Evening star., 1919-04-20

but IN this very plant are other signs
of their cruel cunning and absolute
disregard for the ordinary tenets OF
fair play and square dealing.
In the great engine rooms of the
plant powerful machines which fur
nished the motive power of this once
wonderful steel mill today are silent
Some are dismantled. Others are do
ing service in plants in Germany.
Those that are in Ctarleroi are here
only because the Germans did not
have time to get them away before, at
the order of the allied armistice terms.
they began to trek Germanyward.
In these great engine rooms and cleo
trical plants is revealed the cunning
plan of Germany not only to kill the
Industries of Belgium, but systemat-
fcally to build up her own through
the use of Belgian machinery.
Numbered and Catalogued. &
Taken from their bases of concrete
are great machines with which the
bases of the blast furnaces We're con-
verted into motive power. They are
immense things. but each part has
been carefully removed and piled. up.
Dynamos large and small likewise
occupy space over the broad floors.
Betting, small cranes and myriad OF
other articles generally to be found
in the modern steel plant may be
found here. They still are in good
condition. but there is a reason. Ger
many sent fifteen industrial experts
to Charleroi. Such machinery as was
found was dismantled carefully il it
could at all be utilized in Germany.
Upon each part was placed a number,
such as 'B 1897" In a catalog which
was issued under the auspices of the
German government and distributed
TO commercial organizations and fac
A.
tria there might be found piece of
machinery listed "B 1877" When the
German manufacturer needed par
ticular piece, and 'B 1897" met his
pressing need, he communicated with
the section of the German war ofiice
and France in charge. Orders were
dispatched to Charleroi and "B 1897"
was placed upon q freight car with
other articles and sent over the Rhine.
Tens of thousands of pieces of ma
chinery taken from Belgian and
service in all sections Of Germany.
spirit of satisfaction sweeps over
one when he sees many pieces still
left in Charleroi which bear red tags,
indicating that they had been chosen
, by some German firm, but which could
Hun Barbarity Shown.
But to find any spot in the industrial
districts of Belgium and France where
there remains any part of machinery
that can be utilized is rare. About the
very buildings which house these
good bits of machinery there is moth
| ing but twisted steel, masses of brick
and stone and walls which because OF
their tottering condition make it un-
safe to approach them. LIE Providence
steel works in Charleroi is an example
| of both Hun barbarity and ingenious
industrial deviltry. Fortunately fol
| the Charleroi plants the management
through the confessions of German
soldiers and a clever spying system
has been able to determine many
points to which their machinery was
shipped and through the peace term.
| to be signed in Paris may obtain thu
return of much of this. But this will
be an almost inhnitesimal quantity
when compared to the huge amoun
taken.
On leaving LIE Providence plant ones
eyes fall upon an immense heap o.
Stag. possibly two hundred feet high.
"Fhe Germans did leave you thu
sIag," was q remark addressed to al
official of the company.
mo. Not all of it. One hundred ant
fifty thousand tons was sent to TN
front to be utilized in building
trenches" came the response.
| And this was true. This great plan
which In 1914 employed nearly SOC
people and the value OF Which wal
more than $25,00O,G 900 cannot be re
placed today, owing to the extremel!
, high cost of building materials ant
to compilations made by it's officers
If it could resume in the immediate
future, much of the unemployment
problem of Charleroi would be solved