The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-10-12
(Ry Associated Pressl

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. IL - Ship
building, under the spur Of the Ger
man submarine menace, has made
Philadelphia. for the second time In
American history, cradle of lib
erty." Fostered by the natural ad-
vantages of the Delaware river, to-
gether with proximity to the nations
steel production centers, the country's
largest group of shipyards, including
the world record making Hog Island
plant, has grown up in the home dis
trict OF the Pennsylvania metropolis.
In this district are employed more
than 100000 shipworkers, one-fourth
the enrolment In the industry
throughout the United States, whose
outturn to date is fifty vessels, twenty
seven Of them ready for service. Yes
sells of all types, from 3,500-ton. wood
en- steamers to huge steel freighters
OF 10000 tons, are produced. The in
flux of workers has overrun score
OF communities, enforcing the build
ing OF seven new towns, yet the cry
Is for mere men and more men. Given
sufficiency of materials and the
workers to handle them, the "Phila-
delphia phenomenon" in ship construc-
ton promises to become another
worlds wonder
In this region the Emergency Fleet
Corporation, through the companies
carrying on its work, has undertaken
an extensive housing project. At Bris-
tol, Chester, Cornwells and Hog Is
land in Pennsylvania, at Camden and
Gloucester on the New Jersey side and
at Wilmington in Delaware. homes,
bachelor apartments, barracks, board
ing houses and even a hotel have been
erected, with the hope of sowing the
problem of inadequate labor growing
out OF poor Accommodations.
How the yards on the Delaware have
expanded in the past eleven months
and what this influx of labor means to
dicated by comparison with the cen
sus of last October, when the aggre-
gate of men engaged was less than
$4,000 Excluding Cramps and the
New York Shipbuilding corporation,
which were then working as completed
yards, the nine other plants on the
Delaware then reported 10000 work
ers.
Old Gloucester Reawakened.
More than half the present force Of
outside the district, so that the popu-
lation growth from this source alone.
has been double that of any normal
year. At Bristol, Is miles above
Philadelphia and beyond the confines
of the previously accepted shipbuilding
zone, workers at the Merchant plan,
now exceed the entire population Of
the borough in 1910. Chester, where
John B. Roach built American war
ships fifty years ago, has trebled in a
year its population gain between 1900
and 1910.
Except the great Hog Island plant,
that Of the New York Shipbuilding
corporation, at Camden, N. j., employ
ing 1850 men. is the largest in the
Philadelphia district. When work that
is now under way is completed there
will be 20 shipways, most of them able
to accommodate at one time two ships
of ordinary size. The yard set new
worlds record when it launched the
collier Tuckahoe in 81 days from the
time the keel was laid. Ten days
| later the vessel was completed, feat
which has not been equalled for a ship
Of this type. Transportation has been
a problem. with the majority Of the
workers forced to travel long dis
tances to and from the plant. To ov-
ercome this difficulty the company is
erecting the town Of Yorkshire mile
from the works, with a connecting
trolley line. The community, which
will be without saloons, will be made
part of Camden.
Neighboring Glouchester is another
shipbuilding center. When the glory
Of the old race track days faded under
the ban of the New Jersey legislature
enactment, the town went to sleep. 1t
has been awakened The Pusey &
Jones company operates two yards
The PENNSYLVANIA plant, two years
| old, has launched seven ships Of as.
sorted types within a year, and the
newly completed New Jersey" shops
have four vessels on the ways
Launchicgs here are made sidewise
into basin, a process said to be
much simpler than the sternforemost
slide which has been practiced through
centuries of shipbuilding. The com.
pany IS erecting $50 homes for its
workers near the two yards.
Recently both the Glouchester and
Wilmington yards of the Pussy &,
Jones company have been combined
under the Emergency Fleet corpora
ton and standard type of 10000
| ton steel vessels will be built.
Cities Respond to Call.
Creation in less than a year Of a
great fabricated steel shipyard, with
one vessel launched and three others
about ready to take the water, is the
feat accomplished by the Merchant
Shipbuilding corporation. whose r.
way plant is situated on the west bank
of the Delaware at Bristol. The com