Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-15
By BRIAN O'BRIEN

FROM two hundred enemy planes bombs
y came whistling down in the dead of night
over the English shipbuilding town. Be-
fore an hour had passed shipyards, docks
water and power plants were leveled the pop
ulacc was budding in underground shelters.
General havoc prevailed. Not until the next
night were there doctors nurses debris squads
and soldiers on hand TO begin the awful task
Of bringing order out of chaos. Not for a
week were there any relief stations to feed
and house the raid victims. And not for ten
days was there any electricity or a working
water supply.
Had it been an American town, troops
doctors nurses a new power plant barracks
field hospitals kitchens water, emergency
defense plane hangers, and even telephone
system would have been operating under full
power FIVE hours after the all-clear had
sounded
This prompt succor and comparative nor
malcy would have been due largely to the
foresight skin and enterprise of American
automotive engineers With efficiency speed
and skin such as have always sounded the
keynote OF the American automobile manufac-
turcls. great. numbering trucks would have
convcrgcd upon the stricken area
With magical speed huge tents, capable
Of housing 500 persons each, would have
sprung up like giant mushrooms; in less than
an hour more, other massive vehicles. housing
whirrng generators would be supplying dead
wires with all the electricity needed for light
and power fabricated houses on wheels would
form streets on top Of the ruins, hospital ia
cintics for the wounded would materialize
seemingly from nowhere in twinkling Ktch-
ems would bee savoring of food while great
hoidcs of tanks with heavy anti-aIcraft guns
TO protect the mobile city, would move in to
rCrlagc. the bat cred community.
All the skill and technical knowledge neces-
sarv 10 the establishment of an emergency
CITY skill and rcsourccfulness vital to the
operations OF the emergency equipment. would
be- forthcoming from specially trained troops
fresh from the classrooms of our auto plants,
and familiar with every mechanical and other
technical detail involved In emergency admin
istration of a mobile relief city
And most Of this indispensable phase Of
defense work built upon Tho lessons our OBJ
servers have learned from Engands suffering
would represent a remarkable adaptation Of
The pcacetime foresight and public spiritedness
a. the American automotiye industry to the
emergencies Of wartime.
Perhaps meeting the cXingencics of war
was not uppermost IN the mind of G.. +. Ket-
teunc head Of the research division OF Cen
,fal Motors who after the Worlds Fairs in
Chicago san Francisco and New York de-
yised the idea Of taking various OF his COM
pauys exhibits virtually into the hackyards
Of the American people people who couldn't
afford 20 20 10 the Worlds Fairs Yet as
Tho work OF building the astonishing circus
caravan necessary for this big show prog
icssc1 it became apparent TO him and his
engineers that this huge travelling city pro-
vided The basis for score Of similar caravans
that could bc Turned In wartime 20 travelling
towns 20 rise ogt of the blackened ruins
caused bv air raids
But war emergencies were the motivating
spirit ~ Henry Ford when, later he conceived
the idea Of training men for military service
This idea quite apart from the manufac-
ture 81 war equipment has borne as is first
fruit "a rtw Navy Service School in the heart
a the Ford COmpauys River Rouge plant
Here. are under training q Thousand Navy re-
oruits who are Learning an there is 10 be
y