4 Miracles Ahead! 



conventional materials led producers to turn to anything 

 promising in the way of substitutes." 



Procedures that no one in his right mind would have even 

 contemplated in peacetime were grimly tackled and made to 

 work. Radically new materials were employed for uses that 

 seemed, at first thought, utterly preposterous, as in the case 

 of plastics for bearings and for cartridge cases. Traditional 

 methods of assembly were swept aside for new ones. In some 

 plants the break with the past was so complete that anyone 

 visiting them in 1940 and then again in 1942 would imagine 

 that there had been a lapse of twenty years instead of two 

 between the visits. 



The roster of men who gave their last ounce of energy, wit, 

 and ingenuity to the task of making us ready for war is a long 

 one. It includes eminent scientists, engineers, and designers; 

 many brilliant youngsters who sprang out of nowhere during 

 the emergency and whose names are as yet unknown to us; 

 and also a large number of familiar prosaic business personali- 

 ties with whom we do not ordinarily associate heroic exploits. 

 Nevertheless this group of men comprises the list of front- 

 line heroes without whom the war could not have been prose- 

 cuted though the risks they assumed involved too many 

 sleepless nights and days and too many cups of black coffee 

 rather than bullets and shrapnel. The day-and-night thinking 

 and planning that went on in the designing rooms and labo- 

 ratories during this zero hour made possible the war-produc- 

 tion miracles we are witnessing today. 



New Resources for Peacetime 



The fantastic achievements of industry during the past 

 thirty months mean significant developments in the postwar 

 era. As strange as it may seem, considering the appalling drain 

 on our resources that war always entails, we will emerge 



