New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-09-02
Hurley and Frankfurter Pay
Tribute to Workers.
Accomplishments
Their Efforts Make
"Victory a Certainty"
American Shipbuilders
Have Set Pace That Is
Called Almost In
credible
Especial Dispatch to The Tri6une)

is not only war of arms. 1t is war
of workshops" declares the National
War Labor Board ut is gigantic
competition in the cumulative produc
ton and distribution of munitions and
war supplies. 1t is a contest in indus
trial resourcefulness and energy"
Ir this war CT workshops the nation
has of necessity turned to labor. And
the war record of American labor, Of
clare, has exceeded every expectation.
The nation will celebrate Labor Day
tomorrow as tribute to the work
done by its workers for war. And
labor, in celebrations throughout the
country, will observe the day by pledg-
ing anew it's efforts to victory.
What has been the major contribu-
ton of labor to the war programme Z"
When this question was put to Felix
Frankfurter, chairman of the Labor
Policies Board, to whom the Admins
tration has delegated the task of CO.
ordinating and unifying the war labor
programme, he replied:
american labor has helped most by
its quick responsiveness to the leader
ship of President Wilson"
Moreover, this view that the attitude
of American labor toward the war has
meant more than even its remarkable
practical accomplishments, is held by
practically every government labor Of
fetal to whom the question is put.
Labor Has Put Its
Heart in the Job
"To be sure" they will tell you,
american labor has turned its hands
to shipbuilding and munition making in
way that has made the world marvel.
But labor has done more than put its
hands to the task. 1t has brought its
heart to the job 1t has adopted the
war. for it's own until now the phrase,
This is labors war is more than
text fer preachments. 1t is an accom-
plished fact"
Turning to labor's practical accom-
plishments in war perhaps the most
spectacular achievements have been
recorded in shipbuilding. A little more
than year ago the United States was
not counted shipbuilding nation. In
the short space of twelve months this
country has become the worlds fore
most producer of ocean tonnage.
If you ask Chairman Hurley of the
Shipping Board what has contributed
most to the remarkable expansion of
American shipbuilding, which sent into
the waters on the Fourth of July more
tonnage than was built in any one year
before the war, he will tell you that
sall credit should go to the workmen in
the yards, the men who drive the rivets,
as he puts it.
american workmen have made the
expansion of recent months possible"
the Chairman of the Shipping Board
says, "and they will make possible the
successful conclusion of the whole pro-
gramme. On July /, 1917, there were
in the United States not quite $4,000
men engaged in the shipbuilding yards.
To-day We have a force of 10000 men
in the yards and $50, 900 men engaged
in allied trades. This force will be
continuously increased From all pres
ent expectations it is likely that by
1920 we shall have close to a million
men working on American merchant
ships and their equipment"
Another American labor army of
three quarters of a million men, with
no insignia except that of the man
who tolls, is working daily underground
to produce the coal that supplies the
vital needs of the other army fighting
the Huns.
The American miner has demon
strated that he realizes he is part of
Americas great war machine. From
all parts of the country, even from
isolated villages in sections where one
would expect the war spirit to pene-
trate slowly come reports to Washing
ton that miners have given up their
holidays that there should be no slow
ing up in the production of that fuel
which means men and munitions on the
fighting front in France.
Only recently the Bureau of Mines
sent one of it's investigators into the
field to make a survey of certain mines
in Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio. He
reported that he had been most i'm
pressed during his investigation by the
universal disposition among the miners
with whom he came in contact to help
the government in every way possible
He found, for example, that the old So
cialstic chalk slogans on the walls of
many mines have given way to "Buy Lib
erty Bonds" and many other references
to winning the war. One of the most
familiar of the signs in number of
mines reads "To hell with the kaiser!"
During the week Of July 10 the
miner showed what he can do when
conditions favor his best effort by
turning out 1924 900 tons of bi-
luminous coal. exceeding by more than
100000 tons the best weekly pre-war
record in coal production.
Labor Everywhere
IL Fighting the Hun
One cannot do justice to the Amer-
can labor war record by merely re-
It