Conquer by the Clock (1943)

[Music] the clock on the wall on the seventh day of December 1941 it struck the eleventh hour every hour after that has been will be zero hour 48 united states of a free and sovereign America are at war every American has his job to do and the will to do it and the tools to do it with play God he also has the time time the most vital natural resource of a country at war every tick of the clock is time won or lost every 60 minutes sweep every 12 hour tour of our relentless hands is turning out carload lots of time for us to use ourselves or to give away to the enemy [Music] all the scientific devices of chronology our machines manufacturing time the tools that in our hands mean victory and our hands must be as we lent less at the hands of our clocks they cannot afford to be less [Music] sunrise over republic steel High Noon at Willow Run Sun fall on the electric both company midnight at the Brooklyn Navy Yard dawn to dusk and back to dawn again three eight-hour shifts one day so much can be done in a day of Americans will keep their sleeves rolled up inside of 24 hours one twentieth of a freighter or a tanker can be built within those same 24 hours a squadron of tanks can roll off the assembly line and a flight of bombers can be made ready from radio to rudder bolts in one day a thousand acres of corn can become 30,000 bushels of foods in one day one plant unit can turn out enough rifles to a clip of Italian of infantry the men who in one day might win a war or losing ow well let's visit upstate at a factory where they make 30 caliber rifle cartridges for the army let's visit Jean one of the girls who inspects these cartridges before their ship she's a good kid loves her country and the guy named Joe he gave her that pin she's wearing before he went to Australia she's a good kid honours intelligence but she gets tired in the afternoon sometimes like to take extra time off for a smoke that's all only a few minutes a few minutes it only takes a second to jar the primer out of a cartridge and it only takes a second to put an old ke ticket on a lot that should have been rejected a cartridge without a primer is one that will never fire it's about as youthful and a rifle as a cigarette or as the minutes that go up in its smoke one bad cartridge one chance in a million to get by undetected one second in sixty one girl out of a hundred who is an honors patriotic intelligence saboteurs [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes genius intelligent intelligent enough to know that one of these bullets in good condition can travel three miles but she doesn't know that a defective one can go halfway around the world somewhere in the Pacific somewhere between the devil and the Dutch East Indies is an American scouting patrol [Music] too bad about that cartridge missing fire it should have been rejected it would have been too if a girl named Jean hadn't taken time out to smoke now meet JG general manager of a large wholesale food house makes twelve thousand a year won a white-collar all his life that is except for the cocky one he wore nineteen eighteen trying to get in this scrap after Pearl Harbor but they said his son could handle the fighting orders and he could go on taking food orders like this fifty cases of fourteen a one that's cone for lifeboat provisions notify mokmou that means ship on Monday too old too old to fight for not too old to work yourself silly trying to get out orders and priorities on time time holy mackerel it's 2:30 I'll have to rice like old Harry to make it better tell Mabel where I'll be why bother it's Saturday that lifeboat stuff doesn't go out till Monday nothing can come up over the weekend besides I've got an important engagement with a couple of guys important engagement with a couple of guys a couple of guys on the home team well they are leading the league and it's his first Saturday off in four months and there's nothing that can't wait nine innings nothing that is except time and times and convoys a change in sailing orders and an urgent wire in Cole's lifeboat supplies to be shipped at once ship by a man was busy coaching at first base unfortunately a convoy can't wait for the last inning a convoy wait for the time and a tide wait for no man standing beside a lifeboat only partly provision six American Flyers sail for Ireland in convoy on a freighter that falls behind its escort it's an old story [Music] six men sailed for Ireland two of them got there one of them out of his mind the other one dead 25 days in a boat provision for ten days the tide rolls in jg and the clock ticks on and neither one in peace or war will wait for nine innings [Music] the state of North Australia is twenty three time zones away from the state of Michigan when the clock on the cockpit of a plane over Darwin and a watch on the wrist of the officer in New Guinea are synchronized with the clock at the door of the factory in Detroit and geared to the clock over the water cooler in Kalamazoo the production rate of our factories and the firing rate of our guns is synchronized by one machine the clock this is a machine that manufactures victory turning out thirty two and a half million second each year each separate tick a precious tool to use in building our future and you these are your tools your hands and they must be as relentless as the hands of your clocks if we are to conquer they cannot afford to be less my [Music] everybody [Music] Oh [Music] you know [Music]