1942.02 废弃的武器 作者：Marquis W. Childs

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废弃的武器
作者：Marquis W. Childs
1942年2月号
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第2期

1942年2月号

作者：Marquis W. Childs

在世界历史上，我们可能是最浪费的民族。法老和罗马皇帝的奢侈是保留给金字塔顶端的一小部分人的。在美国，它延伸到了整个阶层，一个爱好奢侈的民族的粗心态度远远延伸到了我们的社会。我们把地质时代积蓄的能量无动于衷地抛弃了。这是一场漫长的无忧无虑的狂欢，对我们所掌握的财富似乎没有限制。12月7日的珍珠港事件使这一切戛然而止，美国人的自满情绪受到了前所未有的冲击。


今天，全国各地数以百万计的男人和女人都想帮助赢得战争。他们知道，全面战争需要每一点人力和每一盎司可能被放过的物质，他们想在大海背后的战争中尽自己的一份力量--这场战争必须在全美国的每个工厂和家庭以及每个农场中进行。

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我们的浪费习惯并非根深蒂固，以至于我们无法通过一点纪律和一点组织来克服它们。美国有一块节俭的基石，可以在此基础上发展。它已经被镀上了一层闪亮的铬，但它的下面仍然存在，这是过去的坚实遗产，在这个国家需要的时候可以利用。

没有哪位法老以如此快的速度，同时又像你的普通郊区商人那样，当他离开家，开着他那辆1942年早期的新超级复式车去车站或镇上时，以如此华丽和优雅的姿态行动。想一想吧。这里有一台价格从750美元到2500美元的机器，动力从90到160马力不等。数以千计的法老沿着高速公路和大林荫道呼啸着进入每个美国城市。

主人和主人的孩子们都被驱赶到学校，即使距离短得离谱，五六个街区，对任何人来说都是健康的步行。家庭用车--在很多情况下是两辆车--被用来做最琐碎的差事。我们有可能成为一个没有腿的国家。

不仅仅是不可替代的石油矿藏使数以百万计的汽车在运转。在美国高速公路上的交通流背后是一支男人的军队，其中大部分是年轻人。我从未见过任何关于工厂、服务站、油井和炼油厂中维持美国27,500,000辆汽车所需的人力的估计，但它一定非常庞大。我们现在必须从这支军队中招募人员来维持我们的战争力量。我们被告知，每一个在战场上的人，都需要有18个人在战线后提供战争物资。我们国家的一个笑话，也是漫画家最喜欢的主题，就是当你停下来买五加仑汽油和一夸脱机油时，有多少年轻人为你的汽车除尘、擦拭和擦亮。现在，这些年轻人将被用于更紧迫的任务。

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版权1942年，由大西洋月刊公司，波士顿，马萨诸塞州。保留所有权利。

如果说汽车一直是一种神话般的奢侈品，那么美国的普通家庭也是如此。在欧洲有这样一个传说，普通美国家庭的垃圾桶里的东西可以让一个欧洲农民、他的妻子和他的孩子保持健康和舒适。价值数百万美元的食物，以及从土壤中取出的矿物质所代表的更大的实际财富，每年都被浪费掉。我们的饮食习惯一直很挑剔。我们经常丢弃那些含有有益健康的维生素的元素。我们对食物进行删减、打磨和提炼，不仅使国家的资源预算受到影响，而且使国家的福利受到影响。仆人们不仅无动于衷，而且故意敌视经济的想法。

在普通的美国中产阶级家庭中，有一些几乎和汽车一样神奇的机器--收音机、电冰箱、机械洗衣机，除了熨烫和整理衣服，什么都能做。这些机器一直被随意地对待，被委托给不称职的仆人，被忽视，直到发生故障。这一直是基于这样的原则：维修人员总是可以跑来，或者明年会有一个新的模型，可以通过分期付款计划购买。我们最近看到了一项调查的结果，即当修理工来修理坏掉的收音机或冰箱时，他经常做什么。他有时用新的零件替换了完全好的零件，以使他的账单更大。贵重的金属和宝贵的时间被用于制造这些零件。

我们的孩子已经被调教成同样的粗心。他们也被鼓励相信 "总会有一个新的"。房子里的灯都是开着的。在美国，电流很便宜，但想想全国各地的这些灯的能源成本加起来有多少。美国普通郊区的户外圣诞照明一直是同性恋者的乐趣，但想想从年末到年尾储存在数百万阁楼里的铜。

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在普通富裕的美国家庭的衣柜里，也盛行着这种挥霍无度的做法。随着风格的不断变化，当旧衣服几乎不穿的时候，新衣服就会出现。这很有吸引力，但这是我们在战时几乎无法承受的一种浪费。太多的美国儿童对为他们购买的昂贵衣服的价值完全漠不关心。他们高兴地丢掉了帽子、大衣、围巾和手套。这很烦人，但你总是可以买更多。

在服务问题上，我们一直被宠爱得无以复加。想一想美国人伟大的消遣方式 "购物"。购物一直是一种娱乐，你认真地辩论，开车进城，你是去看电影还是去梅西百货。你可能会看看那些新的电动搅拌小工具。隔壁的琼斯家就有一个，他们做出了最令人惊叹的冰冻代基里酒。如果你买了这个小工具，就像没有买一样，你用百货商店的卡车把它送到了你居住的偏远郊区。这是最明显的浪费之一，不仅是材料的浪费，而且是人力的浪费。请考虑一下为全国各地数十万家美容店提供服务所需的金属和化学工业。这不仅意味着商店本身的妇女力量，也意味着人力。

在这个浪费问题上，办公室里的普通人和家里的普通妻子一样都有错。我们从长期的经验中了解到，那些显眼的小玩意几乎没有什么价值。雕刻的公告，压印的铅笔，铬制的小玩意，金发碧眼的接待员--所有这些都是表面上的展示，但在总生产力的资产负债表上，它们必须被记在负面的一面。

它们是我们熟悉的美国过去的一部分，一个欧洲从未了解的奢华的过去，除非欧洲羡慕地试图模仿美国的模式。德国从1933年或1934年开始，英国从1939年开始，不得不削减民用消费，但这是一个与今天这个国家所面临的问题规模大不相同的问题。

二
在德国，民用项目可以追溯到上次战争。在1913年和1916年，挨家挨户的运动被彻底组织起来，以抢救可能用于战争机器的每一块材料碎片。纳粹党提供了一个现成的组织，可以深入到每一个德国家庭，防止浪费，抢救建造军火、飞机和坦克所需的材料。对于面临基本矿物质严重短缺的德国人来说，这是一种绝对的需要。而从1933年到1939年的成就也是非常惊人的。

希特勒青年团一直是用于家庭保护计划的主要组织。所有德国家庭主妇都被仔细指导，以节省锡、铝、橡胶、铜、骨头、玻璃容器、纸张和任何多余的脂肪。每周，身着整齐制服的希特勒青年团成员召集每个家庭主妇收集本周的储蓄，这些储蓄按照指示被保存和放置。在一个警察国家，例如德国，那些没有储蓄的人不可避免地被报告给上级当局。希特勒的年轻狂热者看到了这一点。如果你没能拯救，你一定是个废物，如果你是个废物，那么你就不是一个好的纳粹分子。从那时起，深渊就开始了。这被称为 "自愿 "制度。

在工业领域，所有工厂经理都必须在每月10日将积累的每一盎司废金属上交给官方收集者。而在战争爆发前就已经生效的惩罚措施非常严厉，任何工业家都不可能心不在焉。在西部战役成功之前，栏杆、灯柱和所有其他形式的结构钢几乎都从德国的舞台上消失了。对被征服国家的掠夺和马奇诺防线的拆除，在一定程度上缓解了德国的金属匮乏状况。埃菲尔铁塔倒下了。而在国内，民用项目也像过去七年一样得到了大力推动。

英国的民间反浪费运动取得了惊人的成功。大多数情况下，它是在1939年战争爆发后组织的。它稳定地获得了势头，其结果加起来是一个惊人的总数。据估计，英国家庭主妇在1940年节省的废金属足以建造一支由1.6万辆坦克组成的舰队，厨房废料足以喂养数十万头猪，纸张足以装满10万辆大卡车的游行队伍。这相当于从国外运来了一百艘船的货物，这些船因此可以转用于运送其他重要货物。

在英国，打捞活动由一千六百个地方当局负责，每个地方当局，只要其辖区人口在一万以上，就必须奉命每月向供应部的打捞部门提供打捞报告。废纸、废金属和家用骨头的收集是强制性的。地方当局的报告使供应部能够及时了解废旧材料流向工业的情况。出售残余材料所得的资金由地方当局保留，他们负责支付收集和销售的所有费用。

家庭主妇们通过广播、政府传单、报纸文章和志愿者组织挨家挨户的拜访得到了教育。在可能的情况下，收集工作由市政当局维护的既定收集服务机构完成。在小城镇和农村地区，妇女志愿服务组织、男童子军和女童子军正在做这项工作。今天，英国的人力问题非常严重，一些城市已经用女性垃圾收集员代替了男性。穿着整齐的蓝色制服，这些妇女在鼓励家庭主妇节约废料方面取得了比男子更好的效果。

肉骨头在几个工厂里被加工，包括位于伦敦南部的一个工厂，它是欧洲最大的此类工厂。锡罐经过几道工序，挽救了钢、锡的涂层，甚至是焊料。废纸被粉碎后再次使用，其中大部分用于军火工业。在每年进入英国家庭的600,000吨纸中，1940年有250,000吨被退回用于回收，而1941年的总量接近350,000吨。

在新西兰，有一个密集的废品回收活动，到处都打着 "废物利用的武器 "的口号。在整个多米尼加举行了展览，展示所需要的废品和可以用它们制造的武器。在活动的头几周，收集了90吨有色金属，都是在方便的收集站少量捐赠的。铁路部门将收集到的物品免费运送到各行业。

即使在日本，由于生活水平非常低，几乎不可能进行浪费，政府的保护和抢救运动也意味着节省了数千吨的基本战争物资。这尤其适用于废旧金属和废纸。在政府的严格监督下，日本的家庭主妇被要求向官方收集者交出每一个实际上不需要的材料片段，以维持微薄的生活。这种情况在日本已经持续了五年以上，而且每年的螺丝都被拧得更紧。

三
在我们国家，战时政府才开始实行任意的战时配给制。对我们来说，这在很大程度上是一个自愿的计划，如果我们利用美国人的聪明才智和美国人的足智多谋来使它取得成功，那么我们可能永远不必像世界上其他大多数国家那样实行配给制了。如果我们善用我们的资源，我们将有足够的资源供所有人使用，并为那些迄今为止承担了民主国家反极权主义战争的大部分负担的人民提供慷慨的盈余。

在我们的保护清单上，首先是那些立即受到太平洋战争影响的商品--橡胶、锡、羊毛、用于制造绳子的马尼拉纤维、茶叶、糖、铬矿、锰和用于硬化钢铁的钨。在这个名单上，最重要的是橡胶。价格管理办公室发布的命令表明，在很长一段时间内，橡胶只能用于那些被认为对维持生活和保持工业效率至关重要的民用用途。橡胶消费已被削减到正常情况下的五分之一，这意味着除非远在太平洋地区发生剧烈变化，否则将不会有私人客运汽车的轮胎。而华盛顿的当权者并不鼓励公众期待这种变化。

现在美国汽车上所有轮胎的平均寿命--也就是说，新旧轮胎加在一起--是九千英里。从现在开始，我们的工作就是使这些里程中的每一英里都成为有用的里程。这是一项自我监督、自我管理的工作，我们可以通过自己的组织诀窍来完成，而不需要任何政府的盖世太保。

一下子就会出现一百个经济体。我们将不得不重新使用我们的腿。应该可以不费吹灰之力地将家庭汽车的使用减少三分之一或一半，但家庭中的每个人的健康和脾气都会有明显的改善。各地的社区，特别是那些没有公共交通工具的社区，将希望立即在共享汽车的基础上组织起来。为普通的郊区社区制定一个私家车的时间表应该是相当简单的，七点半、八点、八点半，每个司机每周开一天。从现在起，单独乘车将是明显的不爱国行为。

在没有公共汽车的地方，也可以采用同样的制度来开车送孩子上学。顺便提一下，那些住在公共交通工具范围之外的通勤者将希望研究获得这种交通工具的方法和途径，因为公共汽车有轮胎优先权，而私人客车则没有。医生可以为他们用来打职业电话的汽车获得轮胎，来访的护士也可以，但这种优先权受到当地国防委员会的谨慎限制，他们了解当地情况和优先申请背后的真相。

在目前的写作中，对于翻新轮胎的预期，还没有确定的说法。翻新毕竟需要一定数量的新橡胶，而且即使是有限的数量，是否可以用于翻新，还有待观察。一家大公司宣布了一种战时翻新轮胎，可以在每小时35英里的速度下使用，但这是在整体配给命令宣布之前。当然，在过去，这也是一种公然的浪费形式。与法国人不同的是，他们把轮胎翻新，就像他们把鞋底翻新一样，我们故意忽略了翻新过程中可能获得的成千上万的额外里程。

正如上次战争期间所做的那样，百货公司可以联合和协调他们的交货时间表，不仅节省橡胶和汽油，而且节省人力。他们可以同意停止将一卷线送到外郊的荒谬做法。当涉及到人力时，节约是相当明显的。加油站的胡闹将不得不结束。我认为，对于普通驾车者来说，不被那些自愿为他擦拭挡风玻璃的年轻人围攻，实际上会是一种解脱。

当然，有必要提醒一下。只有在战争生产不断加强，越来越多的人从民用工业中被吸收出来的情况下，节省民用方面的人力才会对国家福利和国家士气作出贡献。否则，对士气的影响可能是绝对有害的。汽车生产现在已经停止了。甚至在汽车订单之前，机械师甚至半熟练的车库服务员都变得稀缺。一个更严重的问题将是为数以千计的销售员和其他附属于汽车工业的白领雇员找到一个有用的出路。

如果大西洋沿岸的大多数加油站从现在开始从晚上7点到早上7点保持关闭，这对我们的经济来说将是一个净收益。为什么不扩大强制责任保险的范围，这将有助于将许多今天是经济浪费和社会威胁的私家车从公路上赶走？同时，这将有助于把钱从消费者的商品市场中剔除。

四
个人和社区必须发挥自己的勤奋和聪明才智。在许多方面，纸张对军火工业都是至关重要的。报纸、废弃的杂志、玻璃纸、纸袋、包装纸，特别是纸板和瓦楞纸，应该收起来，捆成容易处理的一捆。诸如亲善机构和救世军等机构早已开始收集废纸，并将其出售，所得款项用于该机构的工作。在没有这种收集服务的地方，学校完全可以组织一次废纸回收活动，所获资金将用于学校的某些用途。教会团体、童子军、女童子军等众多组织已经存在，可以在废品回收活动中发挥极大的作用。当然，只要有可能，最好是鼓励已经开始的废物收集。在废纸价格为每百磅60美分的情况下，节约的动机既是自私的，也是爱国的。棕色的纸比白色的纸价值要低得多，但是除非社区的收集工作是以批发模式进行的，否则，除了将报纸分开捆绑之外，让家庭主妇自己进行分类是很难做到的。

美国商人所开发的精致包装和包裹是一个奇妙的废物来源。以你在附近药店买的一管牙膏为例。在工厂里，牙膏被装在管子里，管子被装在一个轻质的纸板箱里，这些箱子被装在一个木箱里，木箱里有轻质的木头或纸板隔板，把每个箱子分开。当药商收到他的货物时，在他把牙膏放在货架上的时候，他就把木箱和里面的纸板毁掉。然后，当他卖出一管牙膏时，他用纸把装牙膏的盒子包起来，用纤维素胶布把纸封住，或用绳子捆起来。

我们必须马上学会把包装带回家，而且只带一个包装，而不是两个或三个包装。包装和商品销售中明显的浪费应该立即消失。世界上没有任何理由，一件从洗衣店送回来的衬衫应该有一盎司或两盎司的纸板包在里面。或者六个大头针。烟箔中的铝已经消失了，绝大多数吸烟者会欣然放弃那种无形的新鲜感，据说这种新鲜感是用玻璃纸包装封住的。

根据OPM工业保护局制定的回收计划，各州正在组建委员会，应任命废物和废品消费行业的代表以及废物收集慈善机构的代表参加。

普通的中产阶级家庭应该有废金属的收获，如果户主用评估的眼光去看壁橱、阁楼、工具棚和花园。第一次调查应该可以获得破旧的花园工具、锅碗瓢盆、门把手和锁、烟灰缸、窗帘、衣架、画框、废弃的壁炉设备、铁丝围栏和铁栏杆。有一点锈是无害的。然后应定期收集牙膏管和其他金属弃物。

磨损的汽车轮胎和管子、橡胶和套鞋、旧浴室或水槽的垫子，都应该囤积起来作为残余物收集。碎布是非常重要的。所有废弃的衣服、床单、毛巾、面粉和糖袋、地毯和麻布袋，只要状况良好，都应该被保存下来。除非纸张达到100磅，即大约是一叠约5英尺高的报纸，否则不应通知收集者。碎布、金属和橡胶应单独保存，如果可能的话，装在袋子或盒子里，并与堆积的纸张一起交给收集者。不用说，任何仍有使用价值的东西都不应该被丢弃，必须用新的东西代替。这种过度的热心意味着不是净收益而是净损失。

这顺便提出了一个对国内战线上的男人和女人最重要的问题。出于需要，我们将学会对我们家庭中昂贵而复杂的设备给予更多的照顾，因为在战争期间，这些设备几乎是不可替代的。例如，电冰箱、吸尘器和电动洗衣机应该按照明确的时间表上油。也不应该把它们托付给无动于衷的仆人。衣服，尤其是羊毛衣服，必须得到更多的照顾，用于民用的羊毛数量已经减少了60%。也许随着某些化学品越来越少，我们将不得不限制我们对清洁剂的使用。刷洗和日晒有时是一种替代方法。

国防部规定，目前有两样东西不应保存--旧剃须刀片和锡罐。OPM的专家说，从剃刀片中提取的金属量太少，不值得收集。(这在战争结束前可能会有所改变，我打算继续我自己的私人收藏）。除了一个地区，而且是在有限的范围内，没有任何工厂具备打捞锡罐的条件。我们每年都将数千吨金属倾倒在全国冒烟的垃圾场上，在那里永远消失。显然，在紧急情况下，没有任何办法可以打捞废罐子。这个问题是非常现实的，首先，因为我们33%的锡来自马来亚，其次，因为所谓的锡罐中更重要的成分--钢，是坦克和枪支所需要的。普通罐头的锡含量已降至约2%，如此小的一部分，以至于银已被视为可能的替代品。

由于金属罐不能被挽救，所以目标是尽可能使用玻璃容器。这意味着家庭罐头和家庭菜园。农业部长克劳德-R-威卡德在12月19日宣布了1942年罐头业的目标，即豌豆、西红柿、豆角和玉米的总包装比1941年的记录高15%。然而，必须记住，大量的食品--罐头--仍然必须运往严格配给的英国。大量的供应对我们的武装部队来说是必要的。因此，在家里放上一玻璃罐番茄汁，不仅可以节省从商店购买的金属罐头，还可以节省一个人的时间和精力，而这些人的服务可以用在其他地方。在数以千计的家庭中进行家庭保存，也将意味着在铁路运输方面的物质节约。


虽然目标是开发一百万个新花园，但扩展计划正在谨慎地进行，希望能够避免上次战争的错误。初学的园丁们被建议不要在后院铲土，因为后院很可能有砖头和旧锡罐的基础。许多花园种子以前都是从欧洲进口的，虽然美国公司现在已经弥补了这一不足，但今年业余园丁比以往任何时候都更有理由不重复他的习惯性错误，即购买两倍于他所能种植的种子数量。同样，喷雾剂和化肥也会很稀缺。

在学校和社区的花园里，农业部建议，它们应该在一个有经验的园丁的监督下进行，这个园丁会知道番茄虫和黄瓜甲虫。县级代理将被招募为这场食物战争的监督员。花园运动特别针对农场主妇，她们近年来越来越多地诉诸于杂货店货架上的罐头。建议建立示范园，教农妇们如何计划和种植，以便在胜利花园运动中提供最大的服务。

这表明美国废物的一个主要来源。通过美国的垃圾桶和小巷的篝火，每年被破坏的腐殖质材料足以补充整个中国。卷心菜和莴苣的外叶、胡萝卜和萝卜的顶部、过期的切花，更不用说每年秋天掉下来的叶子--所有这些都是宝贵的。现在是扭转这种浪费的好时机。任何拥有一块土地的人都应该准备一个腐殖土床。咖啡和茶叶的渣滓可以作为粘土的发酵剂，与园艺杂志上宣传的昂贵的腐殖土制剂一样好。如果你的爱国热情让你进入花园，那么就少用购买的材料，因为它们很稀缺，而且一定要在技术上获得最佳建议。

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美国普通农场的浪费，特别是随着租约的增加，几乎与城市和城镇的浪费一样明显。有价值的农场设备被允许在田间生锈。当它最终摔成碎片时，答案只是再买一个。县里的代理人现在正在指导一场金属回收运动，应该可以从这些生锈的大块头被倾倒的堆中生产出数千吨钢铁。这是一种在全面战争期间我们无法想象的浪费形式。农民们已经被警告要订购必要的替换零件，以便工具行业能够衡量其对金属的需求。必须让旧机械在这段时间内发挥作用。

家庭中的食物保存和食物替代品可以帮助赢得战争。可以大量购买的脱水水果和蔬菜可以节省容器。虽然由于其纳粹的渊源，它听起来很毒，但每周一次的一菜一汤其实并不是一个坏主意。我们并不缺乏必要的食物，因为小麦和玉米仍有盈余，但将原材料转化为人类食物需要人力、机器和能源。而每周坐下来吃一次简单的菜肴，将使每个家庭有机会通过小小的牺牲为共同的事业做出贡献。事实上，我们要感谢一年前的国防运动，因为在近来被当作面包的白色绒毛中加入了维生素B1，使我们在饮食方面有了明确的收获。


严重的金属短缺给家用设备的材料带来了巨大的变化。用于装罐的高压锅已不再上市，没有远见的家庭主妇们现在不得不向更幸运的邻居借钱。农业部家政服务局提出了一个更好的方法，该局最近发布了一本关于社区食品保存中心的手册。这本书讲述了如何将现有的供应品结合起来，使所有人受益。

坚强的个人主义者会发现他们自己的经济方式。我们可以很容易地放弃将我们的家加热到75或80度，从而可以安全地猜测，减少冬季感冒的数量。如果铁丝衣架没有被保存下来用于金属收集，它们必须被退回给清洁工，而清洁工已经很难获得足够的库存。我们是一个非常聪明的民族，既然我们已经把心思放在这项任务上，就会出现无数的经济效益，这些效益实际上不会降低美国的生活水平。只是在战争期间，我们将不得不牺牲掉那些花哨和浪费的过度行为。

数以百万计的美国人想做的事情远不止这些。他们想知道他们如何能够做出积极的贡献。当然，在任何战争中，平民必须用很大程度的耐心来强化自己。他必须准备好接受来自上层的命令，并尽其所能地完成自己的职责。通过高层的规划，将有可能实现服装和鞋子的标准化，这将意味着巨大的节约。1918年，伯纳德-巴鲁克（Bernard M. Baruch）的战争工业委员会制定了这一模式。


虽然到目前为止还只是一个开始，但我们必须期待看到标准化的迅速扩展。正如1918年秋天所做的那样，鞋子的颜色可以受到限制，并停止引进新楦头。鞋子可以减少到标准等级，像1918年一样，贸易界可以同意按照每只鞋上标明的价格出售。这里的节约是显而易见的。1918年，有一个皮匠一直在生产81种颜色和色调的皮革，他能够简化他的工厂，只生产三种颜色，从而省去了储存价值几千美元的生皮和皮革的必要。

在服装业中也可以实现类似的节约。像1918年实行的那样，对袋装大衣的长度以及大衣的长度和宽度进行限制，将意味着大量减少羊毛的使用。任意削减每季西装的型号，不仅可以节省羊毛的码数，而且可以减少旅行推销员携带的行李箱的数量。1918年秋季通过的女装行业的标准化时间表，估计意味着可以节省20%到25%的码数。颜色的标准化，加上对毛衣和其他针织品款式的某些限制，使该行业释放了33%的羊毛。

在今年年底，我们可能会与今天的样子有所不同。也许没有那么光鲜亮丽；也许更加舒适。上一次战争废除了老式的钢筋胸衣。如果橡胶短缺的情况持续下去，它的现代对应物--Lastex腰带，可能会跟随它被丢弃。制帽师必须找到羊毛毡的替代物。美国普通家庭的经济，在很大程度上缓解了物质短缺，也使其有可能购买国防债券，并支付1942年肯定会带来的更高税收。

我们每一个人都将承担部分责任，以确保战时的限制措施发挥作用。我们的社会是一个民主、自愿的社会。橡皮配给令正由地方配给委员会执行。其他限制措施将由成千上万的美国社区自行管理。拉动和影响在邻里之间运作的机会要少得多。

所有这一切都意味着美国人在一个共同的目标下团结起来。现代生活的趋势是将我们打碎成孤独的碎片，而现在战争已经扭转了这种趋势。在正常情况下，每个人都对他的工资或利润感兴趣，而将他与我们的社会联系在一起的微小纽带主要是那些具有相同利润动机的人。在他的公司或办公室之外，可能在较老的社区，在他的邻里之间，世界已经结束，他一直是一个陌生人，唯一的联系是报纸或电台的非个人联系。现在他必须有一种欢迎参与的感觉，他是更大的东西的一部分，是巨大的共同努力的一部分。这是连接我们社会的粘合剂，在战后的关键调整中，在胜利与和平到来之后，它的重要性不亚于今天在世界有史以来影响最深远的冲突中。




Weapons From Waste
By Marquis W. Childs
FEBRUARY 1942 ISSUE
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VOLUME 169


NUMBER 2

FEBRUARY, 1942

BY MARQUIS W. CHILDS

WE HAVE been probably the most wasteful people in the history of the world. The luxury of the Pharaohs and the Roman Emperors was reserved for a small group at the top of the pyramid. In America it extended through a whole class, and the careless attitudes of a luxury-loving people extended far down into our society. We have flung away in prodigal indifference the storedup energy of geologic cons. It has been a long carefree spree with seemingly no limit to the riches at our command. There was an abrupt end to all that on December 7 at Pearl Harbor when American complacency was jarred as never before.


Today millions of men and women in every part of the country want to help win the war. They know that total war takes every bit of man power and every ounce of material that can possibly be spared and they want to do their share in the war behind the seas — the war that must be waged in every factory and home and on every farm in all of America.

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Our habits of waste are not so deeply ingrained that we cannot overcome them with a little discipline and a little organization. There is a bedrock of American thrift on which to build. It has been overlaid with a plating of shiny chromium but down beneath it is still there, a solid inheritance out of the past to be drawn on in this time of national need.

No Pharaoh ever moved with such speed and, at the same time, with such splendor and elegance as your average suburban business man when he left his home to drive to the station or to town in his new super-duper, hyper-triplex, early 1942 model. Think of it for a moment. Here is a machine costing from $750 to $2500, with a power of anywhere from 90 to 160 horses. Thousands of Pharaohs whirring along the high-speed highways and the great boulevards into each American city.

The lord and master’s children have been driven to school even though the distance was absurdly short, five or six blocks, a healthy walk for anyone. The family car — in a great many instances it was two cars — was used for the most trivial errands. We were in danger of becoming a legless nation.

It was not alone the irreplaceable oil deposits that kept millions of motorcars in motion. Behind the flow of traffic on America’s highways was an army of men, most of them young men. I have never seen any estimate of the amount of man power — in factories, service stations, oil wells, and refineries — required to sustain America’s 27,500,000 motorcars but it must have been very large. From this same army we must now recruit men to sustain our forces at war. For each man in the field, we have been told, eighteen men are required behind the lines to furnish the materials of war. One of our national jokes, a favorite subject of cartoonists, has been the number of young men who dusted and rubbed and shined your car when you stopped to buy five gallons of gasoline and a quart of motor oil. These young men will now be needed for far more urgent tasks.

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If the motorcar has been a fabulous luxury, so has the average American household. It has been a legend in Europe that the contents of the garbage pail of the average American household would keep a European peasant, his wife, and his children in health and comfort. Food worth millions of dollars and representing a greater real wealth in minerals taken out of the soil has gone to waste each year. Our food habits have been fussy. Often we have discarded the very elements that contained health-building vitamins. We have pared and polished and refined until not only the national budget of resources but the national well-being has suffered. Servants have been not merely indifferent but deliberately hostile to the idea of economy.

In the average middle-class American household there are machines almost as fabulous as the motorcar — the radio, the electric refrigerator, the mechanical washing machine that does everything but iron and sort the clothes. These machines have been treated with casual indifference, entrusted to incompetent servants, and ignored until a breakdown occurred. This has been on the principle that the repairman could always come running around, or that next year there would be a new model that could be bought on the installment plan. We have recently seen the results of a survey of what the repairman all too often does when he comes to fix the broken radio or refrigerator. He has sometimes replaced perfectly good parts with new parts in order to make his bill larger. Precious metal and precious time went into fabricating those parts.

Our children have been conditioned to the same carelessness. They too have been encouraged to believe that there would ‘always be a new one.’ Lights are left turned on all over the house. Electric current is cheap in America, but think what those lights all over the country add up to in energy cost. The outdoor Christmas lighting in the average American suburb has been gay and amusing, but consider the copper stored in millions of attics from year’s end to year’s end.

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This same prodigality has prevailed in the wardrobe of the average prosperous American family. With insistent regularity style changes have decreed new clothes when the old were scarcely worn. This was diverting, but it is a form of waste that we can scarcely afford in wartime. Too many American children have been totally indifferent to the value of the expensive clothes bought for them. They have lost caps, coats, mufflers, and gloves with happy abandon. It was annoying, but you could always buy more.

In the matter of service we have been pampered within an inch of our lives. Think for a moment of the great American pastime of ‘shopping.’ Shopping has been a recreation, and you debated earnestly, motoring into town, whether you would go to the movies or to Macy’s. You might look at those new electric mixing gadgets. The Joneses next door have one, and they make the most marvelous frozen Daiquiris. If you bought the gadget, as like as not you had it delivered in the department-store truck to the remote suburb in which you live. This has been one of the most flagrant wastes, a waste not only of materials but of man power. Consider for a moment the metal and chemical industries necessary to furnish the hundreds of thousands of beauty shops throughout the country. That means not only woman power in the shops themselves, but man power.

The average man in his office has been as much at fault in this matter of waste as the average wife at home. We have known from long experience the kind of conspicuous gadgets that contribute little or nothing in value. The engraved announcements, the embossed pencils, the chromium doodads, the blonde receptionists — all these have made for surface display, but on the balance sheet of total productivity they must be entered on the negative side.

They were part of the familiar American past, a lavish past which Europe never knew except as Europe enviously tried to imitate the American pattern. Germany, beginning in 1933 or 1934, and Britain beginning in 1939 had to curtail civilian consumption, but it was a problem on a vastly different scale than that which confronts this country today.

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In Germany the civilian program can be traced back to the last war. In 1913 and 1916 house-to-house campaigns were thoroughly organized to salvage every scrap of material that could possibly be used in the war machine. The Nazi Party has provided an organization ready-made to reach into every German home for the prevention of waste and the salvaging of materials necessary for building munitions, planes, and tanks. For the Germans, faced with serious shortages of essential minerals, this was an absolute necessity. And the achievement from 1933 to 1939 was a formidable one.

The Hitler Youth order has been the chief organization used in the household conservation program. All German housewives were carefully instructed to save tin, aluminum, rubber, copper, bones, glass containers, paper, and any surplus fats. Each week, members of the Hitler Youth in full uniform called on each householder to collect the week’s savings, which were preserved and put aside according to instruction. In a police state, such as Germany is, those who failed to save were inevitably reported to higher authorities. Hitler’s young fanatics saw to that. If you failed to save, you must be a waster, and if you were a waster, then you were not a good Nazi. From that point on the abyss opened up. It was called a ‘voluntary’ system.

In industry all plant managers are required to turn over to official collectors on the tenth of every month each ounce of scrap metal that has accumulated. And the penalties in effect even before the outbreak of the war were so severe that no industrialist was likely to be absent-minded. Before the success of the campaign in the West, railings, lampposts, and all other forms of structural steel had virtually disappeared from the German scene. Looting of the conquered countries and the dismantling of the Maginot Line have somewhat relieved the metal scarcity in Germany. Down comes the Eiffel Tower. And at home the civilian program is pushed just as vigorously as it has been during the past seven years.

The civilian campaign against waste in Great Britain has been a striking success. For the most part it was organized after the outbreak of the war in 1939. It steadily gained momentum, and the results add up to a Startling total. It is estimated that British housewives saved during 1940 enough scrap metal to build an armada of sixteen thousand tanks, enough kitchen scraps to feed hundreds of thousands of hogs, and enough paper to fill a procession of one hundred thousand large trucks. This was the equivalent of one hundred ships’ cargoes from abroad, ships which could therefore be diverted to carrying other vital cargoes.

In Britain the salvage campaign was divided among sixteen hundred local authorities, each local authority whose district comprises a population of ten thousand or more being under orders to furnish monthly salvage returns to the salvage department of the Ministry of Supply. The collection of wastepaper, scrap metal, and household bones is compulsory. The reports made by the local authorities enable the Ministry of Supply to keep informed of the movement of waste material to industry. The money derived from the sale of salvaged materials is retained by the local authorities who meet all the expenses of collecting and marketing.

Housewives have been educated by radio broadcasts, government leaflets, newspaper articles, and house-to-house calls by volunteer organizations. Wherever possible, the collecting is done by established collection services maintained by municipalities. In small towns and in rural areas the Women’s Voluntary Services, the Boy Scouts, and the Girl Guides are doing the job. The manpower problem is acute in England today, and some municipalities have substituted women trash collectors for men. In their neat blue uniforms, the women are getting better results than men in encouraging householders to save waste materials.

Meat bones are processed in several factories, including one in South London which is the largest of its kind in Europe. Tin cans go through several processes which salvage the steel, the coating of tin, and even the solder. Wastepaper is pulped and used again, much of it in the munitions industry. Of the 600,000 tons of paper which yearly go into British homes, 250,000 tons were returned in 1940 for salvage, and for 1941 the total was close to 350,000 tons.

In New Zealand there has been an intensive drive for scraps with the slogan ‘Weapons from Waste’ blazoned everywhere. Exhibitions have been held throughout the Dominion, showing the waste products wanted and the weapons that can be made from them. In the first weeks of the drive ninety tons of nonferrous metals were collected, all donated in small amounts at convenient collection depots. Railways transported the collections to industries free of charge.

Even in Japan, where the very low standard of living has made waste almost impossible, a government conservation and salvage campaign has meant a saving of thousands of tons of essential war materials. This was applied particularly to scrap metals and wastepaper. Under strict government watch, Japanese householders are required to surrender to official collectors every snippet of material that is not actually needed to sustain a meagre kind of life. This has been going on in Japan for five years and more, and each year the screw is turned a little tighter.

III
Here in our own country a wartime government has only begun to apply arbitrary wartime rationing. With us it is for the most part a voluntary program, and if we draw on American ingenuity and American resourcefulness to make it succeed, then we may never have to come to the rationing that has been clamped down on most of the rest of the world. If we husband our resources, we shall have enough for all with a generous surplus for those peoples who until now have borne most of the burden of the democracies’ war against totalitarianism.

First on our conservation list are those commodities immediately affected by the war in the Pacific — rubber, tin, wool, Manila fibre for making rope, tea, sugar, chromite, manganese, and tungsten for hardening steel. At the top of the list comes rubber. The order which has been issued by the Office of Price Administration makes it certain that for a long period of time rubber will be available only for those civilian uses considered essential to sustain life and to maintain industrial efficiency. Rubber consumption has been cut to about one fifth of normal, and this means that there will be no tires for private passenger automobiles unless and until there is a drastic change in the far Pacific. And the powers-that-be in Washington are not encouraging the public to expect such a change.

The average life of all the tires now on American motorcars — that is, old and new tires all lumped together — is nine thousand miles. It is our job from here on to make each one of these miles a useful mile. It is a self-policing, selfadministering job which we can do through our own knack for organization, without the need for any government Gestapo.

A hundred economies occur at once. We shall have to regain the use of our legs. It should be possible with little difficulty to curtail the use of the family car by one third or a half and yet have everyone in the family show a definite gain in health and in temper. Communities everywhere, and particularly those out of reach of public transportation, will want to organize at once on a share-the-car basis. It should be fairly simple to work out for the average suburban community a schedule of private cars going at seven-thirty, at eight, at eight-thirty, with each driver driving, say, one day a week. From now on it will be distinctly unpatriotic to ride alone.

The same system can be worked out for driving children to school where there are no buses. Incidentally, commuters who live out of range of transportation by public conveyance will want to be looking into ways and means of getting such transportation, for buses have priority for tires while private passenger cars do not. Doctors can obtain tires for cars they use in making professional calls and so can visiting nurses, but this priority privilege is being carefully restricted by local defense councils who know local conditions and the truth behind priority applications.

At the present writing, there is no certainty as to what may be expected from retreaded tires. Retreading does after all take a certain amount of new rubber, and it remains to be seen whether even limited quantities will be available for retreading. One large company announced a retreaded wartime tire which could be used at speeds up to thirty-five miles an hour, but this was before the overall rationing order had been announced. Certainly in the past this has been a flagrant form of waste. Unlike the French, who had their tires retreaded just as they had their shoes half-soled, we deliberately ignored the thousands of extra miles that might have been obtained by the retreading process.

As was done during the last war, department stores can combine and coordinate their delivery schedules to save not only rubber and gasoline but man power. They can agree to stop the absurd practice of delivering a spool of thread to the outer suburbs. When it comes to man power, the savings are fairly obvious. The filling-station nonsense will have to end. I think it will come actually as a relief to the average motorist not to be besieged by willing young men clamoring for the privilege of wiping his windshield.

A word of caution is necessary, of course. Saving man power on the civilian side will contribute to national welfare and national morale only if war production is constantly stepped up and more and more men are absorbed out of civilian industry. Otherwise the effect on morale may be definitely harmful. Automobile production has now been stopped. Mechanics and even semi-skilled garage attendants were becoming scarce even before the auto orders. A more serious problem will be to find a useful outlet for the thousands of salesmen and other white-collar employees attached to the motor industry.

If most of the filling stations on the Atlantic seaboard remain closed from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M. from now on, it will be a net gain for our economy. Why not extend compulsory liability insurance, which would help to take off the highway many private cars that are today an economic waste and a social menace? At the same time this would help to keep money out of the consumers’ goods market.

IV
It is imperative that individuals and communities exercise their own diligence and ingenuity. In a variety of ways paper is vital to the munitions industry. Newspapers, discarded magazines, cellophane, paper bags, wrapping paper, and especially cardboard and corrugated paper, should be put away and tied in bundles that can be easily handled. Agencies such as the Goodwill Industries and the Salvation Army have long since initiated the collection of wastepaper, which is sold and the proceeds devoted to the work of the agency. Where such a collection service is not available, schools could well organize a paper-salvage campaign, the money taken in to go for some school purpose. Church groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, numerous organizations already exist that could be used to excellent advantage in the salvage campaign. Wherever possible, of course, it is best to encourage such waste collections as have already been started. With wastepaper at sixty cents a hundred pounds there is a selfish as well as a patriotic motive in saving. Brown paper has considerably less value than white paper, but unless the community collection is organized on a wholesale pattern it is hardly feasible for the householder to do his or her own sorting, aside from tying newspapers in separate bundles.

A source of fantastic waste has been the elaborate packaging and wrapping that American merchants have developed. Take for example the tube of tooth paste that you buy at the neighborhood drugstore. At the factory the paste is put in the tube, the tube is put in a light cardboard box, and these boxes are packed in a wooden crate which contains light wood or cardboard partitions separating each box. When he receives his consignment, the druggist destroys the wooden crate and the cardboard that may have come inside it, at the time that he puts the tooth paste on his shelves. Then when he sells a tube of tooth paste, he wraps the box containing the tube in paper and seals the paper with cellulose tape or ties it with string.

We must learn at once to carry packages home and to carry them with only one wrapping and not two or three. Obvious waste in packaging and merchandising should disappear immediately. There is no reason in the world why a shirt sent back from the laundry should have an ounce or two of cardboard enfolded in it. Or six pins. The aluminum in cigarette foil has already disappeared, and the vast majority of smokers will gladly forgo that intangible freshness which is said to be sealed in with cellophane wrapping.

Under the salvage plan worked out by OPM’s Bureau of Industrial Conservation, state committees are being formed to which representatives of wasteand scrap-consuming industries as well as representatives of waste-collecting charitable agencies should be appointed.

The average middle-class household should yield a harvest of scrap metal if the householder looks with an appraising eye into closets, attic, tool shed, and garden. A first survey should garner outworn garden tools, pots and pans, doorknobs and locks, ash trays, window stripping, coat hangers, picture frames, discarded fireplace equipment, wire fencing and iron railings. A little rust does no harm. Then a regular collection should be kept of tooth-paste tubes and other metal discards.

Worn-out auto tires and tubes, rubbers and overshoes, old bath or sink mats, should be hoarded for the salvage collection. Rags are of vital importance. All cast-off clothing, sheets, towels, flour and sugar sacks, carpets and burlap bags in good condition, should be saved. The collector should not be called unless paper has reached a hundred pounds, which is approximately a stack of newspapers about five feet high. Rags, metals, and rubber should be kept separately, in bags or boxes if possible, and given to the collector along with the accumulation of paper. Needless to say, nothing should be discarded which is still of use and must be replaced by something new. That kind of excessive zeal means not a net gain but a net loss.

This, incidentally, raises a point of primary importance to the men and women on the domestic front. Out of necessity we shall learn to give far greater care to the expensive and complicated equipment of our households, since it will be almost irreplaceable for the duration of the war. For instance, electric refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and electric washers should be oiled on a definite schedule. Nor should they be entrusted to indifferent servants. Clothing, and especially wool clothing, must be given greater care, the amount of wool for civilian consumption having been cut by 60 per cent. And perhaps as certain chemicals grow scarcer we shall of necessity limit our recourse to the cleaner. Brushing and sunning are sometimes a substitute.

Two things the OPM specifies should not be saved at this time — old razor blades and tin cans. The amount of metal derived from razor blades is too small to make collection worth-while, say OPM’s experts. (That may change before the war is ended and I intend to go on with my own private collection.) Except in one area, and that on a limited scale, there are no plants equipped to salvage tin cans. We have each year dumped thousands of tons of metal on the nation’s smoking garbage dumps, there to be lost forever. Apparently nothing can be done to salvage waste cans during the emergency. The problem is very real, first, because 33½ per cent of our tin comes from Malaya, and secondly, because steel, a far more important ingredient in so-called tin cans, is needed for tanks and guns. The tin content of the ordinary can has been reduced to about 2 per cent, so small a portion that silver has been considered as a possible substitute.

Since metal cans cannot be salvaged, the objective is to use glass containers wherever possible. This means home canning and home gardens. Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard on December 19 announced goals for the canning industry for 1942 of a total pack of peas, tomatoes, snap beans, and corn 15 per cent above the record 1941 pack. It must be remembered, however, that vast quantities of food — in cans — must still go to strictly rationed Britain. Large supplies are necessary for our armed forces. Therefore, each glass jar of tomato juice put up at home will save not only the metal in a can otherwise bought from the store, but also the time and energy of a man whose services could be used otherwise. Home preserving in thousands of homes will also mean a material saving in rail transportation.


While the objective is to develop a million new gardens, the expansion program is being introduced cautiously in the hope that the mistakes of the last war can be avoided. Beginning gardeners are being advised against spading up the backyard, which very likely has a base of bricks and old tin cans. Many garden seeds were formerly imported from Europe, and while American firms have now made up most of this deficiency there will be more reason than ever this year why the amateur gardener should not repeat his customary mistake of buying twice as many seeds as he will be able to plant. Likewise sprays and fertilizers will be scarce.

Where school and community gardens are started, the Department of Agriculture has advised that they should be under the supervision of an experienced gardener who will know a tomato worm from a cucumber beetle. County agents are to be enlisted as supervisors in this war for food. The garden campaign is directed particularly at farm housewives who in recent years have more and more resorted to the can from the grocer’s shelf. Demonstration gardens are recommended to teach farm wives how to plan and plant for the greatest service in the Victory Garden campaign.

This suggests a major source of American waste. By way of the American garbage pail and the alley bonfire there has been destroyed enough humus material each year to replenish all of China. The outer leaves of cabbage and lettuce, carrot and turnip tops, cut flowers past their day, to say nothing of the leaves that drop each fall — all of this is precious. Now would be a good time to reverse that waste. Anyone who has a square of earth should prepare a humus bed. The grounds of coffee and tea make as good a leavening for a clayey soil as the expensive humus preparations advertised in the gardening magazines. If your patriotic zeal sends you into the garden, then use purchased materials sparingly, for they are scarce, and be sure to get the best possible advice on technique.

V
The waste on the average American farm, particularly with the rise in tenancy, has been almost as conspicuous as the waste in the city and town. Valuable farm equipment has been allowed to rust in the field. When it finally fell to pieces, the answer was simply to buy another. County agents are now directing a metal-salvage campaign which should produce thousands of tons of steel from the heaps on which these rusted hulks were dumped. This is a form of waste we cannot conceivably continue during a total war. Farmers have been warned to order necessary replacement parts so that the implement industry can gauge its need for metal. Old machinery must be made to do for the duration.

Food conservation and food substitutes within the home can help toward winning the war. Dehydrated fruits and vegetables that can be bought in bulk will save on containers. While it has a poisonous sound because of its Nazi origin, the one-dish meal once a week is not really a bad idea. It is not that we lack essential foods, since there are still surpluses of wheat and corn, but men, machines, and energy are required to convert the raw material into human food. And to sit down to a simple dish once a week would give every household opportunity to contribute to the common cause by a small sacrifice. As a matter of fact, we owe to the defense drive of a year ago a definite dietary gain that followed from the addition of vitamin B1 to the white fluff which in recent times has passed for bread.


The critical metal shortages have brought drastic changes in the materials available for household equipment. High-pressure cookers for canning are no longer on the market, and housewives who were not foresighted will now have to borrow from their more fortunate neighbors. A better method is suggested by the Bureau of Home Economics in the Department of Agriculture, which has recently issued a handbook on Community Food Preservation Centres. This tells how existing supplies may be combined for the benefit of all.

Rugged individualists will discover their own ways to economy. We could easily forgo overheating our homes to seventy-five or eighty degrees and thereby, it is a safe guess, reduce the number of winter colds. If wire coat hangers are not saved for the metal collection, they must be returned to the cleaner, who is already experiencing difficulty in getting a sufficient stock. We are a highly ingenious people, and now that we have set our minds to this task innumerable economies will occur which will not actually lower America’s living standard. It is merely that for the period of the war we shall have to sacrifice the frills and the wasteful excesses.

Millions of Americans want to do more than that. They want to know how they can make a positive contribution. In any war, of course, the civilian must fortify himself with a large degree of patience. He must be prepared to accept the orders that come from above and do his share to the best of his ability. Through planning from the top it will be possible to achieve standardization of clothing and shoes which will mean tremendous savings. The pattern was set in 1918 by Bernard M. Baruch’s War Industries Board.


While thus far little more than a beginning has been made, we must expect to see standardization extended very rapidly. As was done in the fall of 1918, colors of shoes can be limited and the introduction of new lasts stopped. Shoes can be reduced to standard classes which the trade, as in 1918, can agree to sell at the prices stamped on each shoe. The savings here are obvious. In 1918 one tanner who had been turning out leather in eighty-one colors and shades was able to simplify his plant to produce only three colors and thereby was saved the necessity of carrying in stock raw hides and leather to the value of many thousands of dollars.

Similar savings can be effected in the clothing industry. A limitation on the length of sack coats and the length and sweep of overcoats, as was imposed in 1918, will mean a substantial reduction in the use of wool. An arbitrary cut in the number of models of suits each season will not only save wool yardage but will reduce the number of trunks carried by traveling salesmen. The standardization schedule for the women’s garment industry, adopted in the fall of 1918, was estimated to mean savings of 20 to 25 per cent in yardage. Standardization of colors, together with certain restrictions in styles of sweaters and other knitted articles, released 33 per cent of the wool in that industry.

At the end of this year we are likely to look different than we look today. Less glossy, perhaps; perhaps more comfortable. The last war did away with the old steel-ribbed corset. If the rubber shortage persists, its modern counterpart, the lastex girdle, may follow it into the discard. Hatmakers will of necessity find substitutes for wool felt. The economies of the average American family which wall go so far toward alleviating material shortages will also make it possible to buy defense bonds and pay the higher taxes that 1942 is certain to bring.

On each and every one of us will fall part of the responsibility for seeing that wartime restrictions work. Ours is a democratic, a voluntary, society. The rubber-rationing order is being carried out by local rationing committees. Other restrictions will be self-administered in thousands of American communities. Pull and influence have far less opportunity of operation among neighbors.

All this implies a drawing together of Americans in a common purpose. The trend of modem life has been to shatter us into lonely fragments, and now the war has reversed that trend. Under normal circumstances each man has been interested in his salary or his profit, and the slight bonds that have linked him to our society have been chiefly those with others with the same profit motive. Outside his company or his office, possibly, in older communities, his neighborhood, the world has ended and he has been a stranger with the only link the impersonal one of the newspaper or the radio. Now he must feel with a sense of welcome participation that he is part of something bigger, part of a tremendous common effort. This is the cement that welds our society together and it will be no less essential in the critical postwar adjustment, after victory and peace have come, than it is today in the midst of the most far-reaching conflict the world has ever seen.