Washington Evening Star
“All America Must Pull Together, Lecturer Warns”
Birmingham News
As the Christmas season grew closer, over 800,000 furloughs had been granted to America’s fighting men, all of whom now would have to find a way home. A flight on Delta Airlines from Birmingham to Dallas was $32.1 On American Airlines, a round trip flight between New York and Washington was $21.90.2 These were considerable sums at the time, so for most men traveling commercial air was out of the question.
What about the train? Because of Washington bungling and unpredicted requisitions by the military, there was a shortage of railroad passenger cars. And the ride in some locales would be inhospitable. In New York, for instance, the Board of Transportation was to begin enforcing regulations prohibiting “smoking or spitting in stations, platforms and cars.”3 With no planes and few trains, soldiers had to either fight for a seat on a Greyhound Bus or depend upon the generosity of private citizens with automobiles.
Because of regulations, military personnel were prohibited from hitchhiking. A campaign in the Golden State was organized by the California Automobile Association to help soldiers and sailors avoid trouble. Motorists who volunteered could place on their windshield a sticker issued by the group that would tell young men in uniform that the driver was participating in the “Give Them a Lift” effort.4
Travel was on the mind of many. On the West Coast, residents of four counties in California and one in Oregon attempted to create the forty-ninth state of “Jefferson.”5 They were apparently upset about poor thoroughfare conditions and declared they wanted to secede “only on Thursdays to impress on their present States the seriousness of their petitions for improved roads and aid in development of resources.”6 Armed civilians stopped cars passing through their counties to hand them pamphlets.
Fortunately, the cars forced to sit and idle had plenty of gasoline, as did all Americans. This was true even though use was up sharply—11 percent—over the previous years, despite the admonitions by the government for Americans to use less. Total gas consumption for 1941 was projected to rise by 2.5 billion gallons from the previous year. But there were also, according to estimates, 2.5 million more cars on the road.7
The Traffic Subcommittee of the U.S. House released a report on the state of automobile traffic in Washington. The document said in no uncertain terms that “making recommendations for relief of the traffic problem in Washington properly emphasizes the need for long-range remedies rather than temporary palliatives if there is to be any reasonably permanent and effective cure of the city’s parking and traffic ills.”8 The immediate construction of a subway was discussed as a cure.
Police in Kansas City were concerned with more mundane questions. They assembled a group of fifteen drivers and plied them with shots of whiskey each half hour “to determine at what stage of drunkenness a driver is at his worst.” Of the fifteen, “one dropped out after a phone call to his wife, one fell asleep, three appeared still sober after seven drinks.” Another complained he was a Scotch, not a bourbon drinker. “Most of the men lost their driving judgment. But one improved for a time. His explanation: he was so nervous from being around cops that the liquor steadied him.” Having reached no definite conclusions, the police packed the more or less drunk men into squad cars and drove them home.9
Worried about inflation settling in the auto industry, the Office of Price Administration fired a shot across the hood of auto manufacturers by announcing it would set a ceiling price on the cost of new cars. Said the head of the automobile section of the OPA, Cyrus McCormick, “The Government had the power to regiment the automobile industry to the nth degree.”10 Despite expressing personal concerns about such actions, his division went ahead with a complicated formula to regulate costs and production in Detroit that was even stricter than had been previously imposed.
Americans were keen on avoiding war and were for the most part unaware that it was coming their way. In the Philippines—relatively close to Indochina where hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops were amassing—the Army Air Corps fighter planes under Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s command were still lined up wingtip to wingtip at Clark Field. It was the same at Hickam Field in Honolulu, where hundreds of army and navy planes were also lined up in such a tight fashion.
Gen. Walter Short, in command of the army garrison in the Hawaiian Islands, was more worried about saboteurs than about aerial bombardment. Sabotage is derived from sabo, the French word for shoe. In an earlier era, when French factory workers were unhappy with their working conditions, they threw their shoes into the machinery. Short was more concerned about the thousands of Japanese workers on the Islands throwing something at the military planes there on the ground than something hurling at them from the air.11
Also lined up—neat as you please—along “Battleship Row” in Pearl Harbor were American battleships, considered by most of the brass as the backbone of the navy. Battleships since the time of Stephen Decatur and John Paul Jones had borne the brunt of battles on the high seas. Most of the admirals in December 1941 were elderly men who viewed aircraft carriers as a passing fancy and not an important part of their operations. Serious navy men put their faith in battlewagons and not flattops.
Even so, Congress approved an additional $7 billion for new tanks, armaments, and other munitions, but the outlays would go to help Russia, China, and Britain.12 Helping to foot the bill was the ever-present American taxpayer, purchasing Defense Stamps13 from the government that could later be cashed in with interest.
The War Department and Washington were at the time teeming with corruption. Senator Harry Truman of Missouri, himself a product of the corrupt Tom Pendergast political machine in that state, was heading an investigation into the waste and fraud in the defense industry. Truman chaired an investigation of corporate suppliers to the U.S. military, spotlighting war profiteering and shoddy materials. His relentless inquiry ruffled feathers, but he didn’t care, exposing one dirty and corrupt project after another. One construction venture for the army was supposed to cost $20 million, but five months later, cost overruns had shot the price tag up to $51 million. Dozens of contractors, including Ferguson-Oman and Taylor-Hale, overbilled and under-delivered, costing the taxpayer untold millions. The government was paying rent on equipment that wasn’t worth the cost of the rental charge; other equipment was rented to the government and then hidden. It went on and on and on. One witness testified before the Truman Commission, “It seems to me all Ferguson-Oman officials and employees are organized to cost the Government every dollar they can.”14 As a result, Congress tightened military contracting practices.
Two other congressional committees were investigating a magazine that purported to have close ties to the Democratic Party and thus was strong-arming defense contractors into purchasing ads in the Democratic National Press. One knowledgeable source said their methods “would make Al Capone blush with envy.”15 It later turned out the publication had nothing to do with the party.
Yet another congressional investigation uncovered an apparently penniless man who somehow received a $200,000 defense contract for unspecified purposes and was using the money to entertain politicians and defense contractors in Washington at “championship prize fights.”
“Investigators . . . have dug up considerable information about ‘middle men,’ ‘brokers,’ and ‘go-betweens’ who have neither manufacturing facilities . . . nor any legitimate connection with Government agencies. Yet they are said to haunt Washington hotels and ante-rooms in large numbers, seeking commissions on the basis of their alleged influence.”16
Public monies were also appropriated for tens of thousands of houses on growing military bases, courtesy of the Public Buildings Administration. Thoughtfully, the PBA also hired a consultant for interior decorating, Miss Gladys Miller, but it wasn’t made clear if she would personally redecorate every one of the forty thousand houses in the works. “She recommended . . . the purchase of furniture to sc
ale with the rooms . . . gay, vivid colors to lend a cheery note; elimination of unnecessary objects.” In addition to being paid by the U.S. taxpayer for her sage advice on paints, furniture, and spacing, she was also conveniently on the staff at New York University.17
The NFL title game was set for December 21, between the New York Giants and either the Green Bay Packers or the Chicago Bears, who still had one game left to play and were tied for the Western division championship. Depending on the winner, the game would be held either in Green Bay or the Windy City because of their superior records.18 The American Professional Football League was considering expanding in order to compete with the National Football League. Washington could have used a new franchise after a dismal loss, which marked their worst record since 1935. They were scheduled to get a second pro team, which many thought the city needed given the sad sack Redskins, often derided as the “Deadskins”.19
In Manhattan, Tommy Manville, age forty-seven, a scion of the twenties era of “Wonderful Nonsense,” professional inheritor, and reminder of why so many hated the rich, took a wife—his fifth—Bonita Francine Edwards, twenty-two, heiress to a Chicago lumber fortune. Meeting only four days before their betrothal, Manville said, “[L]ong engagements may be out of style,” and Edwards confessed, “I’m not in love with Tommy—I’m just infatuated. I hope to fall in love with him after a while.”20 F. Scott Fitzgerald was right about the rich, and Manhattan was still ruled by the Vanderbilts, Warburgs, and Astors, for whom the rules seldom applied because the rich were different—or at least always assumed as much about themselves.
On the other side of the rules spectrum, the first inductee under the new Selective Service act, buck private John Edward Lawton, said after a year as a dogface, “Army life is alright . . . but I don’t think I’m exactly cut out for it.”21 Senator Henry Cabot Lodge told Republicans in Massachusetts that the United States needed a standing army of no less than 750,000 men, but if the country went to war, it might need on the order of 5 million men in uniform.22
At Jordan Marsh, a high-end department store in Boston, women’s shoes were going for $7.50.23 Customers looking for something a bit more affordable could turn to R.H. White’s “bargain basement” where they could be purchased for $1.95.24 Stockings at Jordan Marsh went for $1.15 a pair—the “philmy” kind—but “conditions may soon mean that silk top-to-toe stockings will be a luxury-memory.”25 “Health girdles” were squeezing American women for $7.00 apiece at Conrad’s store in Boston.26 In Washington, another expensive department store, Woodward & Lothrop, was touting men’s dinner jackets for $75 for the “holiday season.”27
The Office of Price Administration called on consumers to limit the wrapping on Christmas packaging. The call was issued by Lessing J. Rosenwald, director of the OPM’s Industrial Conservation Bureau.28
But in her press conference, Eleanor Roosevelt suggested that Americans not be “too practical” in their gift buying. Gifts, she said, “should include those traditionally dispensed by Santa Claus.” Mrs. Roosevelt revealed that the White House Christmas tree in the East Room would be “all white . . . and the White House will be decked out in holly, mistletoe and poinsettias. There’ll be presents for the White House staff. . . . Just as on eight other Christmas Eves, the President and Mrs. Roosevelt will hang up their stockings at the big mantle in the chief executive’s bedroom. There will be a sock, too, for Fala, just as there was last year when the President’s Scottie got his first rubber bone.” She told the reporters all of her shopping was nearly done.29
A delegation of Washington State Indians went to Washington to complain about government regulations that prevented them from purchasing liquor. A headline in the Washington Post read, “Indians Here to Demand Fire Water.”30
William Henry Murray, a philosopher of sorts known as “Wild Bill,” advised city folk to burn their paper money, “move to the country, can fruit and vegetables, and bury them in the ground to ‘have something to eat when the trouble comes.’”31
Meanwhile, actress Tallulah Bankhead was hospitalized with the flu in Philadelphia, but it was reported that she was “much better after a day in an oxygen tent.” Actor John Barrymore was also hospitalized, reportedly for an intestinal flu.32 Though not reported, it was known they both drank deeply from the wrong bottle and often, although Bankhead’s tastes sometimes ran more to cocaine and other drugs. She once quipped about cocaine not being habit forming—“I ought to know, I’ve been using it for years.”33 Her father, William Brockman Bankhead, had been Speaker of the U.S. House from 1936 to 1940 until his untimely death, and she was frequently in Washington, partying from Anacostia to Bethesda, shocking women and delighting men.
In California, the first of the paper drives was announced, as there was a shortage of wood pulp in the country according to the government. The Boy Scouts and the Salvation Army joined forces to collect old paper.
Federal taxes were scheduled to rise in 1942, but so too were many state and local taxes. For some in the higher brackets, they would only get one seventh of any raise while the Federal government would take the other six-sevenths.34
FDR officially signed legislation repealing portions of the Neutrality Act while also calling for the passage of legislation that curtailed strikes by unions in war-related industries.35 But almost anything could fall under that designation, from agriculture to steel to newspapers. Yet another strike was threatened, this one by railroad workers. A deadline by the railroad union was set for December 7.
Meanwhile, a Japanese “expert” on America offered his assessment to his government on why America would be no competition for them in a war. “The national debt, a ‘spoiled child’ mentality, low national morale at the first defeat [Robert] Taft, [Gerald] Nye and [Charles] Lindberg will lead a revolt, Roosevelt is a ‘buffoon,’ hesitancy, Americans excite easily and cool easily, disunity—with 20,000,000 Negroes, 10,000,000 unemployed, 5,000,000 trade unionists, inflation.”36 Taft, Nye, and Lindberg were all leaders in the isolationist movement.
Many headlines referred to “Japs” or “Nips” (for “Nipponese”), and virtually every political cartoon of the era depicted the Japanese in the worst possible racial stereotype: short, squinty eyes, large glasses, buck teeth, in a menacing military uniform.
America and Great Britain considered and finally—after much haggling over fishing rights, fish oil, and wheat—aided Iceland under Lend-Lease, and troops from both countries were sent there, “all with a healthy taste for blondes.” Iceland was the oldest democracy in the world, with a Parliament dating over one thousand years, the Althing. Despite rampant inflation, the Icelandic government “rejected price control-plans as smacking of State Socialism.”37
While not the case in Iceland, America’s and England’s economies were heavily regulated and rationed. A black market thrived in the midst of the rationing, and in Britain a person could get everything from eggs, perfume, and lipstick to fruits, silk stockings, and clothes. Politicians’ wives seemed to have no difficulty purchasing consumer items, including fur coats. Silk stockings were highly prized. Oranges—supposedly only for children—were consumed by all. With paper in short supply, the government ordered a “no-wrapping” rule, but this simply made it easier for thieves to identify what they wanted to steal. Shoplifting was rampant. False identity cards were sold by the thousands, allowing British subjects to register at multiple stores in order to purchase double or triple their allowed quotas of milk and other food stuffs.38 The British experiment at managing the economy was an incomplete success.
Still, the Brits were facing the war, depravations, and bombings with a very proper stiff upper lip. The Royal Air Force had considered the stress young pilots must being going through before, during the Battle of Britain and after, and set up psychiatric hospitals and counseling centers for the flyers, but no one partook. The facilities stood idle and were eventually converted to other uses. Understandably, one British pilot who crashed six times “went berserk.”39
A British psychiatrist said that the lower classes handled stress better than the upper classes, as did children even more so than before the war and those who did exhibit psychiatric problems were from broken homes and were not suffering as a result of the bombings. They even took to playing “air-raid games.” Women too showed less signs of neuroses than before the war, it was felt, because the war gave them a new set of priorities and “pivotal values.” “In London department stores, during heavy bombardment, the absence rate was lower than before.”40
The American economy—especially outside of the industrial effort to support Great Britain and Russia—continued to suffer, and government agencies were created to help the small businessman. A premium was placed on advertising, as with the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, which offered “sterilized glasses in your bathroom” and the loan of “pajamas . . . a typewriter,” or a “non allergic pillow!” The ads were specifically targeted to businessmen traveling for the war effort, and a single room went for $3.85 per night and $5.50 per night for two. “The lobby, public rooms and restaurants are gay with new decorations.” Glenn Miller was performing in the hotel’s club room.41
The economy of the South was showing improvement as demand for cotton for military uniforms had jacked up the cost sky high. The price had reached a twelve-year peak, and farm income across the South was up substantially since the advent of Lend-Lease in early 1941.
On Capitol Hill, the House passed legislation regulating the importation of sugar from outside the country, while favoring and expanding quotas for domestic cane and beet sugar growers. The State Department opposed the action, seeing it as antagonistic toward potential war allies, but the Department of Agriculture supported it, seeing it as favoring domestic allies.42
For some there was no Great Depression. The Andrews Sisters—LaVerne, Patty, and Maxine—sold their eight-millionth record, for which Decca Records paid them the princessly sum of 2 cents per. They were harmoniously making on average $5,000 per week, before taxes.43
December 1941 Page 4