The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-08-19
GN -
szSSSRSsS
u ~ EMt=sED -
7
| T. % I'd I'd !. ll.Y
and
TOMOR ROW
By DON ROBINSON
MATCHES

|
to be a little shorter than usual.
Curious to know if that had any
thing to do with the war, check
ed with a match manufacturer
who said, "Yes-the government
has ordered us to reduce small
wooden matches by one-sixteenth
of an inch in size and large ones
by one-fourth of an inch"
1t seemed to me this was rather
an absurd example of the steps to
which the government has gone
to put it's fingers in everybody's
business on the grounds of con-
serving materials. But when I
checked further I found that even
this insignificant change actually
did produce enormous savings
For by this slight reduction in
the size Of matches-a reduction
which makes no difference to
anyone-it is estimated that there
will be an annual savings of sew
en- million board feet of lumber.
In Washington, I found, there
is large staff of experts working
on the simplification of every i'm
aginable product and its work al
ready has resulted in savings of
450,000,000 board feet of lumber,
100000 tons of steel, 1900 tons
of copper, 180,000,0O0 yards of
cloth and quantities of other ma
terial. The saving in man hours
of labor has also amounted to ma
ny millions and the standardized
ton of products has conserved
millions of square feet of space
on freight cars, boats and trucks
FRILLS conservation
Already there are over 200
products which have been simpli-
fled and standardized Most of
us are familiar with the Victory
bicycle-a light, practical bicycle
which is the only kind which can
be made now. By government
order, only two bicycle models
can be made-one for men and
one for women. By eliminating
the grills from bicycle-making,
the government has saved over
a million pounds of brass, almost
$4,000 pounds of tin. $4,000
pounds of nickel and $4,000
pounds of copper. The steel saw
ing amounts to 500.
This same type of conservation
is being ordered for every con-
ceivable type of product. The
Simplification Branch of the War
Production Board now is working
on over 1000 items which will be
simplified this year. We will
learn about them gradually, but
before the year is out we will see
changes in repair tools. house
hold brushes, nails, screws, tow
els, stationary, scissors and host
of other household items.
All of these changes, no matter
how minor, will reflect large
savings of materials which are
needed for war. They will also
be instrumental in releasing
thousands of men and thousands
of machines for vital war work.
CLOTHES needles
One of the most complicated
but most interesting steps toward
conservation is the order limiting
the use of materials for clothes.
I did realize that there had
been an order banning cuffs on
mems trousers, which again SEEM
ed like small drop in the con-
serVation bucket, but after look
ing over some of the figures on
conservation I am now ready to
agree that the most trivial-seem-
ing order may be worthwhile.
For found that by reducing
the lengths of tails on mems
shirts, the material saved was
enough to make 10 million more
shirts; taking belts and pockets
off pajamas provided material
for 2A million more pajamas;
eliminating rayon stripping on
knit underwear saved a million
pounds of war essential rayon;
simplifying mems work clothes
and eliminating unnecessary but
tons saved 1875 million yards of
thread and $50 million buttons;
leaving off unnecessary pockets
from work clothes provided ma
terial to make around seven mil
lion more garments; reducing the
number of ribs in umbrellas saw
ed $500 tons of high grade car
bon steel annually; and limiting
| the length of hair pins to two
inches has saved $500 tons of
steel.
After reading those figures it
is apparent that the final blow
in winning the war may well be
struck by reducing the size of pin
| 4Lo ox,oo