The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-11
HIGH WATER MARK REACHED IN MAKING
 GUNS IN ENGLAND
There Are Now 1923 Private Factories Turning Out Munitions of War for
 the Allied Armies

~-ondon' January 16-(Correspondence or the Associated Press 1.-The high water mark has now been reached and passed in making British guns, shells and all kinds of ammunition for the al- lied armies and this fact now presents the large problem of dfverting this pro auction into new and useful channels, by which England will again supply the outside world with goods thus dimn- ishing the steady outflow of gold and checking the decline in the British ex- change rate
 At the ministry of munitions and the board of trade Inquiries by the Asso- clated Press brought out some interest ing facts on the maximum point reached ln gun and shell production, and the need now of turning to more useful lines of domestic production and exports. Al the ministry of munitions these facts were stated
 There are now 4623 private factories and work, ordinarily employed in vari- ous useful kinds of metal production, which have been taken over by the gov ernment and are now controller works. These are in addition to the regular gov- ernment factories.
 There are two and a quarter million employees working in these controller and government factories, making eXclu- sively guns and shells.
 This enormous production has now reached a point where the equipment of the army is approximately complete In some Of the main lines, such as light field pieces, so that the manufacture of 1S-pounder guns has had to be slackened in the last few weeks instead of further increased, The establishment of pieces of the AS calibre is also practically com plete. In trench mortar ammunition and grenades, also, the production has been so developed that any further increase seems unnecessary.
 What the foregoing figures mean, in showing the extent to which this pro- duction of ammunition has been carried, can only be understood by comparison with the normal condition The number of "controlled" factories, making the one article of munitions, is more than half of all the factories usually employed in metal industry, making all kinds of iron and steel goodS from a nail up to steel beams, steel rails and all kinds of ma chinery, as well as the infinite variety of small metal goods usually exported by England.
 The number of people employed in this one industry of gun and shell making is large percentage of the total British working population. The entire member ship of all the trades unions last year was about 100000, while those now work ing in gun and shell making is two and quarter millions. or almost half of the full trade union strength, which in- eludes about half of all the ge-earners. Before the war there were about 500OO unionist workers in all the various metal trades, which is only one-fourth the number of those now employed in the single industry of making guns and shells.
 The extent to which this gun and shell output has grown is shown by the fig ures given at the ministry of munitions. The comparison is made between June, 1915, when the war had just got under way. and the production 4, today For every heavy howitzer produced then, there are 32S produced now. For every field hotizer produced then there are 46 produced now; for every medium gun then. there are 66 now. The output of 60-pdunders and 6-inch guns went up IS field howitzer produced then there are 46 fold, as the supply Is too great AS a whole the production of guns of all cali bre has increased 41 fold on those of medium weight and 12 fold on the heavier guns. There is the same remarkable ex- pansion in the output of all the other various types of ammunition, machine guns, explosives etc.
 About the only exception is in small arms as the increase of regulation rifles is particularly difficult and has not much more than doubled since the war be- gan. The shell production, however, has taken such a leap that the production for heavy guns in a single day equals the entire years production during the first year of the war. m single week