MR. FORD’S RECORD IN SHIPBUILDING.

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. NEW YORK, Tuesday.

By the time this cablegram is printed in The Daily Telegraph the first of Mr. Henry Ford’s “Eagle” boats, quite the newest and most distinctively American idea in naval craft, will have been launched: within a few days a dozen more will be afloat, and by February there will be hundreds in commission, fully equipped or submarine-chasing, with the latest devices, and manned by American bluejackets. The wonderful story of the Eagle boats, as I heard it in Washington and at Detroit, where Mr. Henry Ford mobilised all his unrivalled mechanical facilities for the express purpose of helping to defeat the German machine, will prove an inspiration to. every Allied country. It is an epitome in one department of what American energy, enterprise, and resourcefulness are accomplishing in many: it is a concrete proof of the statement that, though the pre-natal processes may be long and arduous, yet the delivery of war implements, when their time has been fulfilled, is most prolific. The story of the Eagle boats is fascinating and instructive, because in due course of time it will be repeated in the quantity production of ships, aeroplanes, guns, Liberty motors, tanks, and motor trucks. Americans believe they must fight hard to win the war, and the one way to kill militarism, apart from sending plenty of soldiers and preparing for a long war, so as to enhance the prospect of a short war, is to marshal engines of war in such numbers that the German people themselves will see the handwriting on the wall. Germany willed a machine-war, and you will find, as soon as the Americans’ contribution is in the field, at a time considerably earlier than anybody in Berlin thought possible, let alone probable, that Germany will have her wish with a vengeance.