Untitled Document

MAGNITUDE OF OPERATIONS

The magnitude of the operations of the arsenal may be better appreciated when we consider that for the past ten years the monthly payroll for labor alone has exceeded an average of $100,000 per month, and that the monthly outlay for purchase of raw material has also exceeded $100,000. When it is remembered that the greater part of this expenditure goes into the hands of merchants and other business men of the vicinity, the financial benefit of this great government industry to the community is apparent. Then again this expenditure is regularly made in carrying out a fixed governmental policy so that the community reaps a steady dividend from this institution year after year, irrespective of the condition of the weather or the crops.

The total disbursements for labor alone during the more than fifty years of the arsenal's existence have been about $20,500,000, and of this a little over $12,500,000 have been paid out during the past decade. This total for labor includes only the payment made on the regular pay rolls, and does not include those made to contractors and others which in them selves are large. The total cost of the establishment, including realty, buildings, water power, machinery, etc., has been $11,702,053.24.

The arsenal is under the control of the ordnance department of the United States army and is under the command of an officer of that department who is detailed for the duty by the secretary of war. He is assisted by a staff of officers also of the ordnance department and a detachment of enlisted men belonging to the same branch of the service.

The manufacturing work in the shops is in charge of these officers who are specially educated for their duties. The work itself is carried on by civilian employes of whom there are now 1,700. The shop force has the usual industrial organization, with foremen, master workmen, engineers, electricians, etc. The orders for manufacture are received from the war department in Washington, D.C.

The material is manufactured aud placed in storehouses ready to be issued to the army as needed under prescribed rules and regulations or on special order from the war department, as also to the national guard of the various states and to the military schools and colleges of the country. This is also the distributing point to all parts of the middle west for the product of other arsenals, and of private establishments which furnish the government with arms and munitions of war.

The civilian employes of the arsenal reside in the surrounding cities, a large proportion in Rock Island. They are selected men and are protected in the permanency of their employment by the civil service laws. Under government employment they have the benefits of large, clean, well ventilated and well heated shops, with all sanitary conveniences. They have an eight-hour day with Saturday half holiday, with pay in the summer months, and fifteen days vacation with pay each year. When disabled for more than fifteen days through injury received in the course of employment, they receive full pay for the time absent from work on account of such injuries. They are paid the highest prevailing rate of wages in the vicinity for similar work.

There are six employes still actively engaged in work who entered the arsenal employment prior to 1870, three of these having begun in 1865. A large number have records of thirty to forty years of continuous service, and the larger proportion of employes have been working for ten years or more, or from the time the number of employes was so largely increased owing to the Spanish-American war. Such records of long and steady employment speak volumes for contentment with working conditions. These men are a splendid body of intelligent employes and they and their families are much respected in the neighborhoods in which they live. The majority of them own their homes.

There is stationed at the arsenal a detachment of 100 enlisted men of the ordnance department of the army who form the general guard police and fire protection at times when the civilian employes are not present. In addition there are about forty enlisted men in attendance on the saddler's school which is maintained at the arsenal. The men belonging to the cavalry branch of the army are sent to learn their duties in connection with the care and repair of the leather equipment used by the troops. The course of instruction requires eleven months and when it is completed students are returned to the commands to which they belong, and others are forwarded to take their places.

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois

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Illinois ancestors

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