Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-26
ONE. PLANT READY TO CEASE LABOR

subscribed n penny each TO make the
purchase-and had more than a hundred
dollars over for the Red Cross.
To show the spirit of industry OF the
great plant. it might be mentioned here
that the employees Oh that gala day
when they celebrated the making OF tbs
millionth rife, kept right on the Jot
until 3:30 o'clock in the afternoon, Until
the moment the whistle sounded tc
cease work, the machines and the mer
and women who ran them sped raster
II anything, than usual, so that thert
might be no production loss.
The spirit Of the employees is one OF the
most interesting things bou the big rifle
works. They have earned good wages
but they have given full value. Never
was there a days shutdown never wa
there an hours labor disturbance. TIT
workers were too busy too patriotic, toe
certain of the fair intentions of their EN-
ployers, to listen to agitators.
Millions for Liberty Bonds
It is significant, too. that, the workers
men n women. bought more thar
81 5000, 900 worth Of the various Liberty
Loan issues, besides investing large sums
in war-savings lamps and contributing
generously TO the War Chest and Red
Cross.
So much for the workers--now for
their product.
The rifles made at Eddystone for the
American army are the last word in
small arms. They combine the best quail
tiles of both the British Enfield and the
old American Springfield.
The British army uses a cartridge of
1903 caliber. The American army for
years has been using a .S0-caliber car
fridge. When our country went into the
war American rifle plants which had
been making small arms for England
could have continued making the same
type and caliber arm for the United
States without the loss OF a day.
That. however. would nave made
necessary two kinds of ammunition.
Rather than risk the danger and incon-
venience Of this course, the War Depart
ment accepted the delay incidental to
chan ing machines and manufacturing
a new stock Of parts
The lessons American rifle makers had
learned In manufacturing the British
Enfield helped make the new American
rife the truest-shooting Understanding
military rife ever devised.
The rife with which our new armies
are equipped is known as the United
States rifle. caliber 80. model 1917. 1t
has a muzzle velocity Of 2750 feet, COM
pared to the 22O0 feet muzZle velocity Of
the Enfield. The explosive pressure de-
veloped in the American rife Is $1,000
pounds. compared to the 100000 pounds
of the British arm. our rifles are tested
with a bursting charge equivalent to
10000 pounds to the inch, as against
the SO, OOO-pound-per-inCh test charge OF
the Enfield.
The gun made at Eddystoue and used
by our troops in France will kill a man
at three miles.
It shoots so accurately that a trained
marksman can hit an individual with 1t
at a full mile.
. It is worth while quoting a letter
written by an army captain in France
about the Eddystone rifle to one of the
assistant general managers OF the plant:
we went through the st. Mihiel
drive, and as l write the drive of No
vember / is going merrily on--started
rs a. m. Some $500 pieces Of artil-
lery let go at that time. You can
easily imagine the way the earth rocked
as Wilson'S Answer went home. our
big guns usually carry a placard Will
sons Answer and after the barrage has
been placed and our boys go over, then
the Springfield Enfield, or model 1911,
rifles come into their own.
The Rife for Bayonet Work
81 have handled many ri1es, old and
new, Springfields. Krags, Mausers ana
a few others. but when II comes 10
service, the sturdy-built Eddystone rifle
certainly delivers the goods. The stock
ia SO strong thai It makes an ideal
rife for bayonet work. l have IN ST.
Mihiel seen many evidences of the bayo-
on the business end of an Enfield
make perfectly good Huns out OF bad
ones-they were. OF course, dead ones.
The German rifle is but n toy compared
TO ours"
The man who wrote hat letter knows
the Eddystone rife. He has staked his
life on it.
The letter links the shops with the
battlefield. The same spirit OF service
that made u soldiers indomltable in
the field has animated tic men and
women at lathe and drill, They, too.
are heroes.
Go into the shops and YOU will see
this spirit.
II 10 impossibIc to describe the actual
making of rifles at Eddystone, II Ia
an extremely complex undertaking-as
Won may realize II you reflect a moment
upon the statement made early in this
article that there arc 100000 single
operations entailed in n days output OF
5000 rifles.
To do so vast a job in a day. with
even the 1900 employees WHO were at
work with production At its height,
naturally means perfect system. Every