Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-05-04
SOME AMERICAN
WAYS IN ENGLAND
Our Factory Methods, Adopted
for War Purposes, Will Revo-
lutionize British
Industry
BY GILBERT VIVIAN SELDES

| INTEREST in fter-the-war" GIBBS and
l. flows in England Not so long ago the
talk of reconstruction became so prevalent
that n minister of the crown had to warn
the people in memorable cpigram. Look
after the war" he said, land aftcr-thc-war
viii look after itself"
1t has been my chance to meet great
many persons who have been mortally Of
tended by this rebuke and a number of
| others who simply cannot follow out the
ministerial injunction. The former are the
| theorists Of the reconstruction The latter
| are the practical men who are trying TO
! figure out what the effects Of the war VIII
| be on industry in England. what they will
! do with the munition factories, what time
| it will take to rcconvcrt factories TO normal
uses, and so on
! These last points are Of interest to Amer
| lea because of two things: she will have
! to meet the same sort of problems herself
and she will be affected by the length of
! time demanded by England to get into her
| Industrial stride Tho situation, as regards
| the first point. may be different because of
different arrangements. The British manu-
/ featuring plants devoted 10 war materials
| are Of two classes, Govcrnment-owned and
J G0vcrnmcnt-co controlled, and of these the lat
ter are in the proportion Of fifty to one. But
/ the Govcrnment-owucd industries will have
! the greater influence and will present the
more pressing problem, There are ninety
| five of them, according to the latest figure
| | can get against $500 controlled firms,
The Ministry Of Munitions figures give
! i1ty all owned
plants. There are twelve factories making
heavy shells and nothing else, and these
| twelve cover an area of seventy acres, and
include 10000 machine tools using some
! $4,000 horsepower in operation. The other
! plants are of corresponding size. And far
more important, the factories built are of
| the very latest modes-absoutely against
the first principles of British factory build
ing.
Factory Building Revolutionized
Each factory is sectionally built, and If
! the war goes on any length of time 1t Will
| he possible to add new sections. And when
the time comes to turn these factories over
to other industrial uses it will be possible
to divide factories easily, even between two
totally different factories These factories,
| with abundant light, arranged that the
! progress from raw material to finished
product is direct and involves no shipment
across the factory floor, no turning back,
no waste are the highest type of American
| building, That they will serve after the
war is the unanimous opinion Of the build
ing engineers to whom have talked on the
| subject. | need hardly say that the Govern
ID /, th., Al,.V
which will be available for other than mill
tary use after the war That depends still
| on the outcome
But the effect of having these buildings
| in Britain will not be limited to the use
made of them They have already begun
the process of rcvolutionizing factory build
ing in Britain. I talked the other day TO an
expert in concrete building. His firm has
been in the British field for many years
and has made progress in insttlling the idea
| Of gass-and-stce buildings as opposed to
| the bricll-and darkness type. He told me
| that the progress had been SLOW. but that
| since the war the firm had booked more
| orders than it had booked in all the time
before the war Building is restricted just
now and orders are fled TO be completed
| after the war.
It was from an entirely different source
| that | was made to realize the Importance
Of this change \ man who has been work.
| ing in various publicity schemes and is
| himself connected with the largest firm of
| printers in this country told me that the
transformation of factory buildings would
| increase production in Britain by Is to 90
| per cent.
| you have no idea of the loss we undergo
here every day" he said We are wasting
time and effort simply because we haven't
| arranged our factories We haven't light
| enough to see by. We waste electricity and
! we waste time, Go down TO our printing
| shop and compare it with the old building
and you will see what ! mean"
I went AL | saw. | am ready to be-
| lieve that factory construction is the first
| problem to be solved in the industrial re-
| construction of Britain, and that when it is
| solved the increase in production will alone
pay off the war debt in two generations
The example of the uinety-fve Govern
| meut owned plants has been followed in all
| the vast extensions of the controlled firms.
Very few have been able to meet their
| Obligations without increasing factory
| areas, and as controlled firms have had the
privilege of building many of the additions
| have been planned on new models. The
| owner of one controlled firm gave me his
| opinion that a vast ma jOrity of the owners
in his position would scrap the old buildings
altogether. gradually tearing down and
| adding on sections of new factories.
Taking Workers From the Slums
The usual thing has happened to fac
| torres mere. IT tneN were not DulIt near the
| slums the sluns came and huddled up
| against the factory walls That has been
! changed. In the first place, many workers
were for the first time, able to live in
| something better than slum In the ser-
| ond, extensions have forced owners to con-
| fiscate land and TO tear down adjoining
| buildings. The demand for light and air
mas had much to do with the change be-
| cause the Health Department of the Min
istry of Munitions has taken good care of
| the workers, Another Improvement has
| been the removal of many factories to the
| countryside In a variety of ways this first
problem of restoring industry and REFORM
| ing it has been met.
| One final effect of the buildings them
| selves l can note, although it verges on an
other topic on which many more things can
| be said The factories which the Govern
| ment will sell or hand over to manufac-
| turers are too big for the kind of manufac-
| turing which Britain has known. Large
| scale production is a novelty here Mr.
| Fords working methods are heard of but
not experienced, and l am told that his COM
ing to Cork with a tractor plant has, to put