The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-13
SLACKERIsM SCARCE

SLACh ERISM SCARCE But "slackerism is an offense of the minority. The real spirit of the ship yards is typical of America at war Prop aganda plays its part, a telling one, and by means of competition in construction
 honor rolls of high production and noon day meetings designed to emphasize the importance of the shipworkers' share Tn the national effort, enthusiasm is main tained at high pitch and is reflected in output.
 Every plant has it's school, where bridge builders and structural iron workers learn to erect steel ships and where house car- penters are taught the principles of wood
 en hull construction. In both branches of the industry, as well, many laborers have passed tests which have rated them as skilled workmen. In the yards of the Submarine Boat corporation at Newark the 'sschool gangs have built and
 launched three 550O-ton steel freighters, an inspiring example of the American way of doing things when they have to be done.
 The shipyards army, like the khaki clad
 force whose going to foreign soil called it into being, is an organization of youth. At Newark an S3-year-ol civil war vet eran directs work on an outfitting pier, but this case is an exception. Less of an oddity is a negro boy of IS who is operat- ing gum as yard phraseology terms the compressed air riveting machine
 Men in the 20s and sos, with fewer in the 40s and sos, are building the American
 merchant marine.
 PRODUCT OF WAR DEMAND Shipyard mechanical appliances, like the men who operate them, largely are a product of wartime demands. Rail- roads, cranes and derricks which travel in orfC a,l1 ,@,x |. 1,r, nd the cruder and slower means of carriage of former years, and wide use of fabri- cated steel parts wholly prepared for erection at the mills where they are rolled has put speed into shfpbuilding.
 The bull riveter, an appliance which drives 70O0 rivets day to 1000 by the hand process, has made it's appearance in some of the yards, and is employed to erect entire sections of hulls, which are swung into place by derricks. While wooden ship construction must remain in great degree a task for the human hand, it's production has been hastened by resort Ito many new mechanical axuiliaries.
 And what of the product of this war im- pelled haste? The ships speak for them- selves Some of them lack the finish
 which was the old-time shipbuilders s pride. Equipment and fittings are held down to a minimum in keeping with SeTNlcSdUlilty. the utfuduQ IS lOr cargo space, and designs are drawn to meet it. Wooden vessels, mostly of 350o deadweight tons, and averaging S600.000 in cost, are equipped with coal burning engines. Steel ships, which range from $500 to 12, GOO tons and cost s750, 900 to g 50O 900, are being adapted in many cases to fuel oil. On every craft is gun plat form, on the larger ships two, grim re- minders of that international lawlessness which challenged American courage and resourcefulness to a performance which has amazed the world.
 The months of getting ready are past in the north Atlantic shipyards. The or deal of selecting from thousands of ap- plicants men who could. build ships, or learn to build them, is over. The destruc- tive labor turnover of the industry's first phase has been almost wholly eliminated. Erection of barracks and homes at some of the isolated centers has helped to sta bilize the labor problem. Though supply has not yet fully met demand for men and materials, the day of an even bal ance is drawing nearer. From now on completed ships will be reckoned not in thousands, but in millions of tons year. A cargo bridge to France promises to be a reality.