of their success in appealing to and ingratiating themselves in the affections of men, both young and old.

The Section from time to time issued literature of various sorts, the keynote of each being a patriotic appeal, calculated to reach the soul of the ship worker. In some instances these have become known in the ship yards as "spoons full of patriotism," consisting of neatly printed cards bearing some striking sentence or paragraph from the speech or writing. of some noted man, while discussing the need of ships and the Nation's peril without them. These cards are slipped into pay envelopes of each of the ship yard workers so that every man in the yard when he draws his bank notes from the enveolpe, finds a reminder of his duty to his employer, and to his Nation.

It is further intended to reach the wives, sisters, sweethearts, and children of the ship yard workers. So far this has been almost impossible because of the scattered localities in which they dwell. But when the housing problem will have been solved, and the ship yard workers dwell in little communities of their own, Red Cross centers, work rooms, meeting places, etc., for these women will be established, so that they will come to realize the necessity of ships to the extent that they, upon their return home, will urge on the men of the family to better efforts.

Similar propaganda is to be carried on through the schools where children of the ship yard workers attend, and when the youngsters return to their homes in the evening, they will be able to discuss with their parents with intelligence, the need of ships, and the part each man must play in order to bring them into being.

When Dr. Eaton and his large corps of speakers started their work in February they were cordially welcomed in all of the yards. visited. More than 100,000 ship yard workers between Boston and the Newark Bay district were appealed to in that month. By that time the organization had so expanded that in the