davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16

ficient supply of an important raw
material of satisfactory quality, es
pecially if difficult to obtain other
wise, may warrant a substantial in
vestment in its production, even
though the savings in it's manufacture
may not represent as great a return
as might be expected under other cir
cumstances. An industry which can
furnish a profitable channel for the
disposal of intermediate or finished
products, or byproducts of the du
Pont company, which cannot be other
wise readily marketed, would also
prove attractive. The same is true of
a business, preferably along chemical
lines and with a promising future for
ever expanding sales, which might fur
nish employment with suitable profit
for the various existing resources of
the du Pont company. among which
might be available capital plant capac-
ity not otherwise employed, as we'll ad-
ministered and vast organization of
industrial and technical experts, pro-
vided that these resources together
with the men and the other assets
secured at the time of our entry into
the such other qualifications as could
be expected, with diligent effort, to be
acquired, should place the du Pont
company in at least as favorable a
strategic position, or more so, than
any present or prospective competitor
in that industry.
ON the old days of the powder In
dustry, even the most advanced pro
ducers Of their day were in the cate
CORY Of what one would to-day refer
to as mixer. His materials were
purchased from various sources and
merely mixed by him and sold as pow
der. From this position the du Pont
company has, through constant enter
prise and aggressiveness, developed
processes far more complicated and
efficient explosives, both for CONNER
cial and military purposes, and has
from time to time, when it seemed de-
sirablc, extended it's endcavors into the
production OF many of the most i'm
portant materials required by it, so
that to-day its explosive manufacture
and ranrifcations represent tremen-
dous scope of industrial activity"
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Would AvOid
Unnecessary TASTE

Some have insisted upon continua-
tion of competition in service. On
this point would say that while under
a segregated form of railroad operation
there would be more competition than
if the roads are operated under sin
gle corporation, still no oNe seriously
interested in furnishing transportation
to the public at the lowest possible
cost could recommend q condition under
which there might be an unnecessary
amount OF competition in service, for
that would mean waste in operation and
would lead to wasteful strategic con-
struction in the interest of the few
users of luxurious trains at the ex-
pense of the many, who would have
to make good the losses resulting from
the operation Of such trains by paw
ing higher freight rates on their COM
modities.
My plan provides that the stock of
the Federal corporation shall carry
cumulative dividends up to 5 per cent
and shall be limited in dividends to s
per cent. All earnings of the corpora
ton in excess of the per cent divi-
dend. paid the stockholders, shall be
used in the interest of labor and the
public, as follows: 40 per cent to be
distributed among the employees on a
percentage basis in proportion to their
wages; 80 per cent to be set aside as
fund to be known as a bonus and
merit fund, to be used from time to
time in the public interest in the form
of bonuses or rewards as an incentive
to employees or for unusual service or
inventions, or for the introduction of
economies that may result in better
service and reduced operating costs.
The remaining so per cent shall be
placed in fund to be used for proper
ty improvements.
In conclusion, ] repeat that am firm
ly convinced that, in the interests OF
the entire country, the railroads must
be unified that all questions of rail-
road value, railroad rates and return
on Investment should be cleared up
now and forever through the medium
Of an independent valuation adjustment
commission. as suggested in the plan
presented to the Senate COMMITTEES
on Interstate Commercs.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
du Pont Philosophy
OF Expansion

1t constitutes the ewes of tho or
ganlzat'on, and its vision is aimed at
the future. 1t is looking for the new
and logical developments that the du
Pont organization can make. Its field
Tor investigation is the entire world
1T is working with new zcst and cx
panded opportunity, now that the war
business is over.
Until early in the war the expansion
OF the du Pont company ir fields other
than the manufacture of powder was
confined to the production of materials
entering into the manufacture of ex-
plosives or into industries extremely
closely allied with the powder bust
ness. Recently the tendency has been
to broaden the scope of the company's
activities. Two methods of striking
out along new lines have been fol-
lowed.' Ventures in fields hitherto
untrammelled by the du Pont interests
have been started either in the exist
ing plants or laboratories of the COM
pany, followed by the building of new
plants and equipment and the assem-
bling of an organization, or by buying
operating companies outright and
building up the acquired industry upon
the original units as nucleus.
The philosophy of the du Pont
growth was thus explained by an ex-
ecutive of the development depart
ment: There arc different reasons
which have and will prompt the du
Pont company in the selection of the
particular industries in which to en-
gage. To insure a regular and suf-
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Business Exploded boy Peace Leaves u Scrap Hear

stituted per cent of the explosives
produced by the organization, and dur
ing the strife, n per cent. The
amount of dynamite used in blasting
and construction is regarded as an e.
ceilent barometer of industrial activ-
ity, rival of steel. Now the pendulum
is shifting back, and, if the nascent
plans of the du Pont company mature
FULLY, 1t is not unlikely that the MAX
ing of explosives eventually will take
a secondary place to the manufacture
OF other chemical products.
The condition of the guncotton and
smokeless powder plants at this time
epitomizes the adjustment that has
been made throughout the world since
hostilities ceased. Before the armis-
tice was signed S5,638 men and women
were straining themselves to the ut
most in the du Pont plants to keep
America and the Allies equipped with
adequate munitions. If one regards
the war partly as an adventure in sci
ence 1T must be conceded that the Ger
mans met powerful resistance at Car
neys Point; Hopewell, Va; Nashville,
Tenn, and all the other great muni-
tions centres in this country. While
the fame Of war lit up the whole world
with it's intensive fare, the American
munition centres, crowded and busy.
trembled with activity and groaned
under the pressure of industrial pro-
ductivity without precedent. Although
the product made in these mills were
the instruments Of death, these plants
typified life. Now in their still mo-
notony they seem to represent death,
possibly the death of an institution
whose extinction all the world would
welcome.
The great smokeless powder plant at
Nashville, the capacity of which was
100000 pounds day, is now virtually
inactive. The great she'll roading plant
at Penniman, Va, which employed
5000 workers, is now quiescent in the
hands of the government. The smoke
less powder plant at Haskell, N. j.,
which also employed 5000 at the peak
of its activity, is fast approaching a
dead halt. The smokeless powder plant
at Parlin, N. j., in which 5000 men
and women worked, may, for all prac-
tical purposes, be considered closed.
And 80 for the powder plants at Car
neys Point, and the great guncotton
works at Hopewell, where the du Pont
village is now all but abandoned. The
INT plant at Barksdale, Wis, which
was the centre of war activity for
1000 persons, now limps along with
400 men, making dynamite for normal
purposes. And at Seven Pines, Va,
where the powder was placed in silk
bags from which the guns were event
ually loaded, the 1000 war workers
have gone into other work. The plant
is idle.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Attention Now Turned to Vast
Plans for Developing New
Chemical Products

at the annual meeting this week, the
commercial business of the company
increased from s26,000,0OO gross in the
years 1918 and 1914 to more than $72.-
100000 in 1918.
AS the last rites for the fantastic
war business are being performed, the
promise of a great peace business in
chemical products, including COM
mercical powders, challenges the keep
ers of the future. Representatives of
the du Pont interests are at great
pains to explain that the development
Of the company along peace lines is
logical and is related chemically to
their main business of the war. The
new dyestuffs plant is one Of the
ventures which seems surcharged with
the germs of growth. Rumors are
floating among the workmen at Car
ney's Point, N. j., just across the Del
aware River from Wilmington, to the
effect that the dyestuff works will be
expanded twenty times, but officials of
the company assert that any growth
will be gradual and not precipitatc.
In explaining the relation between
dyestuffs and explosives, M. r.
Poucher, sales manager for the dye
stuffs department and president of the
American DyestufFs Manufacturers AS
sociation, said: 1.-THE bases from which
most of the military high explosives
are derived are obtained as by-products
of the coking industry, and from the
same sources are obtained the bases
from which are manufactured inter
mediates, and finally the dyes, so much
needed to-day to supply practically
every other industry. This is the
reason why all these industries fit COM
fortably into the general organization
as separate or closely allied units. Or
in other words, take the letter Y; one
fork represents the explosives indus
try, and the other the dyestuff indus
try, the base being the same for both"
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16

would be lost. Take this manufacturer
of jewelry, who has been making fuses.
About all that have to do" he said
to me, "is to get new tools made, take
out some of the machines and relocate
others. Then. I shall be ready to 60 on
with my orders, provided, of course,
that get proper share of raw mate
rial; but l cannot get men. l need
tool makers first and when they have
had start can take on my old men
whom l promised to reeraploy. But
the army does not give me the pivot
men who are supposed first to be de-
n,obilized Instead they have sent me
fifty ordinary workers for whom shall
have nothing to do until th4 tool max
ers arrive. Dozens of Other firms are
in the same position. I know that the
selective discharge system will never
work for the mass of men, but certain
ly it ought to work for just the few
pivot men that we need to restart in
duStrv"
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16

trates in the companies properties
up to about $4,000 tons of sodium
nitrate year, which places the
du Pont company among the first ten
of some ninety operating companies of
various nationalities in Chile. 1t was
asserted that the total ore contained in
the company's three properties in that
country is sufficient to yield 100000
tons of sodium nitrate suitable for the
production Of acids and powder, and
will require from twelve to fifteen
years to extract. In addition to So
dium nitrate, these properties produce
potassium nitrate and iodine, products
of the same ore.
In this connection member of the
development department declared: at
is probable that in the not distant fut-
ure the company will produce its
nitric acid requirements from the air.
1t at present owns the American rights
to what it considers the best known
process for the production of nitric
acid from the air, and had it not been
that unfortunate legislation prohibits
the development of larger water pow
ers in the United States we would un-
doubtedly now be engaged in this ad-
vanced art"
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16

many years. The manufacture of
coors has also close relation to the
production of dyes"
In the third place. the beginnings of
producing dyestufFs have been made.
MIR. du Pont said: "The chemical COM
position of many dyes being similar in
nature to that Of a number of modern
explosives, makes study and develop-
ment of the dye industry an appro-
PIRATE adjunct to the main business
OF the company. The industry being
comparatively new in this country, it
was decided to obtain rights and pat
ehts and processes, starting in the in
dustry without a nucleus of existing
business and contrary to the plan fol-
lowed IN other cases. 1t was originally
thought that part of the apparatus
Tor the installation Of the dye industry
could be diverted from the manu-
facture of explosives at the termina
ton of the war, but discrimination of
hostiltles has negatived this expecta-
ton. The company is already produc-
ing indigo in large quantity, and is
producing fair amounts of many other
dyes, all of satisfactory quality. The
business is complex, but of. great in
terest and promise"
Fourthly, through the purchase of
2I6 per cent interest in the General
Motors Company, the du Pont institu-
int
bile industry
The Tribune is able to amplify Mr..
du Points statement by information
received from the development DEPART
ment. AS early as 1906 the du Pont
company began to seek new outlets for
nltro-cellulose, and began experiment.
ing in the production of solutions for
use in certain industries. The manu-
facture of artificial leather, split
leather and patent leather was adopted
as satisfactory outlet Important
discoveries recently are said to have
improved this product and also to have
developed practical solution for coat
ing airplanes.
The du Pont company, it was
learned, moreover, has options for
nearly twenty years on hardwood
tracts in Michigan, near the plant at
Bay City, for the manufacture of char
coal. This plant and the other at Gray
ling, Mich, use principally. hard cord
or slab wood, which is obtained from
timber and sawmill operations in the
northern part of the state.
The technical name for the opera
tions at these plants is the distilation
of wood. A dozen products result
from the process, ranging from the
crude, tarry liquors up to the valuable
wood alchohol and acetate of lime.
The growing demand for cheap alco-
hol for industrial purposes, it is said,
also stimulated a similar business be-
longing to the company at Georgetown,
S. c. This factory uses what hitherto
was regarded as waste, and therefore
makes no demand upon the supply of
grain and other foodstuffs
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Ne1o Trade RiUalry
Keener Than Erer

The European peoples are in any
event under a considerable handicap.
Not only have they used up a consider
able part of their accumulated capital,
but they have borrowed great sums in
addition. Great Britain is not vet
debtor nation, in spite of surprising
assertions to the contrary by highly
placed individuals who should study a
little financial history, but its external
income has been greatly reduced ard
its capacity to lend abroad much i'm
paired. The need of a maximum effort
and the creation of sound industrial
conditions were never greater than at
this time. Less will reach its shores
in the equivalent of interest on invest
ed capital and much must flow away
to meet the obligations which have
been incurred to other nations and
which are not represented by produc-
tive assets. There is big destruc-
tion 80 be repaired and great contest
in prospect for leading place in the
markets of the world. At no time has
the rivalry been keener than it will be
in future. The great power to infiu-
Gus exports of capital and which did so
much to build up British supremacy
has crossed the Atlantic.
America is in position, if she cared.
20 use an immense part of her lendings
to Europe In external investment, Civ
ing grip on foreign trade which Il:
would hardly be possible 10 loose
American bankers and industrial lead
ers are fully alive to the situation and
TO the possibilities that lie before
them The facts are fully recognized
here and some steps are being taken
IN the hope of retaining much of what
Is held, including the fusion of the
British Manufacturers Corporation
and the Federation of British Indus
tries, together with the creation of a
new banking institution, the British
overseas Bank. both designed pri-
marily to foster foreign trade; also a
complete reorganization OF the trans
port system by the government. in
volving probably naturalization of the
railways and also the state control of
electricity supply.
But these expedients will be of no
avail unless there is peace and good
viii between employer an dcmploye.
Open rupture between capital and labor
Will be a fatal handicap. especially il
IT occur now, when every effort must
be made to insure sound reconstruct
tion after the financial and commercial
upheaval of the last few years. win
It be avoided and under what condi-
tions! Of no use to come to terms on
basis which will overweight industry
at the start. Industrial teanuuillitv
bought with an uneconomic bargain
Will be of no avail and must wpoedily
react against those who gained the vic.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Proposed Basis
Of Valuation

AS to the method of valuation,
| would suggest that the proposed com
mission take as basis the original
cost and the replacement value. This
would furnish fair means of arriv-
ing at the true value of the physical
properties. In order, however, to
equalize physical values of railroad
properties, with their earning power
values, so as to differentiate between
railroad investment that was orig
inalIy poor, let us say, like that of the
Alton, and All originally good invest
ment, like, let us say, the d., l.. g. w.
my plan provides AZ q corrective. y
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Reaching Out to
Other Countries

Further light on the international
commercial activities is shed by re-
cital of the salient facts regarding its
participation in the making of substi-
tute leather. "The development of such
industries" an executive of the COM
pany said, "has led US into another
field which, in turn, brings us in direct
competition with the almost savage
races in the island of Formosa-a COM
mercial contest between the highest
type of civilization and crude savagery.
If our plans are successful we will be-
come entirely independent of the pres
ent source of camphor, an essential
material in the production of pyralin
and similar products. The whole world
has been dependent for camphor upon
shipments from Japan, and Japan, in
turn, has drawn its supply from the
island of Formosa. The uncertainty of
this supply led the Arlington company
to look for new sources. Failing to
find source available, it was decided
to do in America what nature has done
so lavishly in the habitat of the saw
ages. We commenced planting cam
phor trees on tract of about 11,500
acres of land in Florida. Climatic and
soil conditions are bringing success to
this venture, and the growth of these
trees gives promise of great success.
After period of about four years an
ever-increasing supply of camphor
should be available from this source
and the application of scientific
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
In the Scrap
Heap Of Far

The du Pont Company regards it's
emergency war plants as obsolete. 1t
likens them to the great armies which
America built up during the crisis,
which served their purpose-and won
laurels that the human race can never
become oblivious of-but which now
pass out of existence as collective
groups. The individual soldiers turn
to civilian pursuits, but the powder
plants, is is said, can serve no other
purpose. The workers homes, the
power plants, the water supply, the
purely factory ends may be adaptable
to other uses, but the powder features
are considered of no use in times when
the guns of the world fail to roar.
The diamond mines of war which the
eyaluators in peace call junk include
also the property of competitors of the
du Pont Company, and perhaps the i'm
portant plants which the du Pont Com
,sny built for the government. Of the
hitter the Old Hickory Smokeless Pow
der Piant, which will be turned over to
the government shortly, cost $s5,O0O,-
900, and the she'll loading plant at PEN
niman, Va, which is now in the gov
ernment's hands, cost between $15,-
100000 and $2O,oo0,ONO.
Against the industrial ghosts of war
the powder plants which are fast be-
coming limp and motionless-are the
non-powder making plants and projects
Of the du Pont Company. During the
white heat of war work the develop
ment department of the company was
experimenting at the industrial from
tier and the basis for new and i'm
portant non-war activities was laid
long before the armistice was signed.
As Pierre S. du Pont, president of the
company, indicated to the stockholders
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Railroads Must Be Freed
Of Hampering Restrictions
Nathan L. Amster Asserts Carriers Have Never Had
Opportunity to Do Their Best-Lines Must Be
Unified and Valuation Question Determined

ment and control, by the owners of the
railroads. under strict, effective and in
vigorating supervision.
been experimenting and have found
every policy wanting when put to test.
Our state and Federal governments,
our courts and the owners of the rail
roads, have been baffled by the obsta-
cles, defects, weaknesses and uncertan-
ties that were a part of every policy
thus far tried
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
pv Merryle Stanley Rukeyser

pv Merrylc Stanley Rukeyser
Financial Bureau
Siof Correspondence
~ 7ILMINGTON. March 15.-Sixty
~ million dollars worth of war
y factories of the E. l. du Pont
j. yemours & Co., in which 40 per cent
- the powder the Allies used to end
:orever the Prussian dream was made,
a,w lie idle-worthless, unconvertible
.crap. A survey Of these emergency units
II war making gives one the sense that
4or the moment at least the making of
smokeless powder has become a non
essential.
For four months the process of slow
;ng down the work of the plants has
bcen going on, and the wheels are now
one By one actually ceasing to turn.
The last bits of the deadly material are
being ground out by the comparatively
few workers who have survived the
progressivc climinations since the
signing of the armistice, and the CHIEF
task that confronts them is caring for
the inert machinery.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Workers Hope for
Rene,Cal Of Acfirity

The du Pont company undoubtedly
would welcome suggestions as to what
to do with these seemingly worthless
plants. The official attitude of the
company is that these works have
served their function, which is now
done, and seem resigned to regard
them as scrap. Workers at the plants
in the environs of Wilmington, where
the executive Offices of the company
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Labor Unress
Not Worrison,e

: mas vastly extended lts normal
aaa'sions trades, and also practically
s o'heF factory and little workshop
a"s ! changed over from peace to war
!, ~ AosI''ai os WORKING population Of about
teoVoo males has been transformed
~. war working population OF nj
,asss s. 10000, Of whom about three
ss.ss's .,s.' are women. for Birmingham
80 .nsss Inc small rather than the large
~. ~ asavy goods, although they boast
'sss hey could rake every part 81 !
New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Prefer T'ype,oriters
Made in america

"Before the war we could have turned
out double what we did had it not
been for the union restrictions on out
put. Now that these arc done away
with we can get production enough to
pay higher wages than before although
not war wages. But the men do not
really press for war wages. We are
on good terms with them and I think.
through the Workshop committees and
the general conditions in the engineer