Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-09

workers who are attracted 10
new surroundings by patriotism
and pay.
There is a similar want OF
private quarters for the wives
and children OF officers serving
in the army posts and again OF
schools for the young ones who
have followed their fathers into
the field.
IN OTHER times when the
Il railroads were being pushed
through and towns were BOOM
ing for one reason or another,
the men were less domestic.
They lived in bunkhouses and
converted box cars and took
their meals either in pine mess
buildings or tents not unlike
those maintained in camps for
the enlisted soldiers OF in
somehow followed the jobs. 70.
AS TO the problem of the Off
GERS families when the officers
were in the field under emer-
gency conditions. I am not in
formed exactly, but l believe IL
was solved by leaving the loved
ones at home. where they were
not only out OF the way but also
better accommodated.
Hitler and Stain have met
the difficulty efficiently by draft
ing civilian labor and ordering
great patches of men from place
TO place as required.
There they have been colo
nized under semimilitary condi-
tons with the understanding
that their home life is suspended
until further notice.
To house and feed a force Of
stays on temporary job is I'M
doubtedly easier than to provide
suitable family quarters under q
polite standard of living.
And, OF course, 10 improviss
schools and hygiene for wholk
new communities, which may b
there for only one or two years,
not only runs up the bill but
also dislocates local life and
politics.
WE ARE very affectionate
w people now, by comparison
with the days when men hit the
road TO follow the jobs, usually
in the non-Winter months and,
presumably sent more or less
of their money home by postal
order.
Some Of them undoubtedly
kept on going and never re-
turned or, TO the detriment OF
their morals. established little
homes away from home and left
no small litter of broken hearts
and sad-eyed BARNS to grow
up wondering what their daddies
looked like.
The Mexicans on construction
jobs, as in their military life,
carried their women and chill
-ircn- kettles and bedding with
them.
The Irish and Italian immi-
grants who did so much of the
spade-work in the West, how
ever, were mostly single-handed
men who lived a tough, mascu-
line life. saved something out
of their pay and finally gathered
their families together and
settled down permanently some
where with little stake.
Sometimes the camps were
swept by malaria, and unboiled
swamp water caused much sick
ness. Down along the Florida
keys when the railroad was
inching TO Key West the white
4. men from the North were
masSacred by mosquitoes, and
some were blown away to sea
where the floating barracks in
which they lived we're carried
off by storm.
IF AMERICAN men nowadays
Il simply will not leave their
family life, even to serve a year
in the army. then there Is no
other solution than to provide
temporary homes for them now
and pay the bill and face the
consequences later, whatever
they may be.
Some of the men will not be
staying on when the war indus
tries close up, If ever they do,
but will be drawn back TO their
original homes, leaving the fac
tory towns with cold chimneys
and ghost communities.
Others will linger on, adding
their numbers to the more or
less fixed local population in the
postwar slump.
The housing. if il is well built,
would seem to be an asset, but
the mass migration of families
into new surroundings in pursuit
OF jobs which, IL is hoped, will
be only temporary certainly
raises question of where they
are to go or what the bread
winners will find to do there
when the row is over.