WOMEN'S CLUB SPEECH ~ CONTINUED

cost many american lives. So our 240-millimeter howitzers -
they are culled the "Black Dragons" - were brought into action;
they shelled Fondi, the Germans retreat - those that were

left of them - and our infantry captured the town quickly and
with few casualties.

Later, @f enemy supply route west of Cassino needed
to be blocked. The job could have been done with infantry -
but at great cost. Instead, the Black Dragons shelled a sharp
corner in the narrow twisting mountain road, destroyed the road
itself and all German equipment that came along it.

In both of these causes, because our troops had plenty of
heavy guns and plenty of heavy ammuniticn for those guns, many
American lives were saved. :

That brings us te the reason for that meeting in the
Mayor's office. Unless the production of heavy gun ammunition
is increased, there will be a serious, dangerous shortage in a
few months. And unless 4 great many men and women who are now
doing other kinds cf work go to work in plants which make heavy
gun ammuniticn - plants like the Sunflower Ordnance Works at
Lawrence - thet preducticn cannot be increased.

Ladies this community has got to see to it that Sunflower
Ordnance Works gets its workers - we, as representatives of
this community, have got tc see to it. It. will nct be easy,
but we have been faced with other things that are not easy,
yet we have succeeded in doing them, and I am sure we will
not fall down this time. It will be a big job and a hard job,
with scme real preblems to sclve,.

First, there is the questicn of the danger invclved in
working in shell-loading and powder plants. There is no denying
that it is dangercus - but people forget, I think, that just
because it is recognized as dangerous, many unusual precautions
are taken, and many special safety devices are used,

. No one who works in powder plants, no one who even visits
them is allowed to wear anything or carry anything - not even
a compact or a lipstick, if they ure made of metal - which
might strike a spark. Much cf the work is done from behind
great ccncrete walls by mechanical means with the worker
operating muchines through small windows.

and the results of these precauticns are quite
surprising. Only cne industry has a better accident record
than our ammuniticn plants. That industry is the one which
makes women's clothes?

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