ut when we see how many of the intimate things of daily
living have sprung up here as little trees spring up between huge
stones. For the Fore River Plant is more than an industrial
organization. It is a social center, an economic entity. It has its band
and glee club, ball team and monthly magazine. There are refreshment
stands, and a bathing cove; a brand-new village of four hundred and
thirty-eight brand-new houses; dormitories which accommodate nearly a
thousand men and possess every convenience and even luxuries. The men
work hard here, but they are well paid for their work, as the many
motor-cycles and automobiles waiting for them at night testify. It is a
scene of incredible industry, but also of incredible completeness.

To look down upon the village and the yard from the throbbing roof of
the steel mill, seven hundred and seventy feet long and a hundred and
eighty-eight wide, is a thrilling sight. Within the yard, confined on
three sides by its high fences and buildings and on the fourth by
Weymouth Fore River, one sees, far below, locomotives moving up and down
on their tracks; great cranes stalking long-leggedly back and forth;
smoke from foundry, blacksmith shop, and boiler shop; men hurrying to
and fro. Whistles blow, and whole buildings tremble. The smoke and the
grayness might make it a gloomy scene if it were not for the red sides
of the immense submarines gleaming in their wide slips to the water.
Everywhere one sees the long gray sides of freighters, destroyers,
merchant ships, and oil tankers heaving like the mailed ribs of sea
animals basking on the shore. Practically every single operation, from
the most stupendous to the most delicate, necessary for the complete
construction of these vessels, is carried on in this yard. The eighty
acres look small when we realize the extent and variety of the work
achieved within its limits.

Yes, the solitary Indian, working with fire and celt on his dugout,
would not recognize this once familiar haunt, nor would he know the
purpose of these vast vessels without sail or paddle. And yet, were this
same Indian standing on the roof with us, he would see a wide stream of
water he knew well, and he would see, too, above the smoke of the
furnace, shop, and boiler room, the friendly green of the trees.

Perhaps there is nothing which makes us realize the magical rapidity of
growth so much as to look from this steel city and to see the woods
close by. For instead of bei