The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-12-20
4 NEW FACTORY
IS IN kE0KUk
conducted Entirely by Women Who
VIII Not Talk Much, 1t Is One Of
the Busiest Places in
Town Today.
H WAR ORDERS
Working Day and Night With a Large
Force Which Receives No Pay,
Recruited From Every
Phase Of %Femininity.

There is a new factory just starting
In Keokuk, employing many hands and
some costly machinery, now running
day and night and turning out a war
order of large size with a time limit
a factory conducted by women with
an evident efficiency of action and or
ganization not equalled by all the
men managed factories in town.
Not man people have seer it, but
everybody who has happened to visit
1t on Blondeau street below Fifth has
told The Gate City that it is a remark
able place that ought to be described
for the whole town to know.
This factory is manufacturing sur
gical and hospital supplies just now,
spending about a hundred dollars a day
for raw material and shipping out It's
product by the dray load, with heavy
expenses and no sales. 1t pays cash
for raw material and gives ava its
factory output. 1t pays it's workmen
nothing and has no overhead charges
With it's present rush order, it Is util-
ling two or three old concerns for
Part of the manufacturing processes,
and is paying nothing for the use Of
their machinery and hands. Also, it
is a part of the largest and best organ
ICED business organization in Ameri-
ca, Of which the Keokuk factory is a
branch.
Manufacturing Processes.
TIL present rush order is for 5000
PADS Of hospital use by the n Of this
month. Each pad is fourteen by
t~wenty-four inches, and made of a lay
er of absorbent Gotten on a layer of
common cotton enclosed in a certain
a in c~heesecloth. The method of
manufacture is interesting.
The cotton is unroIled from it's orig
inal packages upon long tables, the
ends Of the rolls being spliced in a way
hard to describe n not so very easy
to do. Completed, this process makes
the filling Of the pads in one long band
of cotton. Cutting the cotton, and es-
pecially the c~heesecloth with scis-
sprs in the household and doctors Of
fee way is entirely too slow for whole
sale manufacture. The long strips of
cotton are rolled loosely and carried
10 power paper cutters where they are
cut into lengths of exactly two feet,
the bare duplex cotton pads. In the
meantime, the bolts Of cheesecloth
have been going through power cut
ters to come out in exactly the right
sized pieces for wrapping around the
cotton pads, to make the complete
finished pads are packed in strong
wooden packing cases and sent to the
railroad freight house. I
A Factory of Femininity.
The floor space used is equal to that
in the average factory. 1t is divided
into several rooms each devoted to it's
own operation. Sewing machines are
humming in n place. One large room
is filled with the long tables on which
the cotton strips are made by hand.
In every room are many women, work
ing swiftly and with the certainty Of
movement characterizing the real me-
chanic-but these women factory op-
eratives deserve a special paragraph
of description.
There are scores of them in each
shift and several shifts. Each wears
q fetching white turbanesque cap Of a
certain. design, but the white blouses
or equivalent are not required to be /
uniform, so that they range all the
way from real blouses to kitchen ap-
rons. That factory is the melting pot
VI heOhuh SUCiOlOSy. lHSle, are Soiuc |,
society leaders of the oldest Keokuk
families; some newcomers who are
taking dictation during Office hours
and hurrying to the factory when the
boss says that is all; some house
maids and some trophy winners of
whist clubs; some officers of the Mon
day Music club and some high degree
members of the smart dressing squad;
some girls of high school G and
some matrons with beautiful white
hair: some new woman intellectuals
and some girls concerned most about
their compilations. And they all look
alike and all work alike in that thor
oughly organized factory which never
has labor troubles because it has no
prescribed hours and pays no wages
whatever. |.
Women Who VIII Not Talk Much,
While there are NJ signs on the
walls prohibiting talking to work
women, 1t is difficult to get any Of
them to talk to the visitor. They are
TOO busy. When they do answer ques-
ions in a rather absent minded way,
the reply is shortened this side of ade-
ouate response. And every one or
these work people who will not talk is
q women!
All one may do is to give an impress
slonistic sketch Of that Red Cross )
work room in the Y. w. c. A. building.
II gives the distinct impression of
swift movement, exact precision in I
every detail, concentration Of nina
upon work, variety of things being
uone, but each part in the hands of
SPECIALISTS in that particular swift mo-
lon-of a big machine taking in raw s
materials and sending out highly fin I
lshed product toward the railroad
shlDping room. |
lhose 5000 hospital pads being
made in Keokuk this month will do
more good than five million dollars
would have done five years 60.
This is only one order. Others We're