Few realize the amount of war work that was done by the 
Oneida Community, Ltd., in our sister city of Sherrill 
and at Kenwood during the war. The total war contracts 
handled by the company amounted in round figures to 
$1,746,000. Gradually the huge factory of the Oneida 
Community, Ltd., was swung into war work stride, and 
at the time of the signing of the armistice over 50 
per cent of the output of the factories were direct 
government contracts of various kinds.

Not alone was the company represented in the war work. The 
entire organization entered into the war enthusiastically. 
Two hundred and seventy-six of their men entered active 
service, of whom ten were killed or died in service; a 
number of others went into the Red Cross or Y.M.C.A. work 
both at home and abroad, and several others were in 
Washington, among the latter being its president, P. B. Noyes.

At the beginning of the war the Board of Directors voted 
that all married men, or single men who had dependents, 
should receive full wages while in active government service; 
single men without dependents getting half pay. To date the 
company has paid out $115,000.00 in special war wages, and 
91 men are still on the war payroll.

The company entered into the war work at home on a constantly 
increasing scale. At the time of the armistice over 50 per cent 
of the output of the factories being on direct government 
contracts of various kinds. These contracts were as follows:


Silverware for camps and
hospitals. 		$182,000.00
Trench knives 		 346,000.00
Periscopes 		  20,000.00
Polo handles 		  17,000.00
Trench knife scabbard 	  45,000.00
Surgical forceps	 311,000.00
Magazine tubes 		 630,000.00
Plating shells 		 195,000.00
Total war contracts   $1,746,000.00
 
The special wage plan which was put into effect during the war, 
while not directly a war measure, was, of course, closely connected 
therewith, and popularly known as the bonus.