Evening star., 1918-06-09

day. It is now making machine guns,
Colt automatic revolvers and the Colt
Ing. It consists Of many great build
ings of brick and steel. Its floor
space covers acres and the number
Of men and women employed runs
high into the thousands. Included
in s1ea them is s, an army % Of expert me, me.
and day making small arms for our
soldiers in Europe.
x&
wish I could show you one of the
big factory rooms where the pistols
are made. You will have to have
Photographic pass to gain admission
and you will be stopped again and
again as you walk about from one
machine to another. I visited one
room, which was as long as a good
sized city block, as wide or wider
than Commonwealth avenue Boston.
I figure that it covers something
like two acres, and its walls of brick
and glass and its -saw-toothed glass
roof throw a bright light on the
maze of special machinery buzzing
below.
Standing at one end Of the room
looked through a tiicket Of the fy-
ing wheels. and moving belts, which,
run by electricity, keep the machin-
cry in action. There are wheels over
head and wheels near the machines.
At first You can hardly distinguish
the machines and it takes a moment
or SO for you to see that every belt
runs a machine. and that nearly
every machine has q man or woman
standing before 1t. There are more
than a thousand hands at work in
the room, and there are more than
that number of these special ma
chimes, many Of which are operated
by women. AS you go on you see
that the women are doing all kinds
of work. Some of them are pounding
with hammers, others are using files
and others are gauging the parts to
see that each is accurate to the split
ting of a hair. Many Of the women
are operating machines, and girls Of
eighteen are managing four different
machines at one time putting in and
taking out new parts SO quickly that
not the stroke of a lever nor the bite
Of a lathe goes to waste.
The company is speeding Its work
to the utmost, and 1t does all 1t can
to increase the output Of the individ-
ual worker. Everything is paid for by
the piece, and the laborer who turns
out the more work gets the more
wages. This Is true Of both women
and men. and the women are paid ex-
actly the same as the men and ac-
cording to the amount they produce.
For time there was fear on the
part of the girls against speeding up
lest the price per piece should be cut.
and in the end they should be doing
more work for the same money. A
gang of about forty women were en-
ployed on a certain part Of the pis-
toll. Each was turning out about 500
parts per day when the supereinten-
dent urged them to increase their
guarantee them the same price per
piece. That offer was made two weeks
ago, and the girls are now averaging
800 per day and soon each will be
making 1000.
There has been a decided speeding
up of the work since we entered the
war, and that on the part of the
men and women themselves. The
most of the employees are enthusiastic
patriots, and the women especially
feel that they are doing their bit in
the war There are flags in every
ployes, and both men and women are
subscribing largely to the Red Cross
and the liberty loan.
l have been especially interested in
the work of the women. They labor
away side by side with the men. and
still there is but little conversation or
gossiping going on. The output fxes
the pay and SO both time and work
are money. Some of the girls are
making from $25 to $35 a week, and
some of them making more than men
at the same Job. They like the work,
and the households Of Hartford are
having famine in women's labor on
account of the domestic servants leav-
ing and going into the munitions fac
tories. One Of the highest officials
of this pistol-making plant recently
had a warning from one of his house.
maids that she was going to leave.
He asked her what was the matter.
Colts factory, where they would give
her more wages. He said '"They won't
give you a job; and If they do I'll fire