The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1942-07-09
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TODAY
and
TOMORR ROW
By DON ROBINSON
MASTERS
Bv DON ROBINSON

Our nation is attempting to dis
prove the old theory that people
can't live off of their own fat.
Having been cut off from our
source of supply for many of the
materials vital to war production,
we are trying to feed the hungry
machines of war by picking up
the scrap which spilled over from
our lavish peace-time tables.
We can no longer obtain rubber
from our former 10.0O0-miIe-a-
way source of supply, so we are
gathering it up from our own
backwards.
We can no longer get fats and
oils from the Far East, so we are
collecting them from the kitchens
of American homes.
We are unable to dig iron out
of the earth fast enough to quench
wars thirst for steel, so we are
amassing quantities of it from the
scrap piles on top of the earth.
1t seems to be proving fortu-
nate that we have been the worlds
greatest nation of wasters.' If it
had been otherwise-if we had
been too thrifty with materials
in the past-many of our war
production machines would now
be on the verge of starvation.
BUNGLING responsibility
I'll be glad to agree with any
body who says there has been an
enormouse amount of bGngling
by government officials in getting
the scrap in and in handling
rationing.
But no matter how much of a
mess the officials may make of it,
that is no excuse whatsoever for
us to relax in doing our part.
We know our country must have
rubber. We know it can't get
rubber from foreign sources or
through synthetic processes In
time to fill war needs, let alone
civilian needs. The only posi-
bility of coming close to filling
our war needs is for us to turn in
millions of tons of the rubber we
have in our homes.
The plan for trying to get this
scrap rubber in between June Is
and June 80 can compete with the
gasoline rationing system and the
sugar rationing fiasco for the gov
ernment's prize bungle of the
year. Asking people in the East
to take their rubber to gasoline
stations, when 90 per cent of the
the stations were closed because
they didn't have any gas to sell,
is only one of the outstanding
qualifications this plan boasts for
winning the prize.
But if the government pulls a
boner like that we can't just sit
back and laugh or swear about
it and toss our rubber back into
the cellar. If the government can't
figure out how to get rubber from
us, we must figure out how to
get it to the government.
We know there is rubber
famine. Whether the officials help
us or hold us back, we must
figure out how to get our rubber
where it is needed in the quickest
possible time.
THRIFT conservation
It is luck that we have been
MASTERS. But it will be the most
tragic thing that ever happened
to us if we continue. We must
now change overnight and become
as thrifty as the most joked about
Scotchman.
| A friend of mine who visited IN
Germany way back in 1924 told
me of the great respect for ma
terials which the Germans showed
even then. When he started to
throw a piece of string in a waste
basket, a German told him, 1--WE
don't throw things like that away
here" He found the Germans
were trained to conserve every
scrap of metal, rubber and other
materials which Americans have
always tossed away without a
second thought.
It's going to be hard for us to
learn to save things like a piece
of string, a rusty can, old rubber
heels, the dogs rub ber bone,
broken hammers and dull razor
blades. But unless we all do this
as if our life depended on it right
new, we may find, when it is too
late, that our lives actually did
depend on it.
NEW YORK Kansas
Rural America, all figures show
is doing a much better job IN