Joseph Pennell

“ But war work in America is the most wonderful work in the world and that is the reason why I have drawn some of the work I have seen—seen in these endless looms of time—where history is being woven. The attitude of the workman toward the artist is curious; in France he understands, in England he looks down on you as a poor thing who has to work—in America you are regarded as a fellow workman, as an artist is! ”

“ And I am glad that our women are not forced to undertake such work, and hope they never may be, for I have seen the black side of this work, which already has led to strikes and labour troubles in Europe—and when the war is over, will lead to greater trouble—for the Captains of Industry in Europe tell me that women run machines better than men—they devote themselves to the machine—never try to improve it—to make changes in it—only to keep it going and in good order, while the man is always trying to improve it, to make it do more, so that he can do less. ”

“ THE SLAVES OF THE WHEEL NO composition could be finer, no movement more expressive, no grouping more perfect, and yet all this was happening every day and all day in an oily, dirty, greasy, smoky shell factory where no artist had ever worked before and the workmen, black men, were turning the big shell, under the big hammer, by the big capstan wheel that held it, and I noted in the shop that the black men saw more in my drawings than the white, yet there’s only one black painter in the country. ”

“ While the work of building is going on, there seem to be no workmen about—though the noise they make is terrible. The various parts of the ships lie about apparently in confusion, but the crane knows what it wants and where to find it, and picks it up and carries it to its proper place. It is only when the men knock off that you see what an army is engaged in shipbuilding. ”

“ THE KEEL THE shipyards are endless and their forms are endless and ever new—but I never before found one where from the water I could look down on the ship while it grew as it did here, amid its forests, its walls—which it, in turn, would soon tower over. ”

“ And we are doing for them what they cannot do for themselves. In Europe the war worker works all day and every day in the year. Here most of the great industrial works have only added war work to their peace work, in Europe scarce anything else but war work is being done.
And also in America the women have not to any extent gone into the factories, mills and shipyards of the country. And I hope they never will. I have never seen a woman shell maker here, yet I know of factories in France and England where there are scarce any work people, save women, one where there are ten thousand women. ”

“ David Lloyd George, then Minister of Munitions in England, to make drawings in the various factories and works and shipyards which were engaged in war work in that country—and the records of what I saw were published as lithographs of War Work in England and in a previous volume in this series. Now, though I do not believe in war, I do not see why some pictorial record of what is being done to carry on the war should not be made—made from an artist’s standpoint—for we are in it—being in the world—but I am not of it. ”

“ True, we are not working with that unbelievable energy which the French and English—yes, the English—have put at last into their work—but we do so much more—with so much less—appearance of work—we are working for the Allies—but they are not working for us. ”

“ SHAPING A GUN FROM AN INGOT WHEN the ingot comes from the furnace, it is put in this press, deep buried in a pit, and the hot metal is compressed into the shape of a section of a great Gun—then it is taken out and bored and planed and finally, after about a year of work, the gun is ready to do its work. ”

“ THE NEW ARCHITECTURE IN the centre of the new city is something like a long train of box cars—yet when you see their sides you find they are houses. As you look they grow—and from a few holes in the ground till the building is finished takes about forty-five minutes, the architects tell me. ”

“ Here they are only making fuses and doing other light work, but I have not seen a woman at a lathe as I have seen them in France and England. I have never seen a woman ship builder here—yet I have seen women in shipyards abroad doing work that men would have grumbled at when put to it—because it was thought hard work—before the war. ”

“ BUILDING DESTROYERS. NO. TWO HOW the cranes minister to the ships, carrying them the things they want, lowering them gently into the places where they belong and then hovering over the vessels they are building to see that everything is in its proper place—the cranes do it all—the men who run them are mere details.
XIV
IN THE DRY DOCK THESE are the things that tower—that shine—whose power is terrible—but their smile does not make glad.
The admiral said he could not see the ship like that—“Don’t you wish you could?” ”

“ THE ARMOR PLATE BENDING PRESS ONLY Swift never imagined, and Gulliver never saw, presses and ladles and chains and cranes like these, but I have seen them, and there is no imagination in my study of the press or the ladle. A press so powerful it will slowly bend the thickest plate. ”

“ One thing that interested me, standing behind the guns—interested me too much, really—was, that there was no smoke, save that which came out of the hole where the shells exploded. And another fact was, that I could not see the shell in its flight—nor can those at whom it is fired—it goes so fast the sound cannot keep up with it. Sight cannot follow it.
XXXIII
THE RIVETERS WHAT perpendicular cathedral is as full of mystery as this shop. ”