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A Monument to the Tremendous Potency of Co-operative Effort --A Vital Factor in the Success of the War. NHRISTENED Quistconck by Mrs. Woodrow ~ Wilson, the first ship built at Hog island yard ---~ has been launched. -This largest of all ship- building plants with its fifty shipways, seven fitting-out piers and thirty thousand employes is now in full operation. For Hog Island, the period of prepara- tion and criticism is over and the days of accom- plishment and recognition are at hand. Now that even the man-in-the-street realizes what has been patent for months--that the Hog island yard is a real success and that its mighty fleet of ships will be delivered on time, it is pertinent to inquire into the forces underlying this huge war industry sponsored by the government. Just what is it that has made Hog island a reality? What ideas and ideals have been here worked into being? What, in short, is the spirit of this great enterprise? We talk glibly enough in this country of spending billions, of putting millions of men in France, of building thousands of ships, and of transforming grass plots into full-fledged factories in a_ single season, but how many of us have any but the vaguest conceptions of what such achievements entail--what they mean in planning, in organization and in the successful direction of powerful concentrations of energy? The Imponderable Force For after all it is intelligently directed energy that builds huge shipyards and big fleets of ships. With- out energy, intelligently directed, all the 105,000,000 feet of lumber, the thousands of tons of steel and miles of piping and wiring that have gone into Hog island would be so much inert junk. And the same applies to the 500,000 tons of steel and the 90,000,000 Tivets necessary to fabricate the great Hog island fleet. Behind the steel, the lumber, the concrete, the Pipes, wires, locomotives, cranes, tools and all the vast assemblage of material at Hog island stand the minds of men. Not long ago a visitor spent a day at Hog island. Like all others he was given an opportunity to see the whole vast plant. He was visibly impressed, as everyone is who views Hog island with his own eyes. ut like most of us, he saw only the obvious and passed by the realities. To the riveters he gave his attention long and earnestly. These men," he said, are plainly more important than any others or anything else in our whole: propo- 'ition. They are the keystone of the arch. Without them the war would stop." pol such stuff is the conventional point of view. The tiveter, a mighty man is he," sings the modern Poet. He is. But he emphatically is not the key 'tone of the shipbuilding arch. More properly he is the Spandrel which the arch itself, represented by the 'ganization, supports. It is the great organization wilt up by the American International Shipbuilding a that has made possible the manufacture of se at Hog island. It is true that riveters, hosts °t them, are needed, but they are being supplied 383 | By H. Cole Estep and where need be, trained at the rate of 200 a week by the organization which stands behind everything at. Hog island. It is this organization that makes Hog island what it is, that has transformed a wilder- ness into the largest shipbuilding plant on earth in less than a year. "The Know How'--What It Really Is Through this organization which is more valuable than any commodity; this "know how" which cannot be purchased but must be created, it is possible for the United States, not to build ships but to manufac- ture them--to strew them over the seas in such profusion that even should the submarines continue their murderous career unobstructed, they would be impotent. Impressive as Hog island is with its miles of waterfront, its forest .of cranes, and its acres of tracks and buildings, it is in the things unseen rather than those which are seen that we must seek the spirit of this great achievement. Now that the organization of the Hog island ship- yard is perfected, the nation has a tangible factor on which it can rely for the working out of its ship- building plans. Even though the whole vast plant were blown to atoms tomorrow, with the organization intact it could be rebuilt in a few months. Stagger- ing as the loss would be, it would not be comparable to the destruction of the vast systematic machine that now directs the manufacture of ships at Hog island. Before ship manufacture could be started it was necessary to build the yard itself. Remember that on Sept. 13, 1917, when the first contract for fifty 7500- ton 111%4-knot cargo ships was signed 'Hog island was a waste of grass, weeds and brush. It was not a swamp as has been charged, or even a tide marsh. But its 900 acres were devoid of improvements of every character, save a single squatter's cabin. It was first necessary to create a construction organiza- tion which could be counted on to put the big job through in record time and in spite of any difficulties that might arise. Then as the construction force gradually completed its task, it was necessary to develop an entirely different type of organization to operate the plant and build the ships. Toward the end of the building period, it was necessary, in addi- tion, to demobilize the construction organization and merge as many of its elements as possible into the ship manufacturing staff. For a time of course the two organizations, which are of distinct types, worked side by side, their activities being co-ordinated and harmonized by the general management. For the construction organization, and also to a large extent the operating staff, it was possible to call on the facilities of the Stone & Webster engi- neering organization, a contracting and operating force of unusual size and success with connections in all parts of the country and many lines of industry. For the operating organization, in addition, the talent developed through many years of activity by the New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, N. J., was