Show V 0 A 0 SPECIAL ARTI LES BY WAR correspond T hundred perc percent nt war work lly by robert S st join feature through acil e arrange went with colliers ono one day several months ago I 1 in n london I 1 got a letter from Ch chicago lengO A member m am bar of my family was miss ing in action in the philippines the ea sa meday word came by grapo grape vino vine from eastern europe that a close friend of mine in rumania had been executed by order of the gestapo and that a girl I 1 journalist ur nails I 1 kal knew w in in the balkans had has been sent up to lo poland tor for the pleasure of nazi soldiers on leave that night I 1 wanted to volunteer in army or air force that night I 1 suddenly got disgusted with th tho 0 soft life which some of us ua continue to lead in this the most critical year of the most important war in all history when I 1 say us I 1 mean people in america as well as britain but a twinge in my right leg made the realize that tho the nails lidd had limited my field of 0 activity the messer schmitt which shot up a troop train I 1 was on in greece last year took caro care of that so the next morning I 1 went around to the tha of labor and begged for a job without compensation in a munitions factory I 1 explained that I 1 do all my broadcasting to america in the earl early hours of the morning and that I 1 could gather my news and do the rest of my regular work after I 1 came home homa from a factory in the evening at work on a war job within a week I 1 was at work in a vast shop full of machines that were grinding out vital instruments of war I 1 was given a job inspecting the minute parts of a gadget designed to save the lives of british american russian and chinese pilots when off on nights flights against the enemy some of f tho the parts are as dell delicate cate as the wheels inside a swiss wrist watch they have to be ba true to a fraction of a thousandth of an indi inch an interesting job and it seemed to me to be an important one so I 1 joined up with that army of men and women who work eleven or twelve hours a day sometimes seven days a week and never get their pictures in the e papers or any medals pinned on their chest that army of unsung heroes who man the factories of britain the first week at the factory left me ma tired of muscle and mighty weary when the days work was done but I 1 soon got hardened to the new life in addition to this factory work I 1 spend a full eight hours out of every twenty tour four gathering news attending press conferences pounding a typewriter and talking into a microphone on sundays I 1 travel into the country to lecture to british troops in their camps and to wounded airmen in their hospitals or I 1 go into the tener tenement districts of london to talk to clubs of cockney youngsters I 1 mention these activities to show that I 1 was as busy as the average man with a job before I 1 took anthe on the additional factory work aha Is rev fer cent production much is written about how britain and america are now up to 60 or 70 or 80 per cent war production ive often wondered what that means what Is the per cent basis for the calculations in england as well as america tj there h ere are millions of men who co could uld do at least a part time shift a few nights a week in war factories only when all the people are working wo rk as many hours hourn a week as they are physically physic aUy able can either britain or america talk about approaching per cent production there are still many people in our democracies who prefer to knit socks nd ind sell government bonds and let others do the dirty work of war the conflict still come close enough to home even here in britain with its bombed buildings to jar some people into making it a total war from their point of view yet before these words get into print the time may have arrived when the survival of our entire way of life will depend on whether enough people have been willing to forego the pleasant paths of normal existence and sacrifice every ounce of their energies to defeat enemies who long ago abandoned business as usual excuse the preaching but after youve felt nazi bullets and seen nazi savagery its difficult to remain just a reporter my weeks in a munitions factory close to the workers and their everyday problems have given me a a profound respect for the little people of britain Brit atri some of them had a very good deal in the past between the th q two wars their wages and working conditions were far from what wha t they ought to have been most oi the working class just took it during that quarter of a century |