The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-04-09
PHILADELPHIA CONCERNS
BACK OF PRESIDENT
Philadelphia District Capable of
EqlIipping Army And Navy For
War-Munitions Plants Can Make
All Rifles Needed.

more than sL000,000,0 1000; munition
plants capaa4a Of turning out every
thing from rifles to shells, from
three-inch shrapnel to twelve-inch
high explosives and powder, swung
into line yesterday to back the army
and navy il response to the Presi-
dents call.
Philadelphia, the greatest work
shop III the world" alone can clothe
the army; :l-one it can supply all the
sole leather needed; alone it can fur
niSh all the<lnderWear; the oil, both
lubricating crude and gasoline, need
ed in the ravy's oil-burning battle
ships and my motortrucks.
The munitions plants in the Phila-
delphia dieHrict can equip the army
with all the rifles it can use, at the
rate of 25,i00 per day. 1t can sup
ply all the artillery, light and heavy,
from three inch upward. 1t now is
furnishing the Allies with a large
proportion of their explosive powder
and with i little speeding up can
take on this Government without i'm
pairing. its output to the foreign
Powers. Se cf-tiie arSenalS can
outfit ESQ, 800 guardsmen when call
ed upon.
From & standpoint of munitions,
Samuel NJ. Vauclain, vice-president
of the Baldwin Locomotive Works,
and q director of the Midvale Steel
and Ordnance Company, and a men,
ber OF the Munition Standards Board,
allied witn the Council of National
Defense, declared Friday that Penn
sylvania alone can arm and equip
hn Of
Pittsburg, which will be called upon
to make the steel, Philadelphia and
its immediate district can ''go it
alone" in the output of munitions.
In this district is the Baldwin Lo-
comotive Works for large forgings
for shells and locomotives to haul
turned out but few short of 1000
number for France and Russia.
The A.idvale Steel Company is the
furnace for large caliber shells, ar
NOR plate for the navy and big guns.
The Eddystone Munitions Corpora
tion CAM turn out shrapnel faster
than sth9 army could fire it, should
anything like the rumored invasion"
from Mexico transpire. According to
Mr.. Yauclain, the Remington Arms
Company, another Eddystone pro-
ject, is making more rifles than any
similar factory in the world.
There are motortrucks which can
be furnished by the J. c. Brill Com
pany, Batteries for submarines 5y the
Eiectri5 Storage Battery Company,
while machine tools and fittings, all
necessary in the making of NUM-
tons. can be offered by scores of
plants about the city.
Phi.adelphia's contribution to the
navy ,esides guns and shells, in
cluGe shipbuilding industries along
the Delaware river, W Pa in point of
putp. are unsul in the coun-
Elia erally refer
red td~s the Clyde q America Of
fers such plants as Cramps, the New
York Shipbuilding Company, in Cam
den; the Chester Shipbuilding Com
pany, and the Sun Shipbuilding Com
pany,both at Chester; the plants of
Harlan & Hollingsworth, and Pusey
e Jones, at Wilmington, and the
Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company,
at Gloucester. Virtually every one
of these plants now has contracts for
naval vessels. from destroyers and
transports to battleships.
In this district likewise are impor
tant ship-materials plants, foremost
of which are the Lukens Steel Com
.pany and the Midvale unit, at Coates
vile. These concerns are making
ship plates, shapes and marine boil
er steel. The Lukens Company is
preparing to install the largest plate
mill in the world, capable of making
plates seventeen feet wide.
The duPonts of Wilmington, have
no equal in the world as explosive
manufacturers. Last year this con-
Germ did a business of $31S,000, 200,
most OF which was in powders OF va
rious kinds. DUPONT powder has
propelled shells at Germany and her
Allies from every section of the bat
tie front from Riga to Mesopotamia
and Arabia. This company repeated
ly has offered to supply the Govern
ment with any amount of explosives
at cost.
For the clothing of the army Phil
adelphia is the second wool market
in the country, outstripped only by
Boston. These two cities control vir
tually 80 per cent. of the available
stocks Of raw wool ia the country. To
protect the country in the face of
war, the dealers of Boston and this
city several days ago suspended ali
buying and selling of wool pending
conference as to the best means for
conserving wool and its by-products
for Government use.
In the actual manufacture of
clothing the city ranks among the
three largest centers in the country.
The extent of the clothing manufac
turing business here can be gauged
from the fact that one firm, the A.
B. Kirschbaum Company, is able to
turn out 5000 suits and overcoats
week. Under army specifications,
where all suits would be uniform.
this firm undoubtedly could extend
its capacity to more than 100000
garments a year with its force of
1900 workmen. This company is on
ly one of 120 clothing manufacturers
here.
The Philadelphia district, includ
ing the towns up the Schuylkill Val
ley to Reading, is the center of the
cotton knit goods industry. Its nor
NAL output of hosiery and under
wear would clothe any army the
President might see fit to assemble.
AS textile center, Philadelphia'S
output for 1916 totaled Sis, 1000,
600. or which hosiery and knit goods
amounted close to $50, 900, 600, 900.
The sole leather market of the
country is here, as is also that for
betting and saddle leather, while for
glazed kid 90 per cent. of the busi-
ness of the United States is done in
the city and within a radius of fort!
miles.
Philadelphia has been supplying a
large amount of the sole leather for
France, Russia, England and Italy
thu ghout the war. The magnitude
o nis industry here can be gathered
from the fact that when the Russian
Government recently desired to pur-
chase 100000 sides of sole leather
the Enquiry was sent first to the
Philadelphia market.
1t is true that, just at present, ow-
ing to worldwide conditions, the
stocks and tanners are down to an
exceedingly low point. but it is un-
derstood that the possible needs of
thai limited States have been cared