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Show Must Replace Men At Lathes and Forges To Supply Armies By ELLIOTT PINE Released by Western Newspaper Union. Nearly two million more women must be recruited for war jobs before the end of the year, says the war manpower commission. This is as many as entered industry in 11 of the twelve months between March, 1942, and March, 1943. In that period 1,900,000 women took over factory work of all sorts, as well as transportation and communications tasks that used to be considered exclusively men's fields. These two million women will 1iave to be found, along with 800,000 older men, handicapped workers and others not now employed, il vital production Is not to lag in the "victory phase of the great conflict, "WMC officials warn. The nation has very confidence that women will come forward to man the machines. According to census bureau surveys, there are about four million women available and willing to work, although these potential workers have only been registered in a few large cities. There are no doubt many thousands ready to help if they knew they were needed. Women seem to be able to do most any work that men can. Skeptics have had to admit, time after time, that they were wrong. For many years women have been employed in light factory work, like sorting parts, packing, dipping chocolates, canning vegetables, and so on, but whoever expected to see them in roundhouses, wiping locomotives, shoveling sand, or operating huge cranes and lathes in shipyards, or doing welding? Well, women are doing all these things, and doing them well. They have had to learn to use unfamiliar tools, and new ways of thinking and acting, and they have done it in a hurry. It's in the heavy industries that the entrance of women is most startling. Figures show that during a one-yeperiod employment of women in munitions increased 69 per cent, 36 per cent in steel making, 50 per cent in electrical manufacturing, 62 per cent in chemicals, 164 per cent in shipbuilding, 184 per cent in aircraft factories! These huge increases were not in Jobs generally called light While there has been plenty of need for help in all the clerical and light factory lines, the real openings have been in the heavy mechanical trades. It stands to reason that with heavy metal construction multiplied many times by war demands, and millions of men going to war, there must be a great lack of technically trained employees. Women have been the answer in Europe and they have been the answer here. They have cheerfully gone to training schools, obeyed rigid shop discipline, worked long hours at hard and unaccustomed tasks, and earned execuhigh praise from hard-bittetives. Despite worry about "absenteeism" in some quarters, women have not been away from their jobs unnecessarily, in most cases. More Than 15 Million. At the end of March, there were em15,200.000 women gainfully tt ployed, according to Chairman of the War Manpower commission. Of these 14.100,000 were in work, so about a million were on farms. Of course, all these 14 million women were not strictly war workers, but most of them were doing things that were necessary, such as clerking in bakeries, or running elevators, or operating laundry machinery. It must be remembered that the civilian economy must be kept running, and that making cartridges and plane parts are not the only vital services in wartime. But it is the women in heavy industry who have come forward to fill the breech, somewhat to the joyous surprise of everyone. A sample list of the work women are doing is given by Laura Nelson Baker in "Wanted: Women in Industry." She says women are "Sewing uniforms and barrage balloons, assembling radio tubes, drafting, wiring assemblies for bombers, inspecting, making gas masks, riveting, welding, operating gear cutters, lathes, grinders, drill presses and saws. These are but a few of the well-pai- d jobs that women are taking over from men. Often they show men up by their efficiency." Many times women have found better ways to do the operations men have been doing for years. There have been many improvements in working conditions put in for the benefit of women that will no doubt remain when men return to the factories. Some of the changes intro duced are, according to Mrs. Baker: "Safety devices, opportunities to change posture and position, machines at the right working height, and other provisions against fatigue are now in general practice. Steel jigs too heavy for women to lift were replaced with masonite jigs weighh as much. Ening less than gineers put a new lever on a spinning lathe so it could be operated with 70 per cent less exertion than before." So women are able to do things that used to require strength and endurance, by having a few changes one-tent- fck&&i.Ji. flf iiiiii infmlilMI Women with technical educations are needed In research. Catherine Ferguson, a graduate of Northwest- ern university, where she majored in metallurgy, is assisting in the hunt for new alloys to replace strategic metals such as nickel and aluminum. She is shown beside a furnace in the laboratories of the General Electric company at Schenectady, N. Y., reading an electric pyrometer, or high temperature thermometer. made. .In fact, strength is becoming less and less important as machines take over the duties of muscles. Overhead cranes carry cast ings and other parts around from lathe to lathe, and shop trucks haul materials and tools about the huge plants. In really big factories, par ticularly in the aircraft industry, the workers ride about in busses. Even With all these aids, war work In the shipis no "featherbed." building yards, for instance, women do strenuous, dirty work, wearing cumberous costumes for long hours. weeks are common, and overtime is the rule some places that have been launching ships at unbelievable rates. Get Same Fay As Men. Women shipyard workers are paid the same scale as men for the same kind of work. The scale is quite attractive, too, but the work, as said before, is hard, and somewhat VV , dangerous. Every shipyard maintains a plant hospital with doctors and nurses in constant attendance. Workers are urged to report every accident, no matter how trivial. In the aircraft industry, too, many thousands of women are helping to turn out the 7,000 planes a month that are needed to smash the Axis. Airplane manufacturing requires people able to work to fine tolerances, to be amazingly accurate, and yet speedy. In the modern plane there are hundreds of operations necessary, and women are working at most of them. Except for a few highly technical jobs, where women have not yet been able to get in the years of experience necessary, they are doing everything from When Mrs. Winifred Tennilli's husAt the presdrafting to band was drafted, she took his place ent pace, women will be able to t this machine in a war plant In make complete airplanes without Ohio. She is shown pressing a butany help from men! ton which started construction of the This is a highly paid field, with first airplane parts made In the much overtime work. Most women plant. engaged in it have taken consider n Mc-Nu- fi Mothers, sisters, aunts, Forty-cight-ho- Soon to Be Erect Normandie Floats Again Needed for War Plants; Twice That Number Ready, Says Census Survey Two Million More Women able training before entering, and many have had some technical education in high school or college. There are comparatively few airplane factories, and most of these are located near big cities, as Los Angeles, Detroit, and Chicago. Because it is such an attractive field, women have gone into it eagerly, and there is not so much demand for new workers here perhaps, as in i l& Mi i J(",v 'tl 'fe, t .S . i The tSS Lafayette, formerly the French luxury liner, Normandie, will once again sail theleTJESl the devastating fire of February 9, 1941, which swept through her and the 100,000 tons of water which bottom of the Hudson river. A corps of 70 divers and 700 work, poured into her hull sending her crashing to the men have her rapidly on the way up in the final stages of the second tremendous naval salvage operation tf recent weeks. The other record setting ship raising and refitting was at Pearl Harbor. Left: The mandie just after she rolled over. Despite the intense fire and the hundreds of workmen aboard only one 'life was lost. Right: It has been necessary to paint new numbers on this measuring tape to keep pace with the rapid rise of the ship. C In the huge ammunition plants that have made the United States the "arsenal of democracy" women can be found in many capacities. This lady war worker is tapering shell cases for anti-tan- k guns at the Frankford arsenal in Philadelphia. some of the less glamorous industries. One of the latter is the chemical industry. Here the work is not so arduous as in the manufacture of ships or planes or tanks, but it is just as vital to the success of the war. The wage rate is not so high as in the metal working crafts and similar lines, but it is still very interesting. Chemical workers generally need some training before starting in the plant, but high school chemistry is often sufficient background for one of the advanced positions. There is careers in opportunity for after-wa- r this field, probably more than in most other lines. Safety Fins Necessary, Too. While manufacturing of planes, guns, tanks, and other weapons and equipment used directly in combat is holding the spotlight, there are thousands of other articles most important to the army and navy that are made by companies turning out their regular peacetime products. Army quartermaster corps officers say that they buy at least 18,000 articles in the open market, that is, the same goods that are made for civilian use. Women are needed to make all these things, both for servicemen and for civilians, who must live during wartime too. Those women who are employed on farms are doing a most neces sary job, of course. They should not be tempted' to leave their food production to go to a factory. Food is a "munition," and is so recognized in military circles. With all this change in the traditional role of women, however, social minded thinkers are pointing out alarming possible after-effecwhen the war ends. They ask whether women who have been earning high wages and have achieved a large measure of independence are going to be content to return to their homes and live on the comparatively lower standard that their husbands' income will provide? Or whether there will not be more friction thah ever between married people, as wives who formerly worked at high rates become dissatisfied with the frequently drab task of maintaining a home and caring for children? Sociologists, clergymen, jurists and others interested in social welfare are perturbed about what may happen. There is also grave concern voiced about the effects of the times on children of war workers. Mothers who are away from their children for long hours are not able to give them that care and affection that no agency can supply. Many children do not get even the inadequate supervision of playground directors, kindergartens or nurseries. The results of haphazard parental direction in formative years may be a serious matter, a few years nrkC I wn WhllA m - i-- H T4rn y n-i H IVHIOT I Ijji y & "V VM L Ttr av f it i. j , Jy ? s, nmixt wwn '7?px A veteran of many flights over "The Hump," military slang for the Himalayan mountains, Lieut. Gen. Joseph Stilwell, commander of the United States forces in the China, India and Burma theaters of warfare, naps on his rubber mattress, left, while making the trip. Upper right: General Stilwell, carrying his own duffle bag, chats with Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault, commander of the 11th Air Force In China and former leader of the "Flying Tigers," pioneer American air fighters in this sector. Bottom right: Stilwell studies requests for supplies while flying to the next point on a tour of the bases of the vast area which he commands. Making Gasoline From Coal New Type Litter X, ff' ' .V vt il ,i. !Pi 7 1 tiff ' All 4 t ) "i or two men can carry WW casualty with this new type of for which is pictured adjusted man carry. Designed by Lieut. II. Bingham, it is said to t& tM the strain on both bearers and narrof ever Movement casualty. rno tracks, through jungles, or wi tain trails Is made much easier the new litter. One 4 Dr. R. R. Sayers, director of the national hnro3 s,. j ,ga?f,ine. Whlch S"r,ly bofore was ""nP o' coal. Pittsburgh are members of the senate-hous- e subcommittee on war materials. wSh.nr'00" Allied Bombing Victims Receiving Aid tors believe that America can recover from 'these shocks and come out of the war with conspicuous gains. Having millions of women who can do skilled work is hardly a thing for any nation to deplore. New products will mean a higher standard of living and thereby better health and educational opportunities for all Col-- Peace by Nov., 1W r VsT nieces, re - sweethearts, and even grandmothers are pitching in to see that their soldiers at the fighting fronts are not endangered through lack of ammunition because of a labor shortage at home. Here are four grandmothers working at the Fort Newark yard of a shipbuilding company In New Jersey. War Manpower commission officials reported that from 1942 to 1913 women workers Increased 1,900,000. A like number is needed by the end of the year. I it" ts hence. But this is war, and war is always profoundly disturbing to the social fabric. More optimistic commenta- II TT TT IVPr HlTYIfllniroo f ' J ' V-M- ' J - Victims of Allied homhinr. . f. celvlng food and clothing, according to a trolled magazine. The bombing refr red U by the Allies on "?parrn"y in Europe where plant, - mJ3?l T' ,n . al,"P, f "hoWB rc' Nai,'con-attac- k ! srond "The war will be over befort is lime to think of the ncrf Pr dentlal election." Thus sP""8 ws Farley in Seattln where he turcd wilh his son, Jin t |