Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-01-31
BRITISH HIGH MARK
I'm GUN MAKING IS
REACHED AND PASSED


London, Jan. 30.-(Correspondence Of
The Associated Press).-The high-wa-
ter mark has now been reached and
passed in making British guns. shells
and all kinds of ammunition for the
allied armies and this fact now pre-
sents the large problem OF dlverting
this production into new and useful
channels, by which England VIII again
supply the outside world with goods,
| this diminishing the steady outflow or
gold and checking the decline IN the
British exchange rate.
| At the ministry of munitions and the
Board OF Trade inquiries by The AS
ISOLATED Press brought out some In
teresting facts on the maximum point
reached in gun and shell production,
and the need now of turning to more
useful lines of domestic production and
exports. At the ministry OF munitions
these facts were stated:
! There are now 1923 private factories
and works, ordinarily employed in va
rious useful kinds of metal production,
which have been taken over by the
government and are now CONTROLLER
works. These are in addition to the
regular government factories.
There are two and a quarter million
employees working in these 'controlled'
and government factories, making ex-
! clusively 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
I1S-pounder guns has had to be slack
ened in the last few weeks instead of
further increased. The establishment
of pieces Of the AS calibre is also prac-
tically complete. In trench mortar am
munition and grenades, also. the pro-
duction 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 car
ried, can only be understood by CONF
parison with the normal conditions
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 machinery
as we'll as the infinite variety of small
metal goods usually exported by Eng
land.
The number of people employed in
this one industry of gun and shell
making is large percentage of the to-
tai British working population. The
entire membership of all the trades
unions last year was about 100000,
while those now working in gun and
shell making is 1880, 900, or almost half
of the full trade union strength, which
includes about half of all the wage
earners Before the war there were
about $4,000 unonist 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 figures given at the ministry of
munitions. The comparison is made be-
tween June, 1915, when the war had
just got under way. and the produc-
ton today. For every heavy howitzer
produced then, there are 323 produced
now. For every field hoWitzer produced
then there are As produced now: for
every medium gun then, there are &c
now. The output of 60 pdrs. and Gin.
guns went I'D IS fold, and has now
dropped back to l. fold. as the sup
ply is too great. As u whole the pro-
duction OF guns OF all calihre has in
creased Al told on those Of medium
weight, and ID fold on the heavier
guns. There is the same remarkable
81. .Nttt (T "a n H.
or various types Of ammunition ma
chine 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 began. The shell production, how
! ever, has taken such leap that the
production for heavy guns in single
| day equals the entire years produc-
ton during the first year OF the war;
and on projectiles for field howitzers
and rs nm guns the weekly output
now equals the whole years output
! during the first year of the war. In a
| single week recently, from November
! 10 to 26. the shell output was 80 per
cent. greater than the entire reserve
| stock of ammunition held at the out
break Of the war.
| 1t is because this high water mark
| in the output of ammunition has been
reached and passed, that attention is
/ now being given to gradually diverting
! labor to other lines so that the trade
and export war may be carried on
This is the reason for the creation of
a new member of the ministry, Neville
Chamberlain, as Director of Service.
Mr.. Chamberlain's chief duties are to
divide occupations into essentials"
| and mon essentials" and to gradually
divert labor from the non essential in
dustries turning out luxuries, to the
essential industries which turn out
those articles on which England's
great export trade is based in normal
| times.
| At the Board Of Trade the returns
show that the scale is already turning
| favorably, and that exports are stead
lily increasing and the heavy trade bal
ance against England steadily going
down. Last year, as shown by the re-
turns up to Jan. /, last, the exports to-
tailed 506,546,212 pounds, an increase
of 121,000.000 pounds over the previous
wear or Al par rent