Milford chronicle., 1942-10-23

AARe WANA thO AAAC1S WILL
the best equipments alway
sound strategy, althodgh'it doesn'
always guarantee victory, sine,
there Is another factor which can
not be measured in advance-th,
courage of unalterable determine
ton. The Battle of Britain" tn,
heroic delaying action of Bataan
the defense of Malta and Stain,
grad have shown that a well plan,
ned program of world conquest
geared to a time schedule, may be
thwarted by the unshaken will to
resist.
Time, in global strategy, also is
measured in distance. If distance
has helped bog down the Germans
in Russia and in Africa, the Japs
in China and at Kiska and in the
South Pacific, it has made our own
problem of transportation and sup
ply continually difficult Our con-
voy lines, lines that must be pro-
tected by ships of war, now extend
distance many thousands of miles
greater than that around the earth.
Immediately after Pearl Harbor
we could not cover immense spaces
and at the same time guard our
Atlantic coastal shipping, so we
lost great many oil tankers. And
soon it became necessary to send
the remainder of this tanker feet
to join the tankers carrying oil
and gasoline to overseas bases.
Before we entered the war, oil
tankers doeked on the Atlantic Sea-
board at an average rate of 1S a
day, right around the clock, carry
ing 95 per cent of the light and
heavy fuel oil used in the homes,
buildings, and factories of the East
and crude oil for refining into gas
oline and other petroleum products.
Had we lost the use of our tankers
then, we would have lost a carry
ing capacity equal to some 10000
trains of so tank cars each. From
this we can judge the transporta-
tion problem which developed dur
ing the summer of 1912, in spite of
all our efforts to meet it-in spite
of the fact that we put inland
barges into oil service, extended
oil pipe lines and built new ones,
transferred tank cars from the Mid
west to Eastern service until they
amounted to 20 per cent of all avail
able tank cars in the country. The
final step to combat inevitable
shortage of fuel oil was to divide
up what supplies we could get, by
coupon rationing in the East and
Midwest.
Fuel oil, however, is only min
or item in war transportation.
Goods or people, or both, must be
carried by ships, railways, planes,
trucks, buses, private autos. Nor is
it merely a matter of more railway
cars, more trucks, more buses-we
must take into account the mate
rials that go into the making of
these carriers and that must not be
wasted-wood, metal, fabrics, the
rubber in tires, motor fuels. Scarce
labor is a factor and, once more
time emerges as a vital element.
To raise our complicated transpor-
tation system to the highest level
of service, hundreds of details must
be arranged and numerous restric-
tions imposed H''
All these moves affect us imme-
more than one deliv-
cry a day from the store, and no
call backs; increasing difficulties
with travel by rail or plane or bus,
and less travel; fewer local bus
stops for ourselves and our school
children. And on all of us the
compulsion to save our tires, be
sparing of gasoline, share our
cars. For we know that our day
by-day savings and sacrifices, the
attitude we take toward travel,
rubber, gasoline, luxury items,
meats, fats and oils, and countless
other things, has a direct bearing
on the tougher job of fighters thou
sands of miles away.
Materials and time-rate of pro-
duetion-are bound together by
From our aggregate
manpower we must constantly sub
tract growing figure for the arm
ed services, soon to include teen
age youths if we are to avoid call
ing up classes of older men. The Is
workers now engaged in
direct war work could not begin to
do the staggering war job called
for by next years production goals,
even were there no losses through
military induction. Their numbers
must be increased by millions,
hours of work must be heightened,
individual skill multiplied by time
and labor saving devices and by
extensive training within plants.
But all these expedients will not
solve the manpower problem in its
entirety. Just as we are beginning
to lack many of our peacetime civil