The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-05
IRELAND |SAT WORK MAKING MUNITIONS One Hundred and Seventy Firms Engaged in It BELFAST THE CENTER Textile Factories Are Making Cloth for Army-Vigorous Campaign to
 Increase Output of Food Is
 Under Way
BELFAST THE CENTER

Dublin, Ireland, November 20.-(Corre- spondence of the Associated Press )-Ire-
 land is now at work on a large scale in the 1 manufacture of munitions of war
 For several years past there has been l only one large Irish factory of war mate
 rial, kynochs, in County Wicklow. It IS an on-shoot of the Birmingham firm, or which Arthur Chamberlain, brother of the famous English statesman, was the
 head. But the necessities of the war have | in Ireland. as in England. turned other
 trades into munitions business When the oemand was made in Great Britain for a great extension of the manufacture of all sorts of war materials Mir. Redmond saw to 1t that Ireland should have a share Tn the scheme. Representatives of Mir Lloyd-George's new department came over
 to Ireland and got into touch with lead Ing business men in Dublin and through out the country. The Dublin Chamber of Commerce gave active assistance and formed special munitions committee Work We'll in Hand
 The work is now we'll in hand and no less than ITO firms in Ireland are engaged In It. Large orders have been placed in Duoiln, and one firm has got an order TOT 42o,o00, o small figure on the general scale of this war, but good deal or money for a city where employment IS scarce and industry backward MT. Lloyd-George has established in Dublin a branch office which is expected to insure not only the execution of war contracts put continuance of government work arter the war. central arsenal is be- ing constructed and equipped with spe- clal machinery. Every available machine ls being pressed into the service, even those used in the City of Dublin Tech meal schools for the training of pupils. lhe employees at the new works are to
 be divided into five classes, skilled and unskilled men, skilled and unskilled wom- en ana auxilfaries who will work at times when the regular hands are resting as at week-ends Employment Is not to be
 restricted to men outside military age, the idea being that the munitions worker Is as useful as the soldier
 Are Making Shells
 Belfast, whose main activity in the war interest has been the increase in the out put Of shipping from it's famous yards,
 has also gone seriously into the muni- tons business. Cork and Limerick and even some of the smaller towns through out the country are also employing all the machinery they can command in mak- ing shells or parts of shells.
 Munitions are not the only branch of war trade of which Ireland has demanded and received share. Some of the textile factories have had good orders for cloth- | ing materials. Ireland never has in the i past secured a fair share of government | expenditure, and at tho beginning of the
 war was greatly hampered in competing
 for contracts by the fact that the depots | for examining and receiving goods were in LoIS1on. Agitation, however, led to the
 establishment of a depot in Dublin, where l certain classes of goods of Irish manu- 1 fracture are dealt with. But there are
 still restrictions limiting the classes of
 goods, and an effort is being made to widen the utility of the depot by admit | ting to it all the goods produced in Ire land which are required for military and | other government services.
 Increases Food Production
 i Ireland's chief industry Is and must re-
 main agriculture, and one of the most | indispensable of war munitions is food, l A vigorous campaign has been instituted | under government auspices to increase the output of food products in Ireland.
 She used to be told that her function was l to be the fruitful mother of focks and herds. Now the cry is all for tillage. The difficulty is that the grazing ranch sys- tenn which belongs to the old theory has not been abolished, and the people have not complete access to the land. They are puzzled by the two voices with which trey are addressed on their duty in the war On the one hand they are told
 that it is the duty of the farmers to en-
 list, that the state has done good deal
 for the Irish farmer and that his time
 has come to show his gratitude by shoul-
 dering a rife in the new armies. Com.
 ment is freely made on the fact that the . farmers and the farmers sons have not , enlisted in the same proportion as othe classes. The complaint is true as regard: farmers of all parts of Island and of al . parties and creeds It is true of Englisl , farmers as we'll But now there is thu new campaign for increased food produc } ton which cannot be worked if the mel , leave the land for the armies. So th' [ recruiting sergeant and the governmen 3 agriculturists are getting in each other l way.
 That there is room for a considerabl
 development of Irish agriculture Is evi
 dent from the fact that, according to tn g statistics given by the head of the agri
 cultural department, Ireland actually i'm l ports an annual average of Sl6GOO,OO - worth of foodstuffs which could easily b I replaced by homegrown articles. He ha s pointed out that if Germany had titled a = little of her soil as Ireland she woul have been exhausted in six months. Ger l many tills 65 per cent of her arabic land I whereas. he says. Ireland tills only t el The inevitable topic of the American ex y change and the balance of trade crop 6 even up here and the Irish farmer is ar . pealed to by the agriculture minister t y help keep down the price of the dolla e by importing less American food, an 0 producing more of his own.
 ---.as--
 y Good Reason
 From Tit-Bits,
 l. The old sergeant was out with the ne'