The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1916-03-17
OUR GREATEST ARMS PLANT
The Remington Arms Union Metallic Cartridge Companys
Factory at Bridgeport an Aladdm's Castle
Industrial Army Of $4,000 Organized by One Man

pable of recognizing and seizing a
great opportunity a field for making
a new American industry in a mo-
ment.
The plant, of course. is a perma-
nency and does not depend on the wal
Tor continuance, but it was the wal
which brought it into being.
There were 300 people working in
the u. NJ. G. plant when the wal broke
out. Before the end Of the year there
VIII be 10000, so that the two plants
together will be employing $4,000 per
sons. BY that time the munitions
plant will have a capacity many times
that of the United States government.
The Remington Arms company cele-
Drates its centenary this year. In
1916. just 100 years ago. Eliphalet
Remington made with his own hands
the first rifle and founded the business.
He made it for his own use. His ia
Their had refused to buy one for him,
and Remington collected scrap iron.
welded it into a gun barrel and walked
fifteen miles to Utica to have it rifed
II was such a good one that his neigh
bors invited him to make similar ones
for them, and before long his forge
was a gun factory. At that time all
gun barrels We're imported from Eu-
rope, and there were no real gun fac
tories in America. so that Remington
founded a brand new American indus
try.
Mr.. Dodge and His co-workers.
Marcellus Hartley Dodge is the sole
proprietor, and it was he as a young
man of thirty-twO-who looks like a
youth Of twenty-one-who waved the
magic wand over the swamp lands or
Bridgeport and created almost over
night one Of the greatest manufactur-
ing plants in the country and a contri-
button for the military preparedness
Of the United States that is Of meal
culable value. Mr.. Dodge is an en-
thusiast over the great enterprise Of
which he is the head. His mother
died in his infancy, and he was
brought up in the home of his GRANDPA.
Their. Marcelius Hartley, the owner OF
the Remington Arms and the u. NJ. c
It was from Mr.. Hartley that he re
, ceived both his home training anC
business training, and he lived witt
the business and in its atmosphere ant
imbibed his grandfather's feeling to
ward it until he came to have a senti
ment for t not less than second t
that Of his family. Mr.. Hartley's feel
, ing toward It was his. Mr.. Hartle!
~ died in the traces at a board meeting
Jan. 8. 1902. at the age Of seventy-ive
and the grandson felt commissions
not only to carry it on, but to carry !
on worthily. It has been his dream t
=, enlarge the great enterprise his grand
father founded, the apple of the eye t
M both Of them.
In April, 1914, Mr.. Dodge associate
=, Samuel #. Pryor with himself in hi
% business. Mr.. Pryor had been vic
w president Of the Simmons Hardwar
~ company Of st. Louis and president O
the Southern Car Wheel Company. II
In is a man Of great energy, yigor an
80 business ability, and the two men hav
a. worked together Ike a hand in a GLOW,
,r Mr.. Pryor is a man Of fifty, and Nj
Dodge is not yet thirty-two.
,r Mr.. Dodge was in Germany whe
:, the war broke out, and he made b
way from there to Paris and then
:, London. He saw the situation an
drew his conclusions. When he r
NJ turned to this country he determine
,to on the great venture and had the cou
~ age TO 20 ahead with It without wal
=, ing for any country to place an order
IN Mr.. Dodge was in a peculiarly fort
90 nate position to embark on such a c
reer. for he was entirely unfettere
Mfr. Dodge owns all the stock in Il
Remington Arms and the q. NJ.
III There were no stockholders to cOnsu
Oh no fears to assuage or yield to and
d. arguments to make to anybody abo
'or the danger or hope that might lie
taking a big chance.
leu with characteristic dash and enerI
Mr.. Dodge took the hazard Of orderii
Ut the machinery before any orders I
n's arms had been received by them. {
ders we're in prospect, but none HI
tue been given. II was a chance wor
'm' taking. for somebody had to jump
are and give the first order for machine
oy- II ANYBODY was TO take advantage
the European situation TO create a NJ
MS industry. for the United States "
short Of II.
There is IN this country a limit
capacity for such machinery. T
5. erection Of buildings was the east,
es and simplest part Of the work. To
has hold of men who understand the ms
tbs, ing OF military rifles and ammunit.
Oo' is not so easy.
ON There are few army officers in
country who understand the making
for arms and munitions, and Mr.. Doc
the and Mr.. Pryor went about the task
and obtaining their services. This was
ions Inc very beginning, and by Novem.
this most Of these officers were out Of
side army and in their employ.
60 Yet SO few were the men IN
larry United States who understood