Show Reon version no great obstacle de to industry many Fact factories orits making consumers goods for services numerous others to require only minor changes Chang esi by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator 6 service union trust building washington D C has begun and it lo 10 looks 0 ks as it 1 one prediction made back when conversion be had I 1 been accomplished complis hed with many an ache and groan would come true then the experts predicted that re conver slon ion would be easier than conversion eighty per cent ot of the factories we ve are now told by officials of the department ot of commerce will not have to do a major job this Is largely because many industries now furnishing supplies to the military will continue to manufacture the same supplies lor for civilians clothing food printing electrical appliances you can think of a whole lot ot of others yourself it will be no great problem for the makers of such products to shift from one market to another from uncle sam to john Q consumer some industries whose present A final nal product differs considerably from the civilian goods they make wont have such major difficulties dIfficult les either it will please the ladles ladies to learn that even the folks who have been making parachutes will have little or no trouble changing back to stockings the nylon pe people 0 pie simply have to change spools there are a number of other predictions concerning the future of businesses big and little and one of them Is that 40 per cent of the industries although they wont do the business they are doing today with uncle sam as a customer will have a bigger demand to meet than they had in the boom year of 1929 and this condition will continue say the prophets of profits tor for two or three years on the impetus of the present pent up buying power of the nation it we keep our heads meanwhile there is no reason why the period of prosperity cannot be extended but what about the other types of business which were expanded by war demands tor for products which wont have any civilian market well our american business ingenuity and our native mechanical inventive genius they tell us are going to step into the picture again then there will be the natural evolution which will eliminate the be low average business man and establish a survival of the fittest yankee ingenuity to the fore what started me off on this topic was a typical example of how this inventive genius stimulated by war demands has laid the I 1 foundation un dation as for or turning what started as a little two room factory into a big small town business the man with the inventive genius is a frequent washington visitor these days his name Is burt burl E sherrill the name of the town is peru ind population sherrill is a modest hoosier genius in his forties who managed to make a living from tinkering and selling belling the patents on the gadgets he invented then one day he be made something Eom ething he liked so well he be want to part with the idea behind it so BO he decided to manufacture it himself it was a popular priced magnetic compass for or use in steel bodied automobiles and trucks sherrill rented three offices right on the public square of peru turned them into his factory and started wit soon he began to expand pushing lawyers doctors real estate men out of the way but I 1 am getting ahead of 0 my story sherrill was a born inventor although he realize it and started off to study law after two years tit at the university of chicago he found that his hunger for the law was appeased his hunger for three meals a day was not he went to work managing a little neighborhood shoe store in chicago this gave him a chance to tinker in the kitch en laboratory in his flat then he got a chance at a job back in indiana repairing radios in peru this gave him lots of opportunity to tinker and he patented inventions and sold them which bolstered his income considerably finally he evolved the compass which he part with he was able to hiie bire a small staff of workers then came the war and no moro more civilian autos but there were lots of military vehicles and after our blind tanks had bad lot lost themselves in the african des erts washington found out about sherrill ll and gave him the challenge of making a compass lor for use in motorized equipment of various kinds sherrill ll went to work and produced his models the carnegie institute the army engineers engl ners arid and the war college looked them over and put their okeh on them the inventor moved downstairs and took the whole first floor ot of the building on peru perus a public square the 20 men who had assembled the auto compasses were increased to working at a r regular cg ular assembly line next came a call from the marl time commission A compass tor for steel lifeboats was needed like the tanks too many had been left to wander on the high seas blind further inventive genius was required ired passe for or this job for or a steel lifeboat passes s much of 0 its life on the steel deck of a ship A few months ago the new compass was approved and production Is now under way some day of course cours e the last ast war order will arrive at the factory in peru but because of the war seimu ingenuity of one man a prod j act has been created the demand for which will continue for such war machines as are still needed plus a demand tor for civilian use which will return the moment restrictions on motor trav travel e I 1 and transportation are over in addition I 1 understand from sherrill a new nev hearing aid Is in the making war a spur to man many y entrepreneurs I 1 to reconvert to the manufacture of civilian products no change of machinery or assembly line nor any re tooling will be necessary at the sherrill factory nor will the number of employees have to be reduced ut course not many inventors are endowed with enough business sense to run plants of their own sherrill appears to be an exception when he got his first army order he was asked when he could deliver how many compasses he named the figure and the day and what is he lived up to his promise which was more than many manufacturers tur r with less foresight and more or unforeseen u hurdles have been able to do there are other inventors and other business men who like sherrill have received from war demands the stimulation which will push them ahead and carry them through the breakers ol of sherrill himself has no technical education he calls himself a graduate from rom a junk pile but he can talk with the scientists and the experts and what Is more he makes the pictures he draws on his drawing hoard board sometimes in the small hours in pajamas and slippers work he has the typical american ingenuity shared by thousands of others who helped win the war for us and who will keep us from losing the peace recently a listener wrote in with a suggestion that a fitting memorial tor for the late president roosevelt could be provided in a mariner manner which would aid the bond drive she suggested that if bonds were contributed for a memorial commensurate with our sorrow and regret by the time these bonds matured we ve would be able to buy the most magnia dicent memorial in the world in honor of our greatest president then she concludes 1 I am one of the many little people who would gladly contribute a small bond now but may not be able to give anything later the psychology of tant suggestion is interesting regardless of what the purpose of a fund might be what a splendid way of raising it and thus achieving exactly what the government wishes to achieve by the sale of bonds the double purpose of securing cash to cefra defray war expenses and also reducing the amount of inflationary pocket money it struck me as such a good idea that I 1 sent it along to ted gamble who is in charge of such matters in connection with the seventh war loan next to making suggestions tor for selling bonds I 1 suppose one of the best things one can do Is buy them of course if everybody followed that horse sense plan and bought simply for the security of their own future the treasury need any suggestions |