Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-02-25
AMERICAN MACHINERY Ygk
 GROWS IN POPULARITY
English Depend on Yankee Tools to -. Meet Manufacturing Problems After the War.
Correspondence Associated Press)

l Correspondence Associated Press) London, Feb., 19.-The use of ma
 chinery particularly American ma
 chinery, in place of hand labor, is be-
 ing widely discussed as one of the
 large problems to be met with after
 the war. Under the stress of war en-
 ormous quantities of American ma
 chinery have been brought into Eng land, France and other countries at
 war, for manufacturing harness, shoes, guns, shells, and the whole range of war requirements. At Havre the Belgian government factory, em-
 ploying 12,500 workmen, has 90 per cent American machinery. Going
 through these works an Associated Press representative noted at every hand the machinery bearing the marks
 of firms at Bridgeport, Providence,
 Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and many other points. The harness fac tory, for turning out cavalry and ar tillery supplies. was entirely equipped with American machinery.
 The manager of the works said Eng fish machinery was good only on the huge, ponderous machines, but that
 American machinery was practically alone in the field on fine automatic work replacing the dexterity of hand work. He estimated that the heavy
 English and French machines, chiefly in the foundries and machine shops were under ten per cent of the plant,
 all the rest being American. Some of the American machines were pointed out as having an ingenuity almost hu- man. One of them, used in polishing the discs of shells, employed a mag netic current to hold the discs firmly while the emery wheels did the pol ishing. To the Belgian worker this was little short of magic, as he had always held the discs in his hand, while now the touching of a button gripped the discs until the work was done. There is the same influx of these labor-saving machines all over England, France and unoccupied Bel gium, and in fact all over allied Eu- rope. ,,l
 Besides doing the war work of all kinds. this new use of machinery has opened the eyes of producers as to what machinery could do for increas- ing British production when normal conditions are restored. It has been argued as one of the chief weapons to combat the revival of German manufacturers and aonther Made in Germany" campaign. One expert has shown that most of the factories in England were equipped in the days of steam, and have taken no account of electricity as a new motive pow CT. He figures out that this old-time equipment cannot possible compete with American and German produc ton. This view is widely held, and be- sides the American machinery is al ready here furnishing it's own argu- ment in the war work.
 At the recent Labor congress. at Manchester the delegates referred tol this new use of machinery as one of the chief after-the-war problems, as it would limit and compete with the hand labor of men returning from the army to civil occupations. But while recognizing it as danger, they ap.. peared to accept the increased use of machinery, particularly American ma chinery, as one of the assured facts brought out by the war. One of the resolutions passed called on the gov ernment to give special attention to the needs of workmen resulting from this new and enlarged competition from machinery.