The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1916-12-28
DEALER WRITES OF
RECENT TRIP EAST
w, II. Irwin Describes Visit To Great
Willys-Overland Conven-
ton at Toledo.

w. X. Irwin, Willys-Overland deal
er in this city, who was one of the
5000 dealers visiting the great To-
ledo plant in connection with the i'm
mense convention which was held
there, recounts his experiences in this
entertaining letter to the editor: !
Some action!
Nothing was ever SO impressive as
our tour OF the great plant that
turns out Willys-Overland cars.
Our pullmans all parked in the
company's yards. There was room
enough, for there are seven and three
quarters miles of track within the
plant.
Each man got card containing
a picture of Mr.. WHY'S and an auto
graphed message of welcome from
him. Next thing knew we were up
on the steps of the stunning new ad-
ministration building getting photo
graphed.
elevators shot up to the company
own restaurant on the sixth floor.
There we had a corking breakfast.
AT each plate was a copy of the live
WHY'S Overland house organ 1.-The
Starter" 1t mapped our days pro-
gram.
Then started our tour Of the plant.
Our guides were carefully picked
men. They knew the plant from end
to end and the parties were small
so that each member Of the party
could have his questions answered,
Nobody ought to try to sell Willys-
Overland without knowing this plant.
You cant grip the immensely of the
proposition till you do.
1t is no piker business.
$25,O0O,O0O are tied up in land,
buildings and machinery, not to say
a word about the stock of parts and
raw material.
From the roof of the wonderful ad-
ministration building, which stands
out like a state capital, you get a
panorama of the plant. You can
then readily believe that it occupies
1O3 acres, with 4,4S6,6S0 square
feet of floor space in daily use and
production capacity of 1000 cars per
day.
You can appreciate the growth
from ESQ employees in 1908 to IT,
800 in 1916.
1000 persons, more than the en-
tire manufacturing force Of many a
company, work in the administration
building alone. This structure, 375
feet long, has every facility for rapid
work, including dictaphones. its own
telegraph and telephone system and
mail handling department that does
about everything but write the let
ters.
3SS persons can be fed in the res
taurant at one time.
But this Is nothing to what one
hits when you cross into the shops.
1t is a whirl of action, yet all is sys-
TEN.
Parts by the untold thousands are
here, with value into the millions of
dollars. There are lines Of motors l
never saw so many crank shafs to-
gether. Our guide said 6,0OO-Td
have believed 10000.
There is stock in bins, stock in
yards, stock along the walls, con-
Meeting rods, frames, Tenders, mud
guards, hoods, rims springs, axles,
torsin tubes, transmission gear,
shafs, brake parts, steering rods, pc
dals-it is an unending procession,
Every thirty days sees al average
of 1000 tons of steel come in. 1t is
handled by a magnetic crane that
enables two men to do work that
formerly required thirty.
There are amazing machines.
The toggle Iress, for example, held
us all. This monster with its pres
sure of 1000 tons, shapes cold steel
like cardboard. A piece of metal
leu W ~ COlIco OuI do oluC IL lnLiC
1t can make 1000 of these In an eight
hour day.
Other machines stamp out radiator
shells, tenders, cowl dashes and
doors
You take off your hat to the drop
forging machines. Down comes the
hammer, and the fiery piece of iron
is beaten into shape. The complete
drop forging ofthe front can be ac-
complished with one heat.
Every kind Of part requiring
strength was dropforged while We
looked on, axles, crank shafts, brake
assembly rods, brake and control
rods, spring shackles, gear blanks and
brake rod sectors.
We saw the company's accurate
System of die making. 1t calls for 8
special workman on each detail
One works on the shaper. another or
the plane and third on die sinking
The multiple spindle drill in one
operation drills all the holes In the
front axle. This Is q guarantee thai