Evening star., 1945-08-30
BY SIGRID ARNE,

hsSOCldbtu fitSS oId4 "Altti
BRIDGEPORT, Conn, Aug. 80
The little fellow in denim was wait
ing in line to sign up for unemploy-
ment compensation. Three days be-
for he had been riveting Corsairs
for the Navy. Now he had no job.
He grinned as he spotted Leroy
Downs, Bridgeport's war manpower
director.
Hi. boss" he said, guess the
merry-go-round broke down.
Downs and other Bridgeporters
directing the city as it beats its
swords INTO ploWshares say this
attitude is somewhat general. Many
war workers knew the wartime jobs
must END some time.
Bridgeport, like other factory
towns, has a real reconversion job.
1t was one of the wars boom towns.
It's factories turned out planes, tor
pedoes, bullets, searchlights, en-
gineers at the General Electric plant
dreamed up the bazooka, and its
workers turned out $4,000 Of them.
Typical Example.
Bridgeport's path back to peace is
probably typical example of what's
going on in other factory towns
It's switching back now to wash
ing machines. toasters, cigarette
lighters, corsets, phonograph rec
ords, electric heaters. 1t will con-
tinue to make some bullets. as it
did before the war. And, since it
had before-the-war orders for
planes, it expects to keep on making
some How many no one knows,
and that's the towns biggest head
ache because the Chance-Vought
plant (Corsairs) had some $4,000 on
the payroll. More thousands made
heliocopters at the Sikorsky plant.
Right now the city is in a strange
state of suspended animation. The
population is about 10000.
But while $4,000 or so are wonder
ing whether they'll get peacetime
Jobs, 800 jobs are going begging on
the United States Employment Serv-
ice books. And only 5000 have
signed up for unemployment COM
pensation.
Stores, Restaurants Full.
Despite the uncertainty, stores
and restaurants are full. And yet, in
the mails now, are the blue slips
Chance-Vought is mailing out to
notify those of their workmen they
won't need.
There's a general optimism for
the long pull, although there are no
exact figures on jobs closed, jobs
ahead or future pay scales. The
city's leaders are banking on two
circumstances to pull them through.
l. They think the city's diversi-
fled products will give their factories
chance to go back to the old Gus
toners, now that Uncle Sam has cut
off the gravy
q. Every one thinks hopefully
that the people who came here
for war jobs-most from New York,
Pennsylvania and Vermont-"will
go back where the came from"
There's some evidence they will.
Bridgeport hit its war peak in
July, 1943, when it was rushing
out ammunition for D day, and
had $4,000 on the payroll. The
night President Truman announced
Japan's surrender there were 66,-
600 working. No ones knows where
the others went. They just dis
appeared because on VI day
VINO was still trying to find some
3,100 workers to fill jobs.
Some Bright Spots.
Since VI day there have been
some bright spots. General Electric
cleaned its bazooka department so
rapidly that in two weeks it rolled
its first washing machines of the
line. It's hiring for that depart
ment, but plant managers doubt
they can keep all their workers
in the other departments.
The "non-essential" plants are
asking for the workers they couldn't
have during the war: plants that
turn out records and corsets.
Nearby Danbury is hunting work
ers for its hat factories. However,
these requests come in only by the
hundreds.
And Chance-Vought, for what
ever workers it can take back, has
extended the lay-on from one to
two weeks