Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-07

tions industry-tme
Today Frances cannon and shell fac
tories are using up time at. the rate Of
over 100000 working hours day. II
is said that the guns in the north are
not as hungry, of late. as they used to be.
One has no need to visit the battle
fields in the north OF France to sense
the titanic proportions of this war A
walk through any big French shell or
cannon factory cannot fail to impress one
with the immensely Of the struggle now
in progress.
Take. for example. the giant steel pIant
at Montlucon. Here the air is choked
with smoke from scores of towering
chimneys above the blast furnaces and
the engine rooms: shop after shop
stretches away in every direction farther
than the eve can pierce through the thick
smoke haze: miles of sinuous. narrow
gauge railways bear putting engines
dragging strings of steel-laden cars
hither and thither through the maze Of
quarter of the compass comes the steady
roar Of machinery working at top speed.
In one shop they are forging shells.
The red-hot steel Is being flung from
furnace to forge, from forge to cooling
tank. from cooling tank to rack with
bewildering rapidity by needless COM
pany of grimy half demons that handle
their tongs with an uncanny skill and
seem to have not the least fear In the
world of the hot metal, carelessly
they toss it about: the place resounds
with the shock of the drop-forges and
the sizzle of the hot steel in the cooling
tanks; it is a bedlam of fire, smoke and
din.
Farther on is another shop, strangely
silent. Here they are forging a steel
ingot for a big 105-millimeter cannon;
eT~l ~ svlov- frnov Of A0f
is swung almost noiselessly from seeth-
ing furnace and carried the length OF
the shop by a travelling electric crane
that places 1t gently beneath the waiting
hydraulic press.
A dozen men surround the monster In
got as 1t lies splitting and kissing on tho
anvil of the titan press. They wear neas
shields across their faces and smoked
glass goggles TO protect their eyes from
the dazzling light. With ponderous steel
graphing hooks and bars they push ana
tug at the mass of metal on the anvil
until it assumes the proper position
Then the press descendS. slowly, SILENT
ly. And beneath its noseless pressure
the glowing ingot fiattens and iengthens
INCREASINGLY as though 1t we're only SO
much red putty. For that quiet. inexofa-
Bile piston under which 1t lies is leaning
on it with the weight of 10000 tons.
Here one sees something OF the gigantic
forces that are being brought into play
behind the scenes Of war
again is a deafening uproar. A power,.ui
steam hammer is in action. Inc ouuu
ing shakes the ground trembies' the
din is indescribable -,...
The hammer rises ana Iaiis. -
and falls. with a regularity ana pte
cision of stroke that carries WIN ~
an IMPRESSION of irresistible strengn.
even more striking than the noise Oh
its mighty blows. A.. heating
n;ston lies a hollow cylinder OF reo-not
steel about the size of large amer
;car kitchen boiler. The cyiinoer ~
the clumsy incubus OF what one . "a
will he the thousand-pound proJecuie
Of a 370-millimeter siege gun: ~ Is
he;nq heaten into some sembiance OF
it's final shape by the terrific huhoreu
ton blows of the 'p!lon" that are MAJ
ing the earth quake and CULVER unoor
their violence.
4 Il
AGAIN one marvels at the immensely
NJ the forces that are brought 10 ehe
aid of those who play the game VI
war And through seeing these .so.cess.
at work and rejecting that tney arc
there night and day. week In ana weeA
,,,onth in and month out. endless
" living their trade Of death. tireiess-
~ hent to the forging of destruceion'
ono gains some notion of the masni-
tude of this war.
Even in the shops where tine women
work one gathers the same impression.
thoueh the great steam hammers .ns
sSra,,l,c presses, the furnaces. the
I,oEe and the uproar are not there
S,,t the intensity, the eagerness. tine
.Iin and speed which the women prine
sn their tasks of testing shells. or run
ming lanes If fierce purpose driving
sbem on that carries with 1t a pro
nelling power more tfreiess. more 70
I Il than IAN 16 oooo 9ala press.
mhere are $4,000 women In the shell
<.ar;es of France who are WORKING
under the impulse OF that unearenLy
living power They are to be reck-
oned with-they and the men they
,lnrk with. for. without the great
army of 300, 900 that bends by day and
by night to the lathe and the Iotse
IN S the factories of France that other
INV of millions that faces the Ger
man hosts in the trenches of the north
Momld he worth no more than so many
uniformed dummies. A rev oays
would suffice to wipe 1t out ana iease
Erance at the mercy of her enemies.
Albert Thomas, the French UNDER
secretary of artillery and munitions,
went to the great cannon factories AZ
Creuset asst August 10 denver an AZ
dress to the 5000 workers there. he
was not INDUCING in hyperboie when
he said to them: IF any danger couid
conceivably assail our country IN the
present hour that danger wouio De
for YOU deliberately to allow your.
selves to be overcome by fatigue and
led from your work into the easy hab-
its Of your former peace time ex-
istence For it is to you we look 10
make of our dream OF Victory tahsi-
BILE reality.
THE form of victory floats above
us, here in the smoke that fills this
valley. Comrades. it is upon you We
hi, n
France"
KENNETH PROCTOR LITTAUER.