The Washington correspondent of the Associated Press states that Congress will be asked to appropriate $1,000,000,000 (£200,000,000) for the building of an American merchant fleet to overcome the submarine menace.
The program of the Shipping Board contemplates the diversion to the Government of the product of every steel-mill in the United States and the cancelation of existing contracts between the mills and private consumers, and, where necessary, the payment of damages by the Government to the parties whose contracts are canceled. The Board estimates that from five to six million tons of steel and wooden vessels will be constructed by the Government in the next two years.
Associated Press,
Washington, May 8, 1917.
