The sub., 1944-05-11
T WRITE MY BOY TONIGHT

It is Sunday night again. so I write to my boy. Tonight, like many of your boys, he Is some- where in a foNhole of some sIimy tropical swamp. or perhaps he may be working long hours without dirty money in the 115 degree Stokehole of some of Uncle Sam's fighting ships; or he Is maybe hav- ing the supreme pleasure of get ting his fighter plane or bomber shot full of holes somewhere two miles too high for him to land feet down on Mother Earth. My kid (and he like the others never complains) is somewhere devel- oping cockroach legs hanging on to P T. boat hitting 50 or 60 knots. When these boys write us, their Dads. they try to convince us it is helluva lot of fun, believing that helps us to bear the loneliness. but it is not really true. so don't let us slacken up any in our efforts to let those boys have as much of the products we are making as is humanly possible to produce.
 When write my boy tonight I'll have to tell him that the 30qs increase in Sub production had believed possible last week when I wrote him looks hardly possible tonight. I'll try and sell him the idea that we are trying hard. but. are we? Frankly, don't consider we are. The Management evident ly believes that they are making an all out effort; bu5 my honest opinion to the boy, is going to be in the school report card language. Increased Effort" not all out ef- fort. Yet, can we allow the want of perfection on the part of the Management to blind us to the fact that as workers we have not got 8 Report Card that we could brag about to a Midway marine or a Casino para-trooper? These kids of ours may understand the in tricate maze of alibis that are used as reasons for retarded production, but l don't.
 However, don't be alarmed, I'll not make the picture too hopeless when I write. These boys need encouragement. not discourage ment, SO I'll tell him of the men op both sides of the fence who I think are pulling their full weight. I'll paint the picture rosy God forgive mel because know their job will be easier if they can be convinced we are worth their sac- rifices. I'll tip him off that a small group of richards, two from the Supervisors Coordinating Con- mittee, two from the Union, and two from the Labor-Management Committee are sitting in with E. D Darrell in an all out effort to get that all around cooperation which it is believed will result in 3O% increase in production for May and maybe for the rest of 1914. That would be about CD more Subs than schedules call for. to send as a Christmas present to our fellows battling the Japs.
 I think I'll tell the boy how we realize that speed, efficiency and abundant equipment are saving lives for the Soviet Union in their drive toward the Crimea. I won't need to tell him, because he knows, that too late and too little has cost us plenty. but I will drop him 8 hint that a big enough number of us here are determined that it will not happen again. I am going to tell him that know I can trust you E. B. workers not to let the boys down, and, that I can also trust the E. B. Management to be Good Americans. but I'll have to be honest and tell him somehow we are too dumb or too stubborn to work out a plan JUST YET A1f 4@