The Cordova daily times., 1918-06-28


 Is one that requires extreme tact and capabiiity.
 big Hog Island yard, near Philadel- phia, where $25O,OOO is being spent in permanent ditching which is in- tended to rid that locality of mosqui- tos for all time. The state of Penn sylvania has contributed $75,000, the city of Philadelphia $45,OOO, and man. ufacturing interests have also appro. priated money.
 The work of the department of health and sanitation covers much more than the cleaning up of un. healthy conditions. The comfort and convenience of workers is also very important. Every shipyard is required to have medical and hospital facil- ities, and these are inspected, and in- formation gathered about disease, ep- idemics and accidents. The living quarters of shipyard workers are in- vestigated, and recommendation made for their convenience and comfort in bunk houses, homes, transportation to and from work and recreation. Lunch con and kitchen facilities are studied with a view to seeing that the men get nourishing food, in clean surroundings, at reasonable prices. This involves investigation of milk, meat and ice supply, food storage facilities, cook. ing and dish-washing equipment, and so forth.
 There was a shipyard on the Great Lakes which had difficulty last fall keeping working force of 1000 men, Its labor turnover was very large h. vestigation showed that the yard had grown so fast that too little attention had been paid to providing for the comfort and convenience of workers The lunchroom was inadequate, and there was little in the way of bathing facilities or recreation.
 Today this shipyard is fully manned, and has little trouble in keeping good workers. The expensive item of labor turnover has been reduced until it is practically negligible. The company purchased an old passenger steamship, brought it to the shipyard and con- verted it into a floating hotel First class kitchen equipment was installed, with toilets, washrooms, and other conveniences, providing good meals for two or three hundred men, A large dormitOry was built near the yard, with a clubroOm at one end where men could read, write, play pool or cards, have music and visit and smoke. The sleeping rooms in this dormitory were warmed by hot air last winter, and the piping system is to be used this summer for blowing cool air in the corridors. With these conveniences for making their work pleasant the employees organized a "Shipbuilders'
  Service Club" elected officers, and ar ranged for baseball, bowling and bas- ketball games, with dances and other social affairs among themselves. It is now becoming a matter of pride among the shipyard workers in that yard to serve for the period of the war, and arrangements have been made whereby every man who remains in the employ of the company until the end of the war will receive a certi- ficate, showing that he not only was serving in the fight for democracy, but that he stuck at his post until the fight was done.
 Uncle Sams work does not stop with the cleaning up of bad health conditions, or the providing of comfort and convenience He will safeguard life and health by giving the ship yards the results of the best that has been learned in war.
 As an instance, the Dakin solu- tion which, the shipping board says, has saved thousands of soldiers lives and hundreds of thousands of soldiers limbs by preventing blood poisoning and other after-consequences of these wounds, is being furnished to every shipyard Two specialists will travel about the country and teach the Dakin method to physicians in shipyards and shipyard localities, so that shipyard workers who suffer even slight acci- dents may have the best treatment the medical world affords.