The Machine Tool Show held in Chicago last month represented the height of American mechanical ingenuity.
The huge attendance was an unprecedented demonstration of the enthusiasm of thousands of production men from every State in the Union and many foreign countries. More than 175,000 visitors registered to see this exposition; an average of 20,000 a day swarmed through the gates of the gigantic plant in which it was housed.
An exhibit of this kind, which took months of planning and preparation, reflects the confidence of American manufacturers in the future of this country and our own economic system. Practically every machine tool builder and distributor exhibiting in the show sent his most talented technical men; and the machine- tool users, representing the top in industry, were accompanied by their most able production men. Many of these production men had collaborated in the development of the mechanical miracle-producers. It was literally an informal meeting of the best mass production minds in the country in a giant experimental laboratory.
During the war, the American machine tool industry set the pace for the rest of the world in producing the machines to make the tools of war. Today this same industry is setting the pace to lower production costs on the goods Americans view as necessities. And the development and distribution of metal-working machinery has made luxuries into everyday necessities for the American people, while automobiles and mechanical labor saving devices and electrical household appliances are known only to a select few in foreign countries.
This demonstration of American genius, operating under the free enterprise system, should set an example for the rest of the world, particularly those advocates of a controlled economy.
This same free enterprise system made it possible for the thousands of visitors, to travel hundreds and even thousands of miles in a matter of hours or a couple of days at most, to see in actual operation the finest collection of mechanical devices ever exhibited under one roof.
Our hats are off to the machine tool industry for capably managing and presenting a show that fired the imagination of every visitor with the tremendous possibilities for the future of the good old U.S.A.
