The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-26
BLACK COUNTRY
 OF THE PRUSSIANS
Frank c. Carpenter Writes The Ad- vertiser from Essen on the Ruhr.
 The City of Krupps.

the United States government, which show that have nothing to do with steel and am thus enabled to give an inside view of this. the chief industrial institu- ton of continental Europe.
 Come with me and take glance at the works. We might spend days and not 90 through them all. Seq this yard filled with steel rails just from the rolling mills There are miles of them. They are being shipped to different parts of Germany and also to Russia and the South American republics. Further on is an inclosure full of mighty cannon. The unmounted guns are scattered over the sod as thiclgly as the leaves of vallombrosa- Next door are steel plates for ships, and there at the right are bridge materials ready to start out for all parts of the world. The krupps have their drummers on every continent and in almost every country. I have met them in South America. in Ja- pan and in China, and they are now work ing every part of South Africa.
 Europe's Greatest Gunsmakers.
 Among the great products of this fac tory are guns and munitions of war. The Krupps have been making guns for mcre than half a century. Alfred Krupp, the grandfather of the man who died . few months ago. made cast steel cannon as far back as 1S47. and in 1880 old Kaiser Wilhelm gave him his first order for the German army. am told that the frst cannon were not . success. but those
 which followed were, and the Franco | Prussian war was fought with materials | supplied by the Krupps. Today Germany | gets the most of it's war supplies here. and Krupp guns are used by the Russians. | the Turks. the Italians. the Japanese and l in fact, in almost every part of the world. l I was in Germany at the time of the l Dusseldorf exposition, where the Krupps
 had samples of their best guns. as wen | as the great armor plates which have been penetrated by them. The guns were | of all sizes. some small enough to be I mounted on the back of mule and ott- CTS which sent forth steel projectiles q l foot thick and as high as your waist. | weighing half ton. Today the Krupps make single guns which weigh 120 tons and which. notwithstanding this weight are manipulated by such machinery that a child could operate them.
 In the Gun Shops.
 Notice some of the guns as they He on | the floor of the shop! Their barrels are so large that a twenty-pound baby could l crawl through them. and the weight of each is so great that 1t would take 100 horses to houI them. See how they are handled! They are carried from one end of the shop to the other more easily than you bring in an armful of wood to the fire. That little man under the roof touches button and twelve-inch gun is picked up by a travelling crane and car- ried from one end of the shop to the other. If we had wek we might study the making of the guns. The iron Is kneadsd like dough. After 1t comes from the fur. mace the red hot mass Is pounded into shape as blacksmith pounds a horse shoe. The hole is bored into 1t as easily as a boy bores out a pop-gun. and the hard metal Is planed down as a carpenter planes a board. The Krupps take fifty tons of the toughest metal and handle it as easily as the blacksmith. the car- penter and the boy handle their tools. Everything is done by machinery and everything must be scientifically correct. It takes a long time to make a gun. and the biggest of them. if rightly remen- ber costs as much as s100.006.
 Among the Krupp Workmen.
 But cannot begin to describe the processes. The machinery is that of a thousand workshops under one head. Krupp has his own school of inventors, where men are always experimenting and a tories, and at Mappan there are large ex- perimentai grounds. where guns and pro. jectiles are practically tested. Shortly before he died the kaiser was here exam ming some new guns. and only thirty were present when the tests were made.
 The Krupp work-nen are of all classes. It takes an army of clerks for the of-
 fees, and there are hordes of commercial travellers on the road. He has more than 1.2oo mechanics in his building depart ment and dozens of architects and fub- architects. The thousands of men In the shops are dressed In blue jeans, and many wear wooden clogs. They appear well fed and more than ordinarily in- telliRent. They are tip to the best of the French laborers and better looKing and better dressed than those of Shef- field and Birmingham.
 Hour of Work.
 As went through the shops I asked something as to wages and hours of work The usual day begins at and at 8 and the men stop a quarter of an hour for rest and a cup of coffee. They then work on until noon when their wives or children bring their midday meal. They have an hour and half at this time, and then work on until 4, Then there Is another fifteen minutes for rest and cof- fee. or beer, when they go back and work on until 6, putting in on the average of ten-hour day.
 The men are paid by the hour and not by the day. and they are glad to work as long as possible. There are. am told. no trade unions connected with the works and so far no trouble has been had with strikes. Wages are much lower than with us. not only in the foundries. but also in other branches. Bhicklayers. for instance, receive from to cents an hour and common workmen cents. Foremen get $l.5O day.
 The men are well treated. Every foundry has it's wash house and bath room, and each man has a locker for his clothes. Hot water for coffee Is free, and every employe has all the advantages of the Krupp woridngmen's clubs. the Krupp libraries and Krupp stores, which I describe further on.
 Mir Krtlpp tried to keep track Of his individual workmen. He courted com plaints and was ready to remedy any injustice Men who were discharged with- | out cause were sure of reinstanent, and this fact was so well known to the of- ncials that few such dismissals were made The greatest care is taken to minimize accidents. All dangerous machinery Is painted q bright red, whicn