THE FLIVVER DESTROYER

The ideal craft with which to comb submarines is now being constructed. Henry Fond, otherwise known as the manufacturer of popular automobiles, has become a ship-builder. On his ways at Detroit he has already laid the keel of a future terror of the seas. Since the Government found that Ford could turn out a most capable though small model of a normal-sized auto, it has requested him to devise a destroyer on the same principles. These boats will be completed as rapidly as possible, probably one a day.

Unlike a first-class flivver, speed is to be the prime requisite, for to catch the elusive U-boat one must be able to sail circles around it. As is to be expected, comfort will not be found in anything built at the Ford plant. Much less will Wilhelm II rejoice at the thought of these pests among his imperial submersibles, for he can no longer rest assured of his weekly and ever-weakening toll of Allied vessels. Per chance Kultur will make him scoff when he hears a flivver manufacturer is going to check his naval warfare, but more likely he will increase the number or improve the type of his underwater raiders. In spite of baffled expectations to spend the last few winters in popular European resorts, the Kaiser has not yet given up hope. The large submarine sinking claimed at times by the British, and the constant precautions to convoy vessels show the imperial shipyards can still turn out a large fleet. We doubt, however, if German efficiency will be as effective as Henry Ford's experience, when rapid work is to be done.