The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-24

| oo oA W'icAA pSiOi6 lO tAiC itW tlIlly and navy.
 The Order of St. John is said to | be continuing it's extensive charitable activities throughout Germany. Be- | fore the war 1t had established near- ly half a hundred hospitals in this | country besides two abroad.
 
 many that they affect nearly every factory and home in that republic The big iron production in normal times was more than five million tons, and the steel output something like ten million tons. The capital in vested in the district approximates one billion gold dollars, and among the products are iron and steel goods of all kinds, machinery, textiles, salt works, and coke ovens. The opera tions are on a grand scale. There
 are about nine hundred stock com panies, and the organization is such that they all work more or less in combination, under Germany's most l famous captains of industry. In the first place are the Krupps, who con- trol Essen and it's surroundings. Then comes Hugo Shines who has the Bochum blast furnaces and steel works and controls the Deutsche Luxemburg Mining and Smelting
 company, as well as the Gelsen- kirchen coal mines, and then August | Thyssen who has the blast furnaces of Hamborn. The Phoenix group headed by Herr Poenegen, controls the steel works near Duisbugg and there are other large companies O. note. This letter relates to the
 Krupp plant, which is a fair type of the whole.
 In The Great Krupp Works.
 I have gone through the Krupp
 works several times in the past.
 visited them first twenty years ago | when tbav n1kinp steel rails
 machinery, cannon, and munitions for | all parts of the world, and I saw | them again before the war when
 every branch of the establishment | had increased many fold. The Krupps | began their existence as steel makers
 and they made crucible steel more | than century ago. They have all l ways made more or less guns. shells,
 and armor plate, but before the l World war they were the biggest
 steel makers of Europe, and in 1914
 their steel output was more than a
 million and half tons. At that time | they were making war machinery of | various kinds, but the officials tell | me that all but ten per cent of the
 steel went into such things as rails,
 sections. plates, forsings, and cast | ingS of one kind and another. Dur
 ing the war the works were converted | into one huge intuition factory, turn | ing out thousands of guns and mill | lions of shells. They the-l employed l 115, 900 workmen here at Essen alone,
 and in the various factories had, al- | together, 1S0,000 engaged in war
 work.
 | Now the war Is over they have
 gone back to the making of steel and | the assembling and finishing of many
 kinds of machinery. They have re-
 organized the plant, have standard | ized the manufacture of all articles | nr06une6 In ou9DtitjeS o nd have made their plans for running
 the institution to a greater capacity | than ever.
 | The Hindenburg Locomotive Shop. | During my stay here I have gone | through some of the reconverted gun shops. Take the famous Hindenburg
 works which ran day and night dur l ing the war. It Is now one of the largest locomotive plants of Europe.
 for Germany but for Russia, South l America, and almost everywhere
 that trains run. Imagine boiler | factory covering. ten acres filled with
 railroad steam engines in every | stage of construction, and you have some idea of the scene that greeted | my eyes upon entering. The whole
 is wilderness of moving belts and | gigantic implements. The din is so great that one cannot hear hdis own
 voice. A thousand hammers are | pounding on as many different pieces
 of iron. Scores of workmen are | riveting boilers, and huge travelling
 cranes, some carrying locomotives,
 move back and forth through the
 works. Here they are cutting steel
 plate with acetylene flame and I can see the sparks fly as I stand in the | gallery which runs around the shop.
 I am told that more than five thou sand men are working away under
 my eyes. Moving on, I see them as-
 sembling the locomotives, and farther
 still. enter shop covering an acre
 or so. where painters are finishing l them. On my way out I stop and l talk to the workmen. Those handling | fine machinery and doing skilled la- l bor receive only three cents an hour, | and twenty-five cents 8 day is above
 the average wage or the fifty thou
 sand and odd men and women em-
 ployed.
 Where the "Big Bertha" Was Made. In one. great shop l saw the ma
 chimes which made the Big Ser l thas" now grinding out tubes to be
 used In the plants that take nitrates
 from the air. Some of the tubes
 have an inside diameter so big that
 a 400-pound hog could crawl through
 one without scraping his bristles. | They are bored out of a long steel 1 cylinder the size or hogShead by
 an augur as big around as a flour barrel. The steel is of great strength
 and toughness, but the augur cuts
 off huge shavings which curl round
 and round as though they were pine
 The friction is so great that | stream of cold water must play on
 the metal and keepthe bores cool
 as it cuts. As I watch the work
 the guideA tells me that the allied
 control commission is considering
 the destruction of these lathes be-
 cause they were formerly used in
 the making of guns. and l suppose,
 also, because they might be used for 1 the making of guns in the future