Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1920-04-09
SOME SECRETS OF OUR PART IN
THE GREAT WAR

marines were built for England dur
ing the first year of the war by the
Bethlehem Steel Company?
Do you know that the Bethlehem
Company built more big guns for the
Allies than Germany surrendered on
Armistice Day?
Do you know that one-seventh of
all the big shells fired by the Allies
in the Great War were made by Mr..
Schwab's Company?
In recent talk with the writer,
Charles M. Schwab revealed for the
first time some of the amazing
achievements of the Bethlehem Steel
Company, of which he is the directing
genius. While some of the disclosures
have been limited at and even printed
in garbled form, this is the first time
they have been published on Mr..
Schwab's authority.
After reading them one can have
no fear for the future of America.
For Mr.. Schwab has always been a
"bull" in America. And the best evil
dence that the future holds promise
is that he is going ahead in every en-
terprise in which he is connected.
when the war broke out in 1914,
/ hurried to England in response to
call from Lord Fisher, who was then
at the head of the British Admiralty"
said Mr.. Schwab the other day. "Lord
Fisher told me he needed so per cent
more submarines-the British Navy
| then had but 50-and asked me how
soon / could deliver the needed 25 in
England.
81 told him l could deliver them in
nine months, and / named a stiff
figure to take care of the extra cost
Of such rush order. AS no sub
marines had ever been built in that
length of time, Lord Fisher asked me
if I would forfeit big sum for every
week any one of the submarines was
uncompleted after the stipulated time.
Always willing to take a gamble, /
agreed to forfeit $150,000 for each
week any one of the submarines was
undelivered after the nine months,
but / took the precaution of having
him agree to pay me half that sum
for every week I anticipated the time
limit. And so the contract was
signed.
Before / started back to America,
/ summoned 800 of the best mecha-
MICS to the Bethlehem plant and with
in very few days after my arrival
the keels were laid and all the ma
terials for the 25 submarines We're in
the yards. l explained to the work
men that there was huge bonus for
them if they built the submarines
ahead of the schedule time and told
them it would be divided among them.
didn't intend to take any part of it.
"The State Department at Wash
ington got news of the contract and
Mr.. William Jennings Bryan, who was
the Secretary of State, sent for me
and informed me that / could not
build the submarines for England,
that it was a rank violation of neu-
trality and all that sort of thing. /
didn't argue with him. simply said
| would negotiate the matter, and be-
| fore the negotiations were completed
/ had the 25 submarines completed
and in Canada. They sailed for Eng
land under their own power long be-
fore the nine months were up, with
the result that bonus of $4,500,000
was divided among the men who built
them.
During the early months of the
war, Lord Kitchener told me that if
he could have 100000 shells for the
next year he would be content. 1t
was not so very long afterwards that
the Bethlehem Company was turning
out 100000 shells a month. Even
the greatest soldier in England had
no conception of the magnitude of
the struggle.
"You have often heard criticism of
our War Department for it's failure
to get many big guns to Europe. And
it is true that our Army had only a
comparatively small number of Amer
ican made guns at the front. But
the Bethlehem Steel Company sup.
piled France and England with nearly
10000 big guns, which is more than
the entire German Army had when
the armistice was signed. Our Army
had comparatively few American
guns for the reason that our ordnance
officials insisted upon new models.
We were ready to turn out thousands
of the British and French models, but
the long delay was caused by their
insistence for different types of guns.
81 think / mentioned that we turned
out 100000 shells a month at the
Bethlehem works. What is more, we
made one-seventh of all the shells
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