The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-09-04
NORTH DAKOTAN PRAISES 49,
WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION

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/ man left at home. They say it takes
five men at home to keep one man II
the field. The boys Just want those
five men to stick to their jobs
Hodgson had just completed "a
hours work on q stretch. He had
been sticking to his job.
mot every machinist realizes what
we're up against he replied: N"Of
course there are some fellows who
wouldn't be affected much by all the
presidential proclamations in the
world, out they are in the minority.
most of the men down at the navy
yard are doing.their best all the time.
But some OF them still need to real
ize the seriousness of this whole
thing: They have been talked to, un>
til talk doesn't get over any more"
"Over in France" McGonegal went
on, "the women are doing all the
work. They're the firemen on the 10:
comotives. They drive the spikes that
told the rails to the sleepers. That's
what the labor situation is in France,
but it won't come to that here. Ameri-
ca has map-1ower enough to work and
fight too:'' g.
"Some of the men who come into
machine shops are really getting mon
ey under false iretenses," remarked
Hodgson. ''They don't know anything
about machinery. and it takes the time
of good man keeping them fror, do
ing some damage
THE work Of real machinist de-
ponds mostly on the. sense Of touch,
HodgsOn went on. It's your fingers
measure a ten-thousapdths of an inch
with anything you have in the shop,
but just the same things have to be
right. That's where the machinist in
stinct and the sense OF touch come
in. You're dealing with metals which
expand at every added degree OF tenn
perature. Seven-millionths of an inch,
the expansion of an inch rod of nickel
steel. isn't much. perhaps, but when
you multiply that by ten inches and
five degrees OF temperature you get a
figure that is going to be appreciated"
Il knew young man in tie army
McGonegal recalled" HE was col
lege1 graduate, and accepted for limit
ed ,service-non-combatant. They put
him at work making gas shells. and he
thought he was wasted. He wanted to
fght-cOuldnt see any use at all in
making those shells. Why, he was
doing Skilled labor that had to be
done-probably he was worth twice as
much on that job as he could ever
have been in the trenches.
"On the other hand, l could have
An3x n nc mo obi nj lot
but was, physically tit, and the place
for me was the battle line. It's a big
job, organizing nation for war. and
the government is trying to find every
mans proper, place. It's the mans
job to stick in ito do what he can
do best. - ~ 81 i
1--WE were told abroad how work,
men were giving days pay to the
Red Cross. or three hours work on
July without pay-how they offered
to work for low wages under govern
ment controi. Those things meant a
lot to U.S. ,z-.y TX ~
Hodgson mentioned q young man
in the navy yard shops who had
bought $500 worth OF Liberty bonds
in the third loan and has paid for them
now. Some of them, he said, were
working overtime, and using the mon
ey to buy really more bonds than they
could afford. That spirit, he felt, was
Of the kind to win the war; but a
few men seemed to lack 1t.
| I'm the army" he pointed out, I'll
a man fails IN his duty he Is court
martialed or tried by a summary
court. We have something like that
in industry, but it seems to me that II
defeats its own purpose. For example
II man commits some fault, he is
perhaps suspended for day or two.
'In all that time his machine lies
idle-and the output of that machine
is worth perhaps 500 an hour More
over, he earns nothing himself, and
is producing nothing. The problem.
think, is to make sure that the men
remain at work; suspension Is poor
remedy"
| He told of one young men who had
lost about 30 days since the first OF
the year, and who, he thought, was
really earning more money than was
good for him.
"Yet you can't make man work for
less because he is SINGLE" he admit
ted.
McGonegal told how the special
service men men-volunteers and
drafted network under military dis
cipline in France.
Some Of them have uniforms. and
some haven't" he explained. sThose
who have them, buy them. They put
In ., long. day, and they work, many
OF them, for $50 a month. But they
certainly get the work done. We have
privates over there in charge OF in
spection workAbecause they IRE men
who can be depended on
! Hodgson thought that "dilution
could be adopted with considerable
success in war industfies-tn2t is
men without experiences In machine
work can be trained to simple pro
cesses, thus releasing the. Skilled ma
chinists for the more difficult and
technical work
WHEN the unskilled men come I'm
J tell them this" was McGonegaps
summary. Skilled labor is already