The Alaska citizen., 1917-05-07
MACHINERY OF AMERICANS IS
 WIDELY USED

" HULL OULD Associated Press Cores pondence) LONDON, April-The use of ma chinery. particularly American ma Chincry. in place of hand labor. Is being widely discussed as one of
 the large problems to be met with
 after the war Under the stress
 of war enormous quantities of Am crican machinery have been brought
 into England. France and other coun- tries at war. for manufacturing har- ness. shoes, guns, shells and the whole range of war requirements. At Havre the Belgian government fac. tory, employing 12,500 workmen. has 90 per cent .AmeriCan machinery. Going through these works an As sociated Press representative noted at every hand the machinery bear ing the marks of firms at Bridge port, Providence, Boston, Philadel- phia, Cincinnati and many other points. The harness factory, for
 turning out cavalry and artillery supplies, was entirely equipped with American machinery
 The manager of the works said
 English machinery was good only
 on the huge, ponderous machines,
 but that American machinery was practically alone in the field of fine. automatic work replacing the dex- terity 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 Am erican machines were pointed out as having an ingenuity almost hu- man. One of them, used in polish ing the discs of shells. employed a
 magnetic current to hold the discs firmly while the emery wheels did the polishing. To the Belgian work
 CT this was little short of magic, as he had always held the discs in his hand while now the touch ing of 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 Belgium, and,
 in fact, all over allied Europe.
 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 increasing 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 another 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 q
 new motive power He figures out
 that this old time equipment cannot possibly compete with American and
 German production. This view is widely held, and besides the Am
 erican machinery is already here furnishing it's own argument in the
 war work
 At the recent labor congress at Manchester the delegates referred to
 this new use of machinery as one
 as it would limit and compete with the hand labor of men returning
 from the army to civil occupations.
 But while recognizing it as a dan
 ger, they appeared to accept the
 increased use of machinery, particu- larly American machinery, as one
 of the assured facts brought out by
 the war, One of the resolutions
 passed called on the government to give special attention to the needs
 of workmen resulting from this new
 and enlarged competition from ma
 chinery.
 NOME MAY GEIN