Evening star., 1918-06-09

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THE AUTOMATIC sOMEwHERE IN
you" But he thereupon raised her
wages so that they were equal to
those Of the girls in the pistol plant,
and I am told she is still on the Job.
The officials say that the women
are steadier than the men and that
they lose less time. They are in such
demand that in certain Of the firearms
factories of this region any woman
may come in and work for a certain
number, of fixed hours per day at
piece-work. All that is required is
that she must tell Just when she will
come and that she be there regularly
for the time fixed. Some women work
from 10 to IL in the morning. and
many school teachers add to their in
come by putting in two or three hours
a day after school is over. am told
that the people Of New Haven are
worried for fear that after hours
work Of the teachers in the factory
may decrease their efficiency in the
The Colt plant making automatic
pistols is a nine-hour shop, but the
employees are urged to work longer
and are paid for the amount they turn
out. Some Of the men stop at S
o'clock, some at and some at pm.
pay day, and on Monday it is espe-
cially difficult to get a full force. The
women are more conscientious and
they lose but little time.
The Army needs more and more pis-
tolls as fast as it can get them, and at
more tools and more labor. The
company is bringing new machines of
all kinds, and it needs all hands that
it can get to run them. One of the
chief officials says that there is a.
mass Of floating labor moving about
at government expense. The men
will work while in one factory and
then get transportation-free. per-
haps-to another factory in another
part of the country. The anxiety to
get the work done is SO great that all
the private companies manufacturing
for the Army. and men are bribed to
leave one plant for another. The
man who told me this believes that
munition labor should be drafted and
kept on the job just as our soldiers are
says it is no worse to draft a man to
make a pistol than to draft him to
shoot 1t. In one case he loses only
his sweat. while in the other he is
liable to lose his blood and his life.
Moreover man in the munitions
factory is paid from IS to $40 day,
while the man in the trenches gets
barely 81 and keep.
The work of making an automatic
pistol Is enormous compared with the
size of the weapon. The pistol is so
small that you could put it up your
sleeve or drop 1t into your coat pock-
ct. Nevertheless it has three
different parts. ranging in size from
pins as hne as a sewing needle to the
framework Of the handle or receiver,
which requires forging weighing
over four pounds. Many of the parts
processes or more. and in all over
1,l00 different hands are engaged, in
one capacity or another, on each indi-
vidual pistol. It takes 125 men to
make the receiver. seventy to make
the slide and thirty to make the bar
on the small parts. and if you take
all OF the men and women who ham
die each part of the weapon until it
Is completed and packed away ready
to be shipped to the boys in the
trencnes the number is. as 1 have
~'SA AsAoo. Ia luIS WOTh every
one has one part to do. and the proc
esses are SO standardized that one
man often does the same thing over
ana over again throughout the day
!! saw one boy who spends the whole
day drilling holes in the barrels, and
near him a girl putting peg after peg
into hole from morning until even
ing.
Much Of the work is less fixed, and
much requires judgment, care and
considerable skill. Everything has to
be gauged, and hundreds of men and
women look over the pieces and meas
ure them with gauges to see that
they are exactly right. Some of the
parts are SO small that they are
counted by Weighing them. SO many
pieces going to the pound.