New-York tribune., 1918-03-11
Hog. Island
By THEODORE NJ. KNAPpEN
ARTICLE TX
PHILADELPHIA, March 9.-Hog rslaoa

~
~ is national in its labor as vel,
X in its executive and material
When the first plates of the first leo,
were put together it chanced that son,s
were from Bethlehem and some from ~.
Dominion Iron and Steel Company's ,vor,-
in Canada. These members were prenar..
at points perhaps thousand miles an.r.
but they fitted together as accurately az
they had been fabricated in the sama shou
Similarly, skilled labor is being drawn frnn,
all parts of the country, and it is beievod
that when it comes together at Hog Island !,
will fit together as happily and as accurate
ly as the steel.
The fabricated ship plan greatly reducs,
the proportions of this problem because :.
permits so much of the work that is ord;
narily done in the yards to be done bv mill.
hundreds and even thousands of miles awe,
thus reducing the numbers of men who must
be moved to new locations and UTILIZING ~.
listing industrial organizations where thev
are. Nevertheless the work of assemhl;n,
the ships at Hog Island and such fabrcat;nn
and altering as will have TO be done thar
will call for the services of between 2O0on
and 10000 men, the larger portion of whom
must be brought from more or less distant
places.
Thousands of the skilled men now oc.
cupied in preparing The wards can be adant.
ed to work on or in connection with thu
ships, but other thousands must be brouob,
from elsewhere. A training school on Tho
island is now engaged in training the am.
bilious among the present workers for work
on the ships. Graduates of the "shipbuild.
crs Plattsbufg" at Newport News are re.
turning to Hog Island trained to teach the
workers rapidly the tricks of shipbuildinc
that are new to them.
Just as the management SURVEYED tha
whole of America in arranging for its ma.
terials, SO it has examined the whole conn
try in preparation for the assembling of the
labor that is to assemble the ships. The
much abused publicity department of Hog
Island put the manager of the department Of
industrial relations into touch with 1500O
men between the Atlantic and the Pacific
who have professed a willingness to leave
their present postiotk and come to Hog
Island when required
Other Plants Not Interfered With
Scrupulous care is being exercised not 70
interfere with men employed at other Shin
yards or with workers employed in govern
ment work or with the men who are actually
engaged in shipbuilding though in fabrica.
ton shops remote from the coast The
closest relations are maintained with tho
federal employment service, with the state
employment bureaus and with the Public
Service reserve. Hog Island does not by
any means rely entirely on its own employ
ment service, but while expecting great and
essential help from the various government
agencies named it is also helping itself.
Stone & Webster, who are supplying the or.
ganization of the American international
Shipbuiidng Corporation. hold that there is
no mystery about shipbuilding- the
erecting of ships under the fabrication plan
is merely the production of mobile instead
of stationary structures; hence they consider
that the thousands of energetic men who
have been engaged in building and manufact.
urlng all sorts Of steel structures, boilers,
tanks, etc, can be quickly adapted and
trained for the special form OF work they
may be required to do in building ships
Such men can be trained, it is claimed
either on the job or IN the school in from
three days to three weeks, depending upon
the degree of variation of the technique Of
the new job from the old
This may, possibly, be a too optimistic
view of the labor outlook. Whether it is
such or not, 1T is only in relation to labor
that the Hog Island management anticipates
any serious difficulty in producing ships
according to schedule or ahead of it. The
prospect is now excellent that material and
machinery will arrive as fast as required
they are comparatively constant factors.
Labor is an unknown quantity to large
extent, both in respect to numbers and to
skill.
My own opinion is that Hog Island "know.
how will Justify itself and its remuneration
by meeting this problem smoothly ana eff
caclously and that the volume of skilled
men will increase steadily with the extern
sion of the shpbulding activities proper,
and that even as the ships are built great
army of keen and patriotic workers will be
built up, an army SO numerous that within
year, If the war shall still be raging. it
Will be possible to operate this great plant
in two or three shifts and turn out a shipa
day or, say, more than 100000 tons year.