No More Fiddling

John H. Swisher & Son, Inc., big Jacksonville, Fla. cigar manufacturer, recently took a good look at the well-equipped machine shop, part of their highly mechanized plant, and their complacency exploded. Previously, they had thought they were doing pretty well by chipping in thousands of dollars in tobacco taxes, and buying defense bonds to fight the war.

But that machine shop could turn out war materials. It could do 2,000 man-hours a day. Nearly 100 skilled machinists and mechanics were ready to get busy on fighting goods.

The Swishers wrote an ad: “Let’s Stop this ‘Fiddling While Rome Burns.’ ” In it they accused Government, management, labor, themselves of just fiddling around. They demanded a “mighty chorus of national sacrifice, production and unity.” And they proclaimed that they wanted a job of war work, would take no profits.

That was Monday. The ad was published as a full-page spread in newspapers throughout the country. On Saturday, out of an airplane stepped Henry E. Brunhoff, Cincinnati manufacturer of metal products, busy on war work. Swisher and Brunhoff put their heads together over blueprints of metal-stamping dies. Now they are at work.