, 1943-09-02
Dayton Union News

tank destroyers, "bazookas,' radar, artillery, small arms
and all the stuff it takes to clothe, feed and equip a ire
~mendously increased army were helping the United Nations
to hold back and drive back the once contemptuous Axis
aggressors.
Within a three-year period from the fall of Dunkirk,
the total number actually working in civilian employment
and the armed services had increased by Il million. About
7R million who had been unemployed were busily at work;
women in large numbers entered scores of jobs for the first
time, older men had left retirement, handicapped people
had been trained for useful jobs. Negroes and other minority
groups had been drawn upon in unprecedented numbers
for jobs of all sorts.
To do this, America had to increase its army of pro-
duction.
To accomplish it, workers entered new jobs, learned
new methods and machines, accepted inconvenience of all
sorts. In most war industry centers, overcroWded trans
portation systems, inadequate housing, insufficient restau-
rant and shopping, facilities, lack of day care centers for
children, absence of recreation opportunihes-al these taxed
the endurance of men and women working longer hours at
a faster pace.
What American men and women, despite those diff
culties, are accomplishing with the machines and materials
at hand is evidenced by a few examples:
In the first five months of 1943 we completed 100 fight
ing shops, three times as many as were built in the IL
months of 1941. This year we will double the size of our
fleet.
Over 1000 planes are being produced each month as
against a total of 1O,143 If the first II months of the defense
program. The tonnage is growing even faster because big
bonbers form an increasingly high proportion of the total.
Flying Fortresses are being built in less than one-fourth
the number of manhours originally estimated as necessary.
American factories are turning out bombs of all sizes
for United Nations air express to Axis targets.
One and a half million machine guns and submachine
guns were produced in the third year after Dunkirk as
against a total of $4,000 in the year from June l, 1910.
In one month this spring we produced three times as
much artillery for ground trops as was turned out in our
10 months of war in 1918.
We have been turning out Sc per cent more textile prod
ucs with 80 per cent fewer spindles than in 1918.
And these are but a few of the figures which show how
American labor, working with management and government,
has answered the huge demands of mechanical war.
This is a record of which every worker can be proud.
But that is not all. The spirit of labor-managemnt has been
stimulated as never before. One reason is the relationship
that already exists through collective bargaining processes.
An estimated IS per cent of workers in war industry are in
plants where collective bargaining agreements exist between
management and labor. Organized labor has supported the
establishment and operations of plant acknowledgement
lion production-boostin ideas have been developed and
productive energy is being constantly generated.
Out of the ranks of organized labor alone have gone
more than 100000 members to take their places among the
armed forces, and many of them have already emerged as
heroes from the ordeal of battle.
Off the job activities of union members have strength
ened almost every war agency. Automobile workers, for
example, supplied some 400, 900 blood donors for the Red
Cross. All unions joined in pushing payroll deductions for
war bonds, reaching an annual rate of 2R billion dollars,
and in securing donations for USO and Red Cross drives.
to prepare surgical dressings and garments for the Red
Cross. Building tradesmen have erected recreation centers
and unions throughout the country have equipped these
centers and are supplying cigarettes for troops overseas.
Labor leaders have aided by serving on scores of gov
eminent programs. Labor-management advisory committees
assist in formulating and administering government pro-
grams. WPB for example has a top advisory management
labor council, and two leaders from labor serve as vice
chairmen heading the Labor Production Office and the
aurouyor Raruirarocnfc Office |