The Washington herald., 1922-01-08
By $. ADELE SHAW.

BY y. ADELE SHh"'
Roses were still blooming by the
garden fences of Newport News in
mid December. There was saliva,
too, and chrysanthemums, and here
and there a pansy.
Down by the waterfront the
solid orange ball of the sun was
making ready to dive under the
H-reenish waters of the James
River, which stretches out 10
Hampton Roads and on to the
Chesapeake. A bright red oulk
caught the eye to the upper end OF
the harbor by the huge shipways'
with their overhead steel cranes
which marked from the water one
of the largest private shtpbuilding
Yards in tho United States.
The poppy-colored mass was the
buII Of the West Virginia, the last
battleship of her class-the lars-
est class as yet launched by the
United States government Inc
crease was still on the ways whlch
she had abandoned late in Novem-
ber, but already her sides were De-
ing clapped by Eeat curved SLABS
OF armor plate which the riveters
were fitting firm To her hull.
LARGEST In the World.
Farther on along the ways were
tn. Constellation and the Ranger
side by side, the largest battle
cruisers in the world, ships so long
that the harbor had to be damned
nm with great concrete walls
subnerEed ways-to get them into
the wards. The Constellation is but
Trom the shoys and foundries-
Ranger scarcely begun, yet only
handful of men were at work
about them. Beyond was the bat
tleship Iowa, the first OF her class
the largest class authorized by
the government and here again
but a few men were at work SLOWLY
fitting her hull together.
The rest Of the ways, where dur
ing the war eleven ships were un-
der construction at one time' we've
euspty. The dry docks were
.mpty. II was 4:3O p. m. The out
side men laid down their tools. and
from the shops and eoundrles-
shops capable OF tremendous ac-
tivtties. shops which during the war
were going day and night-a man
at a time, OF perhaps two. or at
most three together. whites and ne
rroes, turned toward the gates.
standing by just up the James,
silent and motionless, was meet
, of seven cargo carriers, their rig
Sipr down, their red hulls exposed
above the water; for they were
empty and their crews were gone.
knd vet farther up the river at
. Camp Eustis, Just beyond where
. the eve could see. lay heet or
- q VTnifad
Shipping Board. their crews dis
banded in recent weeks at Ne"por'
News, their port. !.
below the shipyards the piers OF
o the chesapeake and Ohio Railroad
. stretched out into the harbor. One.
q two Pier IL. The doors of the
storehouses were closed. Not ship
was tied up to the docks. There
stood the great steel coal pier from
which last year, it Is said, more
. coal was loaded than from any
a.. other pier in the world. There was
not a car on It. The coal bunkers
. and longshoremen were not needed
Like a silent Crane.
Below the piers. off from the
= white sands where the shoreline
was not broken by buildings, a
company of little skiffs bobbed up
and down quietly. In the stern of
zach was a fisherman working late
to make a catch that would add to
the days earnings. A few miles
further on. the water was dotted
with motor boats, each rigged up
with a sail. Two men to a boat.
,One from each side pressed his long
handled double rake into the sand,
itonged oysters from their beds,
,broughtl them to the surface.
dropped them into a barrel and, like
a silent crane. lowered the tongs
into the beds again.
Across the way from the iron
fence that incloses the shipyards
'are red brick apartments built by
the government during the. war TO
house shipyard workers. 4 young
mechanic opened the door of one
of them in response to my ring. His
napkin still hung from his vest, for
he had just left the supper table. J.
Joined them-the man. his wife and
a woman friend. The man, who,
with his wife. had come to town
from another industrial center dur
ing the war, had been laid of at the
,shipyards four months ago when
the big cut in the naval appropri-
alton reduced the force to one-half;
and now they were living on their
savings. The s36 which they had
been paying for their three rooms
had this year been reduced to s26.
They were not moving because
they had % assurance of work else
where: they had their friends in
the town; and. after all. il the dis
armament program went through
the ships now in the yards would
be scrapped, work would stop COM
pletely and Something would have
to happen"
May BE Sold.
The yards might be sold to Henry
Ford. They might be changed to
other work under the present man.
sgement; there was car repair work
going on right now. They might
we'll, nobody knew, and SO long as
they didn't it was well, provided
you had the money, to "sit tight
and listen"
OF course Il was hard. People
hadn't saved so much as you'd think.
And, anyway, IL you had a bunch of
kids It didn't take long to eat up a
thousand dollars of savings It was
worse for the people who had
bought their houses. A lot of them
had paid wartime prices Just to get
a place to live. Take down next
door to Jim Henry's. Jim had
bought early-four years ago-and
paid $500 for six rooms and bath
Six months later along came a fam
lily from New Mexico and bought