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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16266, 17 July 1918, Page 6

A novel and at th© same time very patriotic competition was in progress when the last mail left England. It was a contest between the men in tho shipbuilding yards as to who could drive the most rivets in a day. On May 23rd, a workman named William Moses, at Vickers' construction works, Barrow, put up a world's record by driving 5894 rivets in nine hours. This won back the lead from America, a riveter named Tom Moore, at the Moore shipbuilding yards, Oakland, California, having driven 5689 rivets in nine hours. Previous records were: May 7th, Robert Farrant, Bromley-by-Bqw, 427G; May 14th, Daniel Devinoy, the Clyde, 4422; May lGth, Charles Knight, Baltimore, 4875. Almost immediately after the fine performance of Moses it was eclipsed by a William Smith, riveter, of Scotstoun, working in the yard of Messrs John Brown and Co., Clydebank, on the frame of a ship, when he put in G783 rivets in nine hours, this easily boating all previous records, British and American. Almost immediately afterwards this record was beaten by John Lowry, a Belfast riveter, whose total for the nine hour 3 was 7841 sevon-eighths-inch rivets.

These competitions were not allowed to pass without protest. The Boilermakers' Society, Newcastle, for example, issued circulars to branches, condemning riveting competitions, contending that these record-breaking contests were no criterion of what individual squads of men could do. The members, they said, would continue to do their utmost to expedite the shipbuilding output, but "strongly resented being made the tools of a new sensational sport." We agree that steady work, with a view to keeping up tho output, is better than sensational effort of the kind referred to, which in the nature of things is likely to bo followed by a reaction. Nevertheless, the introduction of a spirit of emulation is usually very useful in helping to keep men up to the mark. "\V 0 shall be interested to learn the result of the "Shipyard Prizes" offered by the everresourceful ''Daily Mail" to stimulate the output of ships. The paper offers in all £10,000 to be competed for by workers in tho merchant shipbuilding yards of Great Britain and Ireland. The competition is confined to yards employing at least 350 hands, and engaged wholly or partially in tho building or repair of merchant ships. Tii9 £10,000 will be allotted as follows:— £2500 each to Scotland, the North-East Coast, tho rest of England and Wales, and Ireland respectively. The first prise in each case will bo £1000, and the second priz e £1000, and these will be distributed by a system to be devised

later among the workers in the winning yards, who have worked at least 90 oer ccnt. of the time offered, or say, 48} hours out of a possible 54. Tho competition was to be managed by yard committees of masters and men, whic'i were being formed when the mail left.

The latest available report of the British Board of Trade in tho "Labour Gazette" gives particulars of the rise in the cost of living in England up to May last. The goneral increase in the prices of all items ordinarily cntoring into the working-class family budget (including rent, food, clothing, fuel, and light) between July, 1914, and May, 1918, is estimated at betweon 95 and 100 per cent. Between April Ist and May Ist the rise was small, being only I per cent., but it is obvious that the people of Great Britain are suffering such hardships that the people of this country arc, by comparison, hardly affected.

A New York newspaper has been protesting gently against Mr Wilson's undemocratic resort to the rarer kinds of learning, in the manner in which he "O.K.'s" official reports, etc. Ho writes, it appears, as his mark of approval, "Okeh President Wilson." It occurred to somebody that this might not bo a jocular rendering of the familiar "0.K.," but might have some authority from language. A dictionary was consulted, and tho following fact (if it is a fact) was unearthed: —

O. K. TA humorous or ignorant spelling of what should be okeh, from Choctaw (Chakta) okeh, an "article pronoun," a kind of adjunct, meaning "it is so" . . . a use that may be compared with that of the Hebrew and European amen.] All fight; correct. ... .

This does not reconcile good Democrats to the abandonment of the tradition that the cabalistic initials originated with the long dead storekeeper who marked his barrels "0.K.," which was his abbreviation of "Oil Korrect." It may be only a coincidence that the Choctaws say "okeh."