The Wilmington morning star., 1944-11-08
Travels In America
Bv EDWIN d. CANHAM

New England to the Northwest, and to Texas
and the Cult and back through the Central
West, is very thrilling thing in these days.
You have only to stop at any crossroads tc
see things happening. People have never been
SO busy before. Never have SO many inter.
esting things been going on Never, have we
had more need to think of tomorrow.
We are, for one thing, in the very last
stage of tremendously important political
decision. Although good deal of tension has
been aroused there is nonetheless an under.
current of poise and balance Broadly speak
ing, the Nation seems to realize that which.
ever candidate is elected, we must make the
subsequent demonstration of national unity.
The problems that lie ahead cannot be solved
or the basis of partisanship, and a bridging of
the gap between factions must be achieved il
we are to meet the problems of the peace.
Generations of soldiers and sailors and air.
men have graduated from training establish
ments, and are winning great victories afield.
And now the process of training is being
tapered OFT. Our force is in being, no longer
embryonic. Many camps are almost deserted,
Many air strips are just broad stretches of
paving in the desert.
In the industrial production, the peak has
been reached and passed in numerous lines
Great cleaning factories, aforementioned, de-
humidified, indirectly lit, are practically de-
oCitCu. QUILL OSIt llCIS VI WdI are, III way,
almost as sad to see as ruined cities It was
mournful. the other day. to stand in such
factory and see the final wing assembly
OF great bomber plant which the work.
ers had sardonicaly inscribed the words:
1.-THE End
But in other factories, even now the peak
of production has not been reached In the
shipyards of the Pacific Coast they are
urgently seeking workers and more workers,
and their schedules of certain types of ships
are seriously behind. In some plane factories,
new types behind locked doors betoken com
plete retooling and vast new production
And some factories, in uncomfortable lines,
are just coming into production
The stir of achievement is thrilling Amer
lea today. Industry has jumped 20 years or
more OF chronological progress in three years.
There is scarcely an industry which is not
using techniques that will carry it's peace
time production into new and exciting areas.
lhls is particularly true in petroleum,
chemistry, and light metals. But it is also
true IN fabrication in design, in mass-pro-
duction method and in engineering.
Moreover, the economic n d industrial
geography OF the country has changed and
individually much of the change will persist.
Industry has been decentralized The North
east and Central West will not be stripped
OF industry but they must share production
WIN new factories along the Gulf OF Mexico
and on the Pacific slope
Management has made great strides. too.
New generations OF industrial leadership
nave come into being. While there will doubt
less be postwar trial of strength with labor,
there is at least hope that the experience
Oh labor-management committees will have
raised the possibility of ultimate co-opera-
ton. Possibly labor leadership has also
learned lessons.
These are just few of the major phe-
ncmena. They hint at the problems we face:
the reabsorption of our millions OF service
men and women and the readjustment Of
the millions of formerly nonindustrial work.
ers who are now in factory jobs. Many of
the hundreds of thousands of housewives who
have donned overalls will be glad to go back
to the homemaking job. We will realize that
many of the cleaning new factories are as
dependable as the tanks or alrplanes they
made
We are an adaptable nation. We will or
ganize the new America that lies ahead. Per-
haps we will do it in the mood Of the COM
mittee which recently reported that the best
and most economic postwar use OF the vast
bomber factory in the South would be to
convert it to the mass-production of poultry.
That's for two chickens in every pot.
Somehow the conversion of the bomber
plant into a poultry farm, likely to affect
the price of chicken all over America, is
| symbolic of the transition we face. believe
we will demonstrate our capacity to beat
swords into plowshares and Flying For
tresses into fried chicken
| Zadok Dumkopf says he didn't know chicken
feed could really be bgi money until he tried
to operate a poultry farm.