The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-28

comes down from the mines in great barges lowed in by steam, and it Is un- loaded by coolies who carry out the Jumps of iron stone in little rope baskets as big around as a wash basin. A half dozen or more chunks of red ore are piled up in each basket and the coolie has two of these slung to the ends of pole which rests on his shoulders, his load weighing perhaps 100 pounds. This is dropped into cars and is thus carried to the smelting furnaces a half mile further on. The coolies who land the ore each receive one cent per hour. Near where such work was going on I saw modern cranes operated by steam en- zines lifting great castings and carrying them from one end of the yard to the other; and further on. inside the shop travelling cranes handling pieces of iron of 50 tons each. In the same place they were casting steel ingots, and not far away the ingots, blazing hot, were passed through one set of rollers after another until they became writhing, flaming boa constrictors, and finally steel rails of the cold blue color which they have when first-laid on our railroad tracks.
 Chinese as Steel Workers.
 I asked MT. Ruppert as to the Chinese as steel workers. He replied:
 At the start they are not equal to Europeans, but we can train them to be as good, man for man, as any workman of the word. I have been employing Chinese for IT years and have used thou sands right in these works. They are quick to learn. All we need to do is to put a trained man over each new hand for couple of weeks, and after that the amateur can be relied upon to do the work for himself. This Is so even with complicated machinery. Take our new electric travelling cranes. If I have an employe who understands them I can let a Chinese coolie work with him for six days, and after that the coolie will handle the machine. All of our opera tions, in making every class of structural steel, are performed by Chinese. They do their work honestly and well. And all that is necessary is to have a good fore man in charge of each shop, and this is chiefly to keep the men from going to sleep. We prefer to use foreigners for foremen, and now have something like IS or 20 in our employ as such. They are chiefly Germans or Belgans."
 Low Wages for Chinese.
 What kind of wages do you pay?''
 ''Our Chinese mechanics and mill men get from $1o to s8O Mexican per month; that is, from s4 to $32 gold per month, or from $1 to s8 gold per week. This is high In comparison with the wages through out the country, the common laborer outside receiving only about 10 cents a day.
 What are your hours9'
 ''They are 12 on all days except Sum- days when they are 24. We work day and night shifts. On Sunday we change the shifts and for that reason they have double hours. This F hours includes one hour off for lunch. with double that time or more on Sunday"
 "Do you have many strikes?"
 We have never had one, and have never had to shut down on account of labor troubles. We treat our men we'll and they are attached to us. We have tenement houses which we rent to them at low rates; and also first-class hospital with European doctors. We expect to establish Q library and reading rooms, and also a technical school"
 The Plant In Nutshell.
 Before leaving the works I asked MT Ruppert to give me an outline story of the plant in a nutshell. Here Is the gist of his reply:
 ''The Hang Yang works were founded in 1888 by Chang Chi Tung the installa- ton plant being ordered through the Chinese ministry at London of English and Belgian firms This consisted of three blast furnaces of 60 tons each, a Bessemer plant with two converters of five tons each, a Siemens-M Martin furnace of ten tons capacity, 20 pudding furnaces with one bloom mill, plate and bar mill and one rail mill of $500 horsepower To this installation were added the foundry and the shops for general re- pairs.
 'The works were started in 1894 and at the same time were built an imperial ar senal for making firearms and ammuni- ton, crucible steel and also a plant for the manufacture of powder and explo- sives. Until 1897 both the arsenal and iron works were under one management and then the iron works went into the hands of his excellency, Sheng Kung Pao.
 Tt was under Sheng that the new plant was built. Everything was then modernized and plans were instituted which will eventually result in giving us 1000 tons of finished steel per day.
 At the present the works comprise two old blast furnaces producing 120 tons per day, and two new ones, one being now under construction. each of which will produce 50 tons per day.
 'The steel works now have three Sie- mens- Martin furnaces of 30 tons each, and one of ten tons, with two more un- der construction and five under projection There is a metal mixer of 150 tons capao- ity, rolling mill with ingot-heating fur naces, which has gogging mill of 75OO horsepower. a beam mill of 12,50o horse- power, 6 plate mill of 75oO and a rail mill of $500 horsepower, together with several bar and speed mills of 150 horsepower each Tn addition to this we have 8 chemical laboratory and testing works, large office buildings and all the other appliances of an up to date steel-making plant"