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Show THIS BUSINESS fL J SUSAN THAYER w INDUSTRY AND .MRS. JONES Mrs. Jones was famous for her housekeeping and cooking. Her house was spotless and everything was always In place. In summer there were vases of flowers in the living room and in winter cheerful plants stood in the dining room bay window. And what meals she served! Guests came away from the Jones' raving about her roast chicken and gravy and her wonderful won-derful lemon pies. Her cellar was lined with jars of fruits and preserves. pre-serves. Needless to say, Mrs. Jones took pride in her home and had plans for making It even more comfortable and attractive as the months went by. the nation. Industry found Itself very much in the position of Mrs. Jones in her community situation when all this took place. This being America, Am-erica, the reaction in each case was the same. Faced with an emergency, possessing the knowledge know-ledge that would enable it to do the job, industry "pitched in" to help make this country safe. It did it unstintingly, and is continuing contin-uing in that vein, because that is the traditionally American approach. ap-proach. To cope with the big defense task, many plants have taken on double and more-than-double assignments. as-signments. Old factories have been reopened. New factories have been constructed in record time for the sole purpose of making America strong and providing military goods in the quantities that the government needs. So today, as increasing in-creasing supplies of armaments roll off the assembly lines of plants from Maine to California, America is taking this emergency as a challenge. w w Then one day a cyclone struck the town where the Joneses lived. Houses were wrecked, businesses demolished and hundreds of people peo-ple were suddenly homeless and hungry. Mrs. Jones- had to help the other public-spirited men and women care for those who had lost their homes, and clean up the debris left by the storm at the same time that she had kept her own running. For days she spent at least half of her time downtown and yet . managed to get three good meals - yp it took care- ..ell as a Iitof ... But the two jobs had je uone so she rose to the emergency emer-gency and did them! The industrial system of the United States today is in much the same position as Mrs. Jones For years the plants and factories of this country have been turning out such an abundance of "consumer "con-sumer goods" that the world has marvelled at our standard of living. liv-ing. Nothing like it has ever been known before. Then came the war in Europe and eventually our own emergency and industry was called upon not only to continue to produce an abundance for every day living but to turn out colossal amounts of armaments in record time. Guns, tanks, airplanes and ammunition had to be built with as little dislocation dis-location as possible in the life of Meanwhile, like Mrs. Jones, industry in-dustry is not neglecting the household house-hold either. TJie-aoi'iaatTieeds -of the grea jrtierican family are being be-ing answered, too. It will take a lot of ingenuity and a lot of good, hard work. But Americans seem to thrive on the challenge of a really big "order" like that. It brings out the best in all of us. Mrs. Jones, helping her community com-munity in a public-spirited way and at the same time looking after her most important regular duties, is the symbol of an America that is free and strong enough to tackle two big jobs at once. Its industries indus-tries are in the fore of the picture today because they are in a position posi-tion to serve. The way in which they are coming through is no surprise to those who know America Amer-ica and individual Americans! |