New-York tribune., 1918-09-21
Gripping Hog Island

There is real scandal at Hog Island
now that is not a product of heated I'M
sginations nor Of anybody's aspirations
for bold newspaper headlines. 1t is not
a scandal of extravaganza or fraud, but
q scandal of labor shortage and Stacker
ism. And the worst of it all is that con-
ditions at Hog Island seem not peculiar
to that gigantic enterprise, but are more
or less true of the whole shipbuilding in
dustry on the Atlantic Coast.
From the revelations published in the
Philadelphia papers of this week it is
now clear that Hog Island will not pro-
duce this year half of the scheduled and
contracted programme, and. unless con-
ditions can be swiftly bettercd, the actual
product will not be much more than one
fourth of that contemplated This is
sad disillusionment, and a keenly disap-
pointed nation will seek eagerly to know
the causes.
The explanation. from Admiral Bowles
who has direct supervision of all the Del
aware plants for the government, and
from Mr.. Charles Piez, general manager
of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, is
simple: lacking labor and Stacking labor.
Thus far the Hog Island plant has
never been able to obtain more than half
the number of rivetcrs required to com
plete the forty~cight ships on schedule
time. And the labor that it has been able
to get has actually done in the last six
months an average of just about one-haf
of what was expected Of it, As sample
of the stacking that has there taken place
it is stated that on Friday, September 13,
Pershings birthday, as the result of a
tremendous squirt, the 619 riveting gangs
drove total Of 1875 900 rivets, which was
two and one-fourth times the record of
any previous day in the history of the
yard
On Monday. September Is, the first
full weekday following, the same riveters
drove $4,000 rlvets, or less than SO per
cent of the number driven on the star
day. On Tuesday the same gangs drove
only $4,000 rivets. These two days were
something like ''normal"; that is, about
the average for the last few months. In
an interview published in the Philadelphia
papers Admiral Bowes said bluntly:
"The fundamental trouble with the
shipyard workers is that they arc getting
too much money. The situation in which
man earn in two or three days more
than enough for his weekly expenses and
needs is not conducive to steady and
earnest application to his work"
The Hog Island plant will cost when
completed $55,000,000. 1t will be incom-
parably the largest shipyard in the
world and with an actual capacity be-
yond that of all the yards in the United
States when the war began. The wages
paid have been so high as to be charac-
terlzed as "a saturnala of extrava-
gance," and yet in the face of these
wages the company has been able only to
hat man It's yards. The whole organiza-
ton, from the point of view of SANTA
ton, health, hospital service, recreation.
amusements and comfort and convenience
for the workers, has been planned by the
most up-to-date experts. 1t might be
called an uplifter's dream. 1t has even
been criticised by a high government Off
cal as being "over- welfared'
1t is the irony Of ironies that this
plant, the largest hope of the Shipping
Board, and, for that NATTER of the whole
nation, the ideal shipping plant of the
world, should from such cause be, in
this hour of dire shipping need, crippled
Here is a problem for eager and militant
America. What will we do with it? We
must have the ships. We will have the
ships. But first, apparently, the govern
ment will have to come to grips with the
labor situation