Wartime Industry Research Articles

Race, Jobs, and the War: The FEPC in the Midwest, 1941-46

This slim volume offers a modest defense of the work of the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC), the World War II federal agency charged with combating job discrimination in wartime industry. Despite its very real limitations, Andrew Edmund Kersten argues, the FEPC “influenced the course of civil rights reform” and became a “postwar model” for efforts to challenge employment discrimination. Established in 1941 by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and often dismissed by historians as ineffectual, between 1941 and 1945 the FEPC processed twelve thousand complaints of black (and, on occasion, Jewish and Asian American) defense workers who encountered racism at the employment office, in the workplace, and in union shops. Kersten aims for a synthesis of what he calls the “old” civil rights history of federal action and the “new” historiography of local activism. The first part of the book briefly traces the troubled bureaucratic history of the FEPC as the agency struggled for a foothold in the wartime state and sought to enhance its almost nonexistent enforcement powers. But Race, Jobs, and the War also examines the agency's fruitful relationships with grassroots organizations in midwestern cities, including CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) unions, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the Urban League, and local fair employment councils. In particular, Kersten suggests that where local civil rights initiatives already had support, as in Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit, the FEPC secured a modicum of equal employment opportunity for African Americans. But in other sections of the Midwest, the agency had much less success. Faced with intransigent unions, indifferent employers, and hostile communities, especially in small cities in southern Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, the FEPC failed to enact even its limited agenda of opening war jobs to black workers.

Women on Red Clydeside: The Invisible Workforce Debate

Introduction At the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, the west of Scotland was the industrial heartland of the nation, with Glasgow a key focus for the wartime industries, notably engineering, munitions production and ship building and thousands of women were drafted into the industrial labour force, in order to meet the production targets of wartime. However, despite the desperate need for female labour, women were not welcomed into heavy industry by male workers, or their trade unions, and the story of women’s wartime employment in this sector of pro duction is characterised by gender struggles over the issues of dilution, job security and wage levels. Indeed, such was the perceived threat of women’s employment in traditionally male trades that the west of Scotland, instead of being remembered as a key centre of munitions production, became infamous as a key centre of industrial unrest, out of which was born the notion of ‘Red Clydeside’.

Wartime Housing as Cultural Landscape: National Creation and Personal Creativity

Early in the 1940s, in response to a housing crisis compounded of lack of construction during the depression, rural to urban migration, and the relocation of labour to the burgeoning wartime industries, dockyards and military bases, the federal government assumed responsibility for the provision of worker housing throughout the country. Construction was initiated through the newly-created crown corporation Wartime Housing Ltd. After some 26,000 rental dwellings were built across the country, the program evolved into veterans' housing. A narrow range of designs (four basic plans) was employed, leading to a image of uniformity, conformity and repetition. A distinctive Canadian residential landscape was thus created, along with a common housing experience. As these dwellings were sold into private hands following the war, modifications were introduced which were integrated into the original simple designs. The appearance of the surviving wartime housing landscapes is nuanced by regional characteristics, but the character of the core units is often still apparent. Authority-based, rational, central planning, a feature of Canada's wartime effort, provided the country with a core stock of dwellings. In half a century a distinctive Canadian residential landscape has evolved from this, with diversity introduced as a result of individual taste, ability to pay, and local regulation.

The collapse of the German war economy, 1944-1945: Allied air power and the German National Railway

In this book Alfred Mierzejewski describes how the German economy collapsed under Allied bombing in the last year of World War II. He presents a broad-based, original study of German wartime industry and transportation, and of Allied air force planning and intelligence, including the first complete analysis in English of the German National Railway. The German industrial economy was extraordinarily dependent on the timely, adequate distribution of coal by railroad and inland waterway. The German National Railway in particular was the pivot of the finely balanced armaments production and distribution system created by Albert Speer. But Allied strategists did not immediately recognize this. Only in late 1944, when Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Sir Arthur Tedder built a new strategic consensus, was this vital coal/transport nexus severed. The result was the rapid paralysis of the Nazi war economy. Mierzejewski measures the economic consequences of the bombing by considering broad indices such as armaments and coal production, railway performance, and weapons deliveries to the armed forces. In addition, he shows how individual companies in each of Germany's major economic regions fared. By drawing on previously unexamined files of private German manufacturing companies, the Reich Transportation Ministry, and Allied air intelligence agencies, Mierzejewski creates a rare combination of economic analysis and military history that provides new perspectives on the German war economy and Allied air intelligence.

A Quantitative Study of Differentiated School Knowledge Transmission in Buffalo, 1918-1931

The 1920s were years of dramatic and kaleidoscopic events in an industrial city such as Buffalo, New York. This was a decade of mass migration of rural blacks from the South into the North; the continued immigration of southern and eastern Europeans, primarily from Italy and Poland; recession due to war-time industries winding down to peace-time production; and a rising xenophobia in the Red Scare, a fear of social revolution, and a general concern about eroding American values with increasing criminal activity among urban youth from foreign regions. Indeed, at the beginning of this decade, Poles in Buffalo numbered 31,406 or 25.8 percent of the city's foreign-born population. There were 16,511 Italians, comprising 13.5 percent of the foreign-born population. Athough blacks made up only 3.7 percent of the foreign-born population and only 0.89 percent of the city's total population, the 4,511 blacks in the city were in marked contrast to the 1,771 living there in 1910. As a result of this influx, the socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic composition of neighborhoods in the central city shifted from northern European nineteenth-century immigrant groups to later-arriving southern and eastern Europeans and southern blacks who were yet to assimilate into the normative patterns of that society. Teachers

A Progress of Postwar Studies on the Controlled Forestry and Wood Industry in War-time

A Progress of Postwar Studies on the Controlled Forestry and Wood Industry in War-time

Reports on German War-time Industry and Science

REPORTS of war-time scientific and industrial activities in Germany have been available to interested parties for some time. These reports were prepared by B.I.O.S. (British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee), its American counterpart, F.I.A.T. (Field Information Agency, Technical), and the combined Anglo-American Agency, C.I.O.S. (Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee) which preceded them. Actual investigations in Germany ceased at the end of June 1947. To date, 2,720 reports have been issued. It is stated that more than one million copies have been sold or distributed to the universities, learned societies, trade and research associations and principal public libraries of Britain. The Board of Trade has now arranged for experts in each of the major fields to prepare critical summaries suitable for publication. These reports will be known as "B.I.O.S. Overall Reports"and there will be fifty of them, all of which are expected to be printed by the end of June. The first, on the petroleum and synthetic oil industry of Germany, has been published ; the next six reports will be on shipbuilding and marine engineering, the German timber industry, the glass industry, the German road system, agriculture, and the rubber industry. All inquiries about these reports should be addressed directly to the Board of Trade, T.I.D.U., Research Section, 40 Cadogan Square, London, S.W.I.

German Food Industry in War-time

AN exhibition of photographs, drawings and specimens obtained in Germany by British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee investigating teams sponsored by the Ministry of Food will be on view in the Conference Hall, Portman Court, Portman Square, W.I, during October 15–29 each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Informal talks will be given in the exhibition at 3 p.m. on German soapless detergents (Mr. G. R. Perdue, British Launderers' Research Association);, developments in the German dairying industry (Mr. F. C. White, Ministry of Food); war-time production of food yeast in Germany (Mr. H. J. Bunker, Barclay Perkins and Co., Ltd.); food preservation and refrigeration in Germany (Dr. E. C. Bate–Smith, H Department of Scientific and Industrial Research).

The Future of Immigration into Canada

It may seem strange that I should write on immigration at a time when Canadians economically displaced during the course of the war have not yet been absorbed into gainful occupations. Comprising men and women released from the services, workers no longer required in war-time industries, and persons of Japanese race removed from the defence zone in British Columbia, these Canadians may themselves be considered as economically equivalent to waves of immigration. These waves are beyond our control but, in making our plans, it is important to know whether or not they will be followed by other waves. The answer to this question depends on Canadian policy, which can not only decide if there are to be other waves, but can determine both their size and their composition. If we postpone consideration of our immigration policy until our reconstruction policy has taken shape there is a serious danger of overlooking the importance of laying a sound foundation for the future development of Canada.If plans are to be made for the long run we must know if Canadian immigration policy is to be positive, negative, or neutral.It is possible for an immigration policy to take the form of exclusion and control the form of prohibition, but there are several reasons for thinking such an extreme policy unlikely except as a temporary expedient in an emergency. The first of these reasons is national prestige. Through the exertions of her people and through the fantastic fortunes of the recent war, Canada has won a position of great importance in the world. Without a very substantial increase in her own population it will be impossible for Canada to retain her relative importance when other nations of equal or greater population rebuild their shattered lives.

Application of Burden in Wartime Industries

With the advent of the defense and war effort the importance of factory burden and its application has increased many fold. The principal cause of this renewed interest stems from the fact that war conditions have naturally brought on many irregularities in the flow of finished products from industrial plants. Any interference with the orderliness of production, as is well known, brings with it attendant cost problems. This is especially true if the interference cannot be anticipated or if it comes in an unexpected manner. The burden element of cost is particularly susceptible to operating conditions. (It should be observed here that the term abnormal may refer to both above-normal and below-normal levels of output.) At best burden can only be approximated wherever a plant is producing more than one type of product-the familiar joint-product cost problem-and even in those comparatively rare cases where only one product is turned out many problems arise which often defy solution. The approximations as to burden, therefore, become even more tentative in character in years like the present when conditions are the rule rather than the exception. Yet appropriate cost figures are more needed and desired in times when events are not going smoothly than at any other period. The impasse thus created is one which has been the source of much speculation on the part of comptrollers and cost accountants in the past three years. It is the purpose of this paper to bring some of these wartime factory-burden problems into relief and to offer some tentative conclusions concerning the effect that war conditions will have on burden application. As a start it may be observed that many of the factory burden problems which are now before cost accountants are not new in the sense of their never having arisen before; they have plagued the alert industrialist on numerous occasions in the past. Even without war conditions, periods of sharp prosperity or recession wreak havoc with budget estimates, and tend to make more indefinite the ascertaining of the appropriate burden cost of production. A considerable number of the perplexing questions of today have always been puzzling. In fact, some of the basic undecided cost problems of wartime industry have been carried over from peacetime, while others came up in the First World War. The conversion of a country's productive facilities to military needs brings with it a host of disturbing cost factors. Some firms expand their output of both old and new products, while others are forced by circumstances often beyond their control to contract production to a considerable degree. Both of these situations give rise to equally bothersome burden-application matters. The present paper cannot be limited, therefore, merely to what may be called above-normal-output conditions, but will also treat subnormal operations in so far as space is available.

Postwar Industrial Health

THROUGH the stately monoliths of Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, came 500 executives, plant managers, physicians, hygieniste, chemists, lawyers, and engineers representing wartime industry to plan for postwar health at the Industrial Hygiene Foundation's ninth annual meeting November 5 and 16. Pausing in the midst of the greatest effort yet expended toward maintaining good health among industries' personnel, this closely cooperating group laid plans for its expanded contribution in placing the disabled veteran back at work, discussed medical and legal aspects of sickness indemnification, and explored opportunities for further medical, chemical, and engineering contributions in the postwar workers' health program. This meeting points with emphasis to the many ramifications of industry's health program, to the diversity of thought now concentrated in these efforts, and to the enormous interest of industrial management that has made possible present achievements. The Industrial Hygiene Foundation sprang from...

Inhalation Pneumonia from Nitric Fumes

Acute inhalation pneumonias caused by noxious fumes are increasing in frequency. With the complexity and volume of wartime industry, and indeed with wartime hazards themselves, the roentgen appearance of such pulmonary accidents assumes a special significance. The roentgen literature, however, contains few recent accounts of the findings. Many industrial gases are potentially dangerous. Of particular interest are the acute pulmonary changes resulting from the inhalation of nitric fumes, especially those produced by welding. While there are numerous gases and fumes arising in the welding arc or flame, most of the ill effects of inhalation have been ascribed wholly or in part to the oxides of nitrogen (1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25). Nitric fumes occur extensively in industry (9, 15), but unless the fumes are generated in confined, unventilated places, the concentration is not of sufficient degree to be toxic (2). From time to time, however, accidents do occur and there th...

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN WARTIME A Few Lessons from Events in Europe during 1914-24

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN WARTIME A Few Lessons from Events in Europe during 1914-24

Improved Hydraulic Presses for Wartime Requirements

Abstract This paper describes a new rapid-action self-contained hydraulic press developed for wartime industries in Canada. Since this mass-production press employs oil as the pressure medium, the power unit is of special interest. This the author deals with at some length. The operations for which the press is particularly adapted, namely, drawing, indenting, and loading cartridge cases, are described in some detail, as are also the methods of press control. A suitable hydraulagraph was developed for measuring pressure changes, and this instrument provides a permanent graphic record of tests on modern presses. The “one-shot” press and a 300-ton gun-straightening press are also discussed.

BRITISH RAW MATERIAL CONTROLS1

Introduction ONE of the principal instruments used during this war by the British Government for the diversion of factors of production to war purposes has been the direct control of the use of raw materials. In the case of nearly all raw materials the manufacturer must obtain a licence for their use from the appropriate Government Control, and in this way the manufacture of non-essentials can be prevented by the simple device of withholding the licence. The more general aspects, both practical and theoretical, of this technique of control of industry in war-time were discussed in an article by Mr. Ian Bowen and the present writer, entitled 'The Controls and War Finance'2 written in the summer of 1940, and an admirable article by two American writers3 has since been published in which the economic principles of control are treated in regard to one particular Control. In this issue of Oxford Economic Papers Mr. Hitch approaches the problem from the different angle of post-war reconstruction. In this paper, therefore, no attempt will be made to deal with principles of control, the more especially since there have been no notable changes in the technique of control since the two earlier articles mentioned above were written. On the other hand, the area of control has extended rapidly as the war has proceeded. In September 1939 there were about twenty industrial commodities under control: at present (October 1941) there are over sixty. The scope of control also has extended beyond the raw material stage to the later stages of production, e.g. the supplies to the home civilian market of certain manufactures embodying controlled materials have been curtailed by Government Orders. The object of this paper is to describe in some detail the development of control in the case of six materials. In the Appendix to the article 'The Controls and War Finance' the account of five Controls-Iron and 1 MLy thanks are due to Mr. N. H. Leyland for valuable help in the compilation of material for much of this paper, to M~r. S. C. Hood for the note on the Jute Control and to Mr. C. J. Hitch for his careful study of the manuscript and the elimination of many errors. 2 Oxford Economic Papers, No. 4, September 1940. 3 'British War-time Control of Copper, Lead and Zinc', by Jules Backman and Leo I'ishinan, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1941. 4520.6 B

Regional Aspects of World Recovery

demobilizing mechanized forces and huge wartime industries. .Demobilizing men and machines, however difficult that may prove, is not likely to be as complex as demobilizing the ideas, concepts, and theories which led to these present wars. Recovery in these days of rapid transport and communication is bound to be a matter of world-wide dimension. It will affect all or nearly all of the two billion inhabitants of the earth. In simplest terms, world recovery should mean a recovery by all people of the opportunity to make a living, and, it is to be hoped, of an upward rather than a downward trend in the standard of living. This combination of widespread employment and a rising standard of living characterized many parts of the world in the period from 1870 to 1914. As we shall see presently, it was associated with the development of modern transport and with ideas which governed the use of transport facilities. Making a living and the standards of living are everyday matters of work and play. The conditions which govern them, however, are dynamic in that they are always changing in short-term circumstances and in long-term trends. Such circumstances and trends in part are local in character, but they also have both national and international qualities. In terms of regions, these conditions under which the game of daily life is played are both intraregional and interregional. Thus recovery in one section of the world is bound to be affected by conditions in other sections. Full recovery implies the establishment of a world order which promotes, rather than retards, the everyday welfare of the w rld's people.

WAR‐TIME INDUSTRY AND FATIGUE

Medical Journal of AustraliaVolume 1, Issue 16 p. 485-486 Leading Article WAR-TIME INDUSTRY AND FATIGUE First published: 01 April 1941 https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1941.tb108490.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume1, Issue16April 1941Pages 485-486 RelatedInformation

The Food Industry in War-time

IN a lecture at the Royal Institution on May 21 in the series “The Nation's Larder”, Dr. L. H. Lampitt, director and chief chemist of Messrs. J. Lyons and Co., Ltd., discussed “The Manufacture, Preservation and Distribution of Food”. The food industry occupies a position between that of catering by households and catering of the canteen type. The economy to be effected by mass production is obvious because wastage is reduced to a minimum; all waste products are taken and so treated that they have an economic value, labour is reduced and-a very important point-the amount of fuel consumed is considerably less. A striking example is in the baking of cakes. An ordinary gas cooker as operated by a housewife consumes approximately 10 cub. ft. of gas for each lb. of cooked weight of cakes, assuming the housewife was making 4-5 lb. of mixed cakes. In the case of a travelling oven, producing thousands of cakes an hour, the consumption of gas for each lb. of cooked weight is about 1J cub. ft. In the realm of the homely potato, the average housewife loses approximately 22 per cent in peeling and eyeing. In mass treatment, where peeling is carried out by mechanical means, the loss is only 11 per cent.

The Building Industry in War-Time

The Building Industry in War-Time

The British Synthetic Colour Industry in War Time

THE lecture delivered to the Society pf Arts by Mr. C. M. Whitaker in December last merits a more than passing notice as illustrating the, difficulties in the way of British dye producers during the war period and the manner in which a commendable degree of success has been obtained in coping with the dye shortage. It deserves to be more generally known that even before the war British firms were already opposing a resolute front to German competition. These firms not only issued pattern-cards and circulars comparable in style with those sent out by their foreign rivals, but they also dealt with the difficulty of language by printing these manuals of instruction in the pr1ncipal European tongues. Even in 1906 these instructions had been furnished by the pioneer firm of Read Holliday and Sons, Ltd., in all these languages, Lnd also in Japanese. Very early in the development of the colour industry this firm had acquired the Schutzenberger and Lalande patent for dyeing indigo by the modern scientific process with hydrosuiphite, and even to-day the older dyers sometimes refer to this method of indigo dyeing as the “Hcslliday” vat.