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DETROIT

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( For the boys in the 1942 K. U. basketball squad. }

Detroit is the fourth city in the U.S. Pop. approx 2 million. In the last
year and a half over 360,000 has been added to its population . War workers.
Think of that in terms of a tow the size of Lawrence. I don't know where
they have put them. The city is approximately 30 miles long and ten miles
wide. It stretches along the Detroit river, which is not a river as you
ordinarily think of one, but the connecting link between Lk. St. Claire
and Lake Erie. More traffic passes thru that river than thru Suez and
Panama combined in peace times. Mostly ore boats. Detroit, before the
advent of the auto was just a nice rewidential town . It is still just

a small town, a collection of suburbs. It is not metropolitan ath all

like Chicago or N.Y. or Phila. We have no subways, residents do not
commute by train to the suburbs and the papers print local news on the
front page. Detroit is just an overgrown village with many square miles

of small houses ang that is one reason I like to lave here.

You think of Detroit as the auto city. That is true. It is the heart and
soul of the automobile industry. So much so that the chief purchasing
agent of Nash ( located in Kenosha, Wis. ) has his office in Detroit. Yet
most cars are made outside the city limits. The Ford is made in Dearborn,
Chevrolet im Flint, Pontiac in Pontiac. Buick in Flint, Olds in Lansing.
In Detroit proper is Plymouth, Chrysler, Packard and Hudson and Cadillac.
Dodge also ( Hamtramyk). These other towns are close to Detroit. People
in Detroit buy Ford, GM. or Chrysler cars ajmost exclusively as all of
us are dependdnt on the indystry for our living. You see few Studebaker
or Nash cars in Detroit. Yet in spite of all these names Detroit is a
one man town. It is a Ford town. When Ford changed ower from Model’ T to
model" A” he did not know how to mke model changes as the others did and
he closed his plant for a year. ( About 1927 ). A depression hit Detroit
till he started again. In order to keep his plans secret he had most of
the dies made in the Bast, Many came from Germany. People here can tell
you Ford stories by the hour. The Michigan Manyfacturers Record refers to
him as the Master af Dearborn. Few realize out side Detroit that he is
smarter as a business and financial man than as a mechanic. He has put
Wall St, in its place and everybody else for that mtter.

The mest interesting place to see in Detroit is Gpeenfield Village, Ford's
hobby. It is closed for the duration, so I understand. Next I would place
the Ford Rouge plant. We do have gome big buildaéngs down town and night
clubs and some exclusive residential districts. They are the same in every
city. You have heard a lot about the Ford bomber plant at Willow Run. Its
production has been a dissapoitment to both Detroit and Washington.They
have been making parts for some time but completed bombers are just
beginning to come off the line. When finally rolling as planned they hope
to produce one four motored bomber an hous with one third the man hours
per plane as now goes into the same plane being made elsewhere. But it

has been a vast project and the number of dies, jigs and fixtures req'd
has been enormouse These have mostly allbeen made in Detroit which has

a die, jig and tool industry as an accessory to the motor industry, the
foremost in the country.

I think of Detroit as the greatest industrial center in the world. Perhaps
the value of produts made in and about Chicago and some other centers
mag be greater if you count their sweat shops but there is this about

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