Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-03-08

u
less than year from the time
when the tools and giant.
frames were still being installed
IN progressive line, when there
was no staff OF workers for
thousands of minute operations
and when the construction gangs
were still at work on the frames
and walls at the far end.
THAT figure is military Sc
Il cret but there may come
time within year when this
nation will tell the secret OF
American bomber production. as
Hitler used 10 display his
mechanical might in great paS
rades before the war.
Such statement might con-
vince the Nazis that they have
been overtaken here and in
other American factories and
doomed to defeat in the air.
Production at Willow Run Is
rising and doubtless will con-
tinue TO rise because now THAI
the inert load has been budget
and started rolling, speed and
volume will follow.
Whatever the original expec-
tations may have been as 10
production on a given date. the
fact remains that today sheets
of metal and steel frames and
miles of wire and cable feed into
the process. slowly at the start
ing end OF the factory, take
shape. come together. move
steadily along n half-mile course
and grow into bombers complete
with guns.
DROBABLY those who work
Il on the early operations, or
most Of them. never see the
great big ships grow for they
are stationed at their jobs and
those great frames on which the
wings are built obstruct the
view down the line. They in
clude women with white hair.
young women and men OF the
type known 10 plant managers
and insurance doctors as mar
ginal labor. unfit for lifting or
main strength jobs but equal ~
the strain OF sorting and check
ing
Women ride aloft in the sus-
pended cabins of travelling cranes
and midgets work in cramped
spaces in the wings at jobs mac
cessible 10 people Of normal size.
There have been many explana-
tions of the delay at Willow
Run, for expectations ran ahead
If results and impatience set in.
The shortages OF rubber and
gasoline were not anticipated
and these have interfered with
TRANSPORTATION 70 and from the
lob. The labor shortage was not
foreseen, plans were changed and
new housing for the workers has.
Jagged.
MOREOVER, this job is a tri-
'A umph OF union organization
and so there are upward of a
hundred wards. nominally
workers and paid TO work. whose
right IL is. nevertheless. TO circu.
late among the people. inviting
grievances and interfering with
their tasks. On the books, as
manpower. the $ wards are
marked off not merely as a total
loss. but as a drag on the effec-
tiveneSs of the others.
In small clusters, for miles
around Willow Run. there are
parked the trailer homes of the
itinerants who must have had a
bad winter of il. There also are
scattered colonies of new small
homes and mere cabins. but
most of the workers have found
quarters in Detroit and other
cities within driving distance
and many OF them are more or
less permanent residents who
have switched from automobiles
TO the war industries.
The 35-mile national speed
limit is generally ignored but.
though they burn up gas and
rubber, the Willow Run people
do not ride alone and moreover
theirs is most essential work.
CERTAINLY there is no rush.
~ ing speed on the production
job at Willow Run and relations
b tween employers and the
unions in the whole area have
been so embittered by fights,
trickery and riots that il would
be dishonest to pretend that all
is unity and cooperation
between management and the
unions today, for the sake OF the
boys overseas.
The fight still smolders and
there is no doubt that the stnff
engaged could do considerably \
more in a given working period
If they were al lowed TO or
wanted to. NAbSenteeism is a drag
although some of IL is unavoid-
able and the tempo of the plant
is leisurely.