The Washington times., 1918-09-01


tive. being built on simple. graceful
lines and coated with q grayish-white
stucco.
So much for the appearance Of the
embryo city. when II Is realized that
there was not q single house. foot
Of roadway or an inch Of sidewalk
there three months ago. IL seems al
most incredible The most wonder
full thing about the whole undertake.
ing Is the system which has made u
possible. II has been worked out BY
the emergency fleet corporation In CO.
operation with the Consolidated Engi-
neering Company. which Is In eharge
Of the job. Charles H Cummins. vice
president Of the company. is the
superintendent Under him Is regu-
lar military organization OF heads OF
departments, under -superintendents
and foremen. each man accountants
to. his immediate superior. They are
the officers in command Of the force
OF werkmen.
Up Against Problems.
Like aIT big Industrial undertake
ings the Dundalk project has been ~
against the labor problem. Accord
ing to Mr.. Cummins the labor turn
over which takes place weekly and
the difficulty Of getting unskiiled
labor are the two chief sources Of
trouble. The weekly turnover aver
ages from 40 to 70 per cent, and often
construction In a whole unit or
group OF units IL tied up because Of
the lack of carpenters. brieklayers.
or other workmen. Then there is q
vast amount Of unskilIed labor r.
duired, the number Of men varying
from week to week. and often when
the men are most needed they cannot
be obtained
All the material for the houses Is
supplied by the Government upon
reQuisition from the contractor, and
everything is reckoned in lots of sa1
or the number OF houses under con-
struction. Therefore, II a foot Of
wire in excess OF the required amount
Is ordered by mistake. the contractor
receives S51 feet II he orders a foot
too little he Is short the same
amount All the material, which Is
being supplied under the priority
rules OF the war Industries board az
the rate OF sixty carloads a day, Is
numbered, and 1t must be sorted and
distributed according to number The
sorting Is done in a huge assembling
department. where window and door
frames, as well as many other parts,
are put togsther, before being dis
trfouted among the houses, which are
numbered accordingly.
All excavating Is done by machine
from grading and digging founda-
tons to making trenches for the
pipe lines. complete water system
with a reservoir. a central heating
plant. and a sewerage system are be-
ing installed: streets and sidewaIka
are being Constructed. and a big ree-
reation hall and athletic neld are
comprised in the plan. which win ~
4 concrete reality in every detail BY
January l.
No Slaekerx There.
The attitude OF the men whose lahor
Is making such a huge undertaking.
as that at DundaIk possible is natur-
ally a matter. of vital importance. and
every effort is being made to make
them feel that they are part OF the
war machine. A material increase I'm
the number of 100 per cent efficient
men viii be the best evidence that
these efforts have borne fruit. Mean
while patriotic meetings are held
every Friday at the moon hour, and
the attendance grows from week to
week. Fully two thousand men gath
ereo at yesterdays meeting when
MAJOR II. B. Grant. a retired army Off
GER, now in charge OF Government
work In Baltimore, and James 7.
ONeill made addresses. In response
70 a question from Mr.. O'NeiI as 70
now many Of Them were in the war TO
nnish practically every hand in the
vast crowd went up, showing that il
there were any slackers present they
hao at least the saving grace OF being
ashamed to acknowledge It.
AT many OF these meetings there are
volunteer speakers from among the
men themselves. the orator YESTERDAY
oelng W. T. Reilly. who used to wear
Prince Albert coat and whose lob
was that OF a street corner evangelist.
NOW he Is wearing overalls, doing his
DIT as a nrst-class painter. There are
many others who are working NJ Dun
osIk from the same patriotic motives.
IN the crowd yesterday was a man
VINO had formerly been a ladies' tailor.
i've been doing a woman's Job all nv
hle, he said, but that was for NV
seh. / Just felt that I owed a mans
1oo TO Uncle Sam. so here am"