Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-09-25
BRITISH WOME n
MOLD BIG Guns
TO GET KAISER.
Wide Eyed Girls Turn From
Window Gazing To
Make Munitions.

! LABOR IN INFERNO
OF HEAT AND CRIME
| 1.-THE Courier has completed ar
| rangements for special and ex-
| elusive correspondence from Lon
don and other European capitals.
and presents the first article here
~ GEORGE r. sYE.
London, Sept. 24.-Whether England
has spent her full effort in the war, or
Is lying back bit waiting for Amer.
ica's help, may be best judged by .
visit to "the black country" the center
of England, almost entirely devoted to
the production of munitions.
have Just made a trip through this
part Of England, visiting various large
plants, and I can say that the exper.
ience was quite reminiscent OF the
America which / left Just few months
ago.
| It was as II the war had only begun.
Every plant has great additions under
way that are being rushed with all pos
sible speed. More women are being
pressed into service. the numbers OF
employees growing to keep pace with
new buildings and additional machin-
cry Supplies Of iron ore are required
in much greater quantities than year
ago. One plant has so extended itself
that now 1t ranks as the largest pro-
ducer of munitions in the world, con-
siderably exceeding even Krupps In
size and output.
FOR "6ETTER GERMANS"
Another mandatory, not among the
first ten. has increased It's output Of
cartridges by 1856 times since the first.
big war order was received During
the South African war this same plant
contrived to produce certain number
Of cartridges for ten weeks that was
advertised everywhere as nothing
short of miracle. In a steadily In
creasing average, covering the past SIX
months, the output now exceeds 12h
times the achievement of the miracle
All for The sf6kteT effectiveness Of
the worlds slogan, Fewer and Better
Germans!s
One Of my first sights in the first OF
the great munitions works that visit
ed would be immortalized IL some ade-
uuate artist would paint 1T as "The
Spirit Of 1917"
THE SHEFFIELD GIRL.
It was at Sheffield. She might have
been an American high school girl.
Her hair was dark and parted boyishly
on one side. She was brightly alert.
would swear that her face was an
American type-and now ! know where
those faces first came from. She must
NJ oUa al ~
pounds In weight.
Light and young as she was. this
school girl was flying high overhead
in the ungirlish business Of lifting and
moving ten.ton chunks OF steel, some
Of them roughly shaped like cannon.
She was alone In the operators bas-
ket Of an enormous travelling crane
that thundered along on great rails
iialf block apart. She was the oper-
ator.
Gazing wide-eyed into the candy
chops In Ottumwa are many such lit
tie Marys. You often are tempted to"
70 In and buy them sack of choco-
iates, aren't you? It is probable that
our girls English cousin. looking down
out Of serious eyes from her aerial
perch. with her hand tightly holding
the controller Of massive apparatus.
waiting for a signal from a squad OF
grimy men out Of shouting reach, has
little time for shop gazing.
What a picture she would make!
WARS UNcANNY DISORDER.
These English establishments did
not have time to expand gracefully.
One great works at Midland town Is
sprawled all over eighty acres, and is
quite unsightly as compared with simi-
lar works in America whose buildings
are erected in units which are dupli-
Gated when there is need. The disor-
derliness gives an uncanny awfulness
to the places of manufacture OF retrib-
utive frightfuIness. But though vis-
itor is startled by suddenly encoun-
tered furnaces and by housed caverns
trayersed by aerial pathways. there is
An air Of we'll directed effort every
where that proves that there are EN-
cheney engineers even in this chaos.
When I saw the men at work l!
agreed with the New Zealand lieuten-
ant with me, who also was seeing can
NON cast for the frst time. that the
front can hardly be more terrifying
than furnaces. rolling mills and bat
teries Of stamping machines, that are
a part of munitions works.
HEAT BLlsTERS oNLookERs.
In the rolling mills slabs of white
hot iron weighing 1900 tons are slowly
moved out Of the gas ovens on an
electric railway. Then they go to
rollers which move them to huge
wringer that squeezes them through
like cakes Of cheese. After several
rollings large quantities Of dry tree
branches are thrown on the glowing
slab as it enters the wringer. This
causes a magnificent sputter Of explo-
sions and fiery shower In all direc-
tions. The effect is to remove any
, scale from the metal.
When the door of a gas oven slowly
lifts. exposing one Of these glittering.
simmering ingots, the terrific heat
penetrates all corners Of the building.
AS the slab majestically emerges on
its catafalque, tender-skinned men 200
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