New-York tribune., 1918-03-09

are of transformers and quality
In gathering together 10000 or so 600 men
in a country that is teeming with industrial
activity. without deliberately stealing men
from other industries, horde of ncompe
tents and misfi.s IS assured. These are
wceded out by the management. Then there
are the thousands of good workers, cursed
with the wandcrlust, who weed themselves
out.
In one Of the early labor drives for the
island some thousands Of New Iork's Bol-
sheviki were gathered H. "Buttcnhole'
workers. they call them on the island. They
were not fitted for hard manual work either
by experience or physique Their moral
equipment for strenuous, patriotic task
was not exactly symmetrical. They regard
ed the chaotic job as a rare opportunity to
raid the bourgeoisie, golden chance to
take without giving. They departed faster
than they came, but left behind stanch
proportion Of their more rugged members,
mentally and physically, who have found
new career and now Joy IN productive
labor in the open. To a virile man driving
mules has more appeal than running sew
ing machine.
Among those who came and went were
many white e-handed patriots. The work was
too hard for them. They did their best and
succumbed. Nowadays it takes large, horny
calluses to get job. 1t also takes ply
sioue. Selection daily reduces the number
of the incompetents, and the present sys-
tenn of careful examination of all applicants
for positions cuts of the intake of the un-
fit. As the possibilities Hog Island has in
store for the good and faithful worker get
abroad in the land and the injury done to
the morale Of the men by the widely cir
culated stories of graft and proiiteering is
cured good men come and stay. Say what
you will, good meals at reasonable prices,
clean sleeping quarters, generous pay.
human treatment, recreation facilities and
the prospect Of long and steady employment
always tell in the end.
The Y. NJ C. A. is established at Hog Isl.
and, and an ex-Yale athlete, who for some
reason failed to make the army, has charge
of the company work Of providing entertain
ment and amusement for the men. A kind
Of club has been established, and there are
entertainments all the way from boxing to
patriotic speeches every night. Among the
Hog Island workers of high and low de.
gree are some famous baseball players,
great runners, pugllists of national fame
amusement managers, etc. All such men
are sought out and enlisted in the cam
and. The professional upliftcr, however, is
carefully avoided. w, atever should be on
a paying basis IS put there. The men pay
for what they get but whatever profits
there may be in canteen or club used
for the furtherance of the welfare and con-
tentment of the employees. It would take a
book to tell of the physical, moral and men,
tai examinations of the applicants and tho
scrupulous care with which their interests
and those of their families are looked after.
A factor in the increasing stability Of
labor on the island is the excellent order
that is maintained by the company police
force. 1t is composed entirely of ex-so
diers, the commandant being Major Sinclair.
late of the Canadian army and three times
wounded in France. Under him men
who have fought in all the Allied armies and
in every quarter Of the globe. One of the
privates is q stalwart eX-captain of United
States cavalry who has figured in many an
Indian campaign. Too old to get into the
army now, despite his magnificent physique
and superb health, he is doing his bit here
All of the veterans from the war in Eu-
rope who are in the guard have been wound
ed and are no longer fit for trench duty,
though you would never suspect it from
their appearance. Some of the men are Of
QIdlI age ana Will respond WntU Cdlltu, puS
in the mean time are doing valuable service
here. The organization of the force is
purely military, in uniform, equipment and
discipline. 1t comprises six hundred men.
and even that number is scarcely sufficient.
They are supplied with krag-Jorgenson
rifles for emergency use. The@ work is the
ordinary maintenance of order, the dlrec-
tion of traffic, the enforcement Of safety
rules, the protection of the yards from Ger
man plotters and the running down Of spies.
The fire department, with its eighty men
and ample equipment, also contributes to
the safety of life and property. The medl'
cal and sanitation service, with its three
hospitals, its twenty doctors and It's largs
staff of nurses, deals promptly with wounds
and diseases. 1t prdes itself on the fact
that there has been no epidemic Of any
kind on the island. The most trivial wound
receives prompt attention. No foreman Will
permit man to continue at work with SO
slight a wound as q bad scratch until he
has had it treated
The result of all this solicitude for the
welfare of the men, of the system Of dear
ing with them as individuals, is a rapidly
growing esprit de corps. The consciousness
OF being an essential part of noble ma
tional work is permeating all. They realize
the significance of the poster announce
ment that everywhere confronts them