Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-06-03
FILLING Of WAR
ORDERS PROVING
NO SIMPLE TASK
Contracting Companies Face
Great Difficulties-TOO Heavy
Demands Made on Ma
chine Tool Market.

the delivery of $500 100000 worth of war
munitions ordered here for the allies is
threatened. 1t is learned by the Evening
Post, owing to the confusion arising
from the difficulties of turning railroad
equipment and other plants to these new
purposes and from the tremendous de-
mands made suddenly upon the machine
tool market. Officers Of the companies
accepting war orders. it is said. have
learned that it is one thing to sign con-
tract promising large and easy profits
and quite another thing to deliver the
goods as specified.
Capacity of American manufacturers
for turning out guns and ammunition is,
at the present time, remarkably small;
what amounts to the launching of a
great new enterprise has been entaied
in the placing of contracts for ammuni-
ton in quantities never before dreamed
of.
! Difficulties encountered in launching
this enterprise at the speed demanded
by the new contracts are developing
IA pidly. Testimony comes from numer-
Gus quarters of the obstacles which at
every turn confront the prospective man
ufacturer of war material. There Is a
dearth of necessary skilled labor, and a
shortage of ordnance machinery. The
machine tool market has become abso-
lutelv oongested, vet It Is essential to
those prospective makers of war NUM-
tons. with contracts calling for delivery
beginning September 1, that they should
secure at the earliest possible date large
quantities OF certain kinds of machine
tools and lathes.
LARGE ORDERS FOR TOOLS.
Orders placed Within short period call
for a total value of SIS, 600 to $50, 600 0oo
of tools; and all the companies which
manufacture tools and lathes have busi-
ness booked for so many months ahead
that their full capacity Is taken up
until the end of the third quarter Of
| the year. Thus, many equipment plants
which are being totally made over into
manufactures of guns and ammunition,
! and for which machine orders were with
| held too long, face a situation wherein
they will not be able to turn out the
material contracted for at the time called
for in their contracts.
! Managers of many railroad equipment
companies are finding themselves COM
PEELED to discard large quantities Of ma
chinery with which they had been turn
| ing out railway material At first it had
been thought that this would not be
necessary, that mere REIMBURSEMENT
would do. But the great volume Of war
orders pouring in from abroad in the
past eight weeks has made 1t necessary
to plan for complete transformation
of many of the factories
expected strain on the market for ord
nance machinery. but it has actually
swept clean the market for labor that
is skilled in this particular trade A ma
chine tool company which lately wanted
| four men to act as supervisors of less
experienced operatives addressed 60 let
tiers to men whose names had been placed
on its opportunity list at their request
only to find there was not one avail
able. Some concerns having war orders
have tried to overcome the difficulty by
so dividing and specializing their ma
chinery operations that practically un
skilled labor might be employed.
According to the Iron Age, which tell
Of this experiment, the plan is workini
out, but a distressing amount of super
| vision is necessary, while irregular frs
results have caused much anxiety,
MANUFACTURING IN MANY PLACE:
1t is now learned that, because o
the difficulties encountered by some man
ufacturers in securing proper equipment
the Canadian Car n Foundry company
| which has charge of subletting millions
of dollars worth of contracts In th
country, has been compelled to orde
parts Of shells from different manufac
turers, instead of whole shells Stee
work for thousands of shells Is to b
turned out In Pennsylvania or Ohio, bras
work in Indiana or New York fuse
and explosives elsewhere.
| The parts will be shipped to contra
point and assembled as they are made
! Costly delay will be entailed in this, no
only in time and money, but also in tn
danger of mistakes. Nevertheless, the i'm
possibility of securing required shells II
any other fashion gave the Canadian
company no other alternative than this
Specifications for explosive shells cal
for perfection in their productions if tn
foreign ordnance experts who are to su
pervise their output find a variation il
any portion of these shells of so much a
three one-thousandths of an inch. unde
the contracts signed by the manufa ctur
ers the work is to be rejected 1t is tn
need of securing men who will insur
this perfection of their output that /
beginning to add gray hairs to the head
of those corporation officials who a shor
time ago thought the booking of wa
order the greatest chance of securing a
easy fortune that ever presented itself
al I,i n
out with large fees, so serious is tn
shortage in their particular field. Tn
managers of machine tool plants in New
England which were not busy at the out
set of the war loaned some of their mel
to other plants on which the war deman'
fell most quickly. The lenders had tn
welfare Of their staff in mind, but now
with war orders OF their own to accoun
| for. they are looking for their men to re
turn. Man of the transferred employe
refuse to do so. They like their new sur
, rounding, and have been welded to thei
latest positions by large increases in thei
wages.
AVALANCHE OF ORDERS.
The most important buying of ordnanc
machinery has taken place within tn
past eight weeks, consequent on the plac
ing OF large British and Russian order
for shrapnel and rifles with the Canada
Car Foundry company, American Loco
motive company, Westinghouse Electrl
Manufacturing company, and othe
; concerns, The Bethlehem Steel corpora
ton. 1t is reported in steel and tool cir
cles, entered the market for lathes imme
diately upon the declaration Of hostilities
; and purchased large number of these