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Old 10-10-2020, 10:19 AM   #21
rotorwrench
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Normally, a government take over of a country's industry would have a terrible affect on the whole country but in the case of WWII it was necessary to partnership with industry that was just shy of a complete take over. They would only take over a company if the ownership refused to partner with the Fed. This was rare if it happened much at all. The people of the US rallied together in a way that they never had before. Most of the money to build new manufacturing facilities and restructure existing facilities was payed for by the Fed in the form of bond drives. Properties, both new and used, were sold to the Fed for cost and most of the development was done by industry itself since they knew a lot more about it then the Fed ever could. To show any form a profiteering would have gone badly for any company that was even accused of doing so.

This was a very unique part of American history that I for one, sincerely hope we never have to do again. It was the only way to get such a massive job done in such a short period of time. Production records were broken that will likely remain for at least a very long time. That depends on how large the population of the earth gets in the next couple of centuries.
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Old 10-10-2020, 11:53 AM   #22
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

As kid during the war I remember scrap drives. One remains in my mind in
Idaho. In a pile of stuff was a shiny Gatling gun. "I often wonder what they made out of it
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Old 10-10-2020, 02:15 PM   #23
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

E470C9ED-4FF8-4C15-A85A-4CD3D45875E8.jpg

Remember taking a guided tour of the John Deere facilities in Moline, IL and was shown this deer statue made of copper. It was in the Deere family since 1900 and the story was that during WWII the family donated it to the war effort scrap drive. Some of the JD employees then hid the statue by walling it up until after the war and then gave it back to the family later. True or BS story from a tour guide, I don’t know....
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Old 10-12-2020, 02:15 AM   #24
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Turns out there was a multi-state "National Jalopy Campaign" specifically targeting old cars for scrap. It was run by the American Legion. Here's what appears to be a separate ad campaign run by a local organizing committee.

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Old 10-12-2020, 02:24 AM   #25
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Here's an article about the American Legion program from a Kansas newspaper around Thanksgiving, 1942.
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Old 10-12-2020, 10:56 AM   #26
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

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Remember taking a guided tour of the John Deere facilities in Moline, IL and was shown this deer statue made of copper. It was in the Deere family since 1900 and the story was that during WWII the family donated it to the war effort scrap drive. Some of the JD employees then hid the statue by walling it up until after the war and then gave it back to the family later. True or BS story from a tour guide, I don’t know....
it's a true story, I retired from Deere and the older guys used to talk about that

Deere recruited from within the ranks and formed the John Deere Battalion during WWII. They were machinists and repairmen and went to the ETO to repair all sorts of weapons and vehicles that were drug back off of the battlefields. A guy that lived up the street from me was in that outfit and he told me the worst part was washing out the blood and body parts of Sherman tanks that had been shot up in battle, and fixing them back up to get them into service. It took a strong stomach he said. He also told me he felt sorry for the poor guys that had to ride that Sherman tank into battle against the German tanks. They were no match at all.

Back to Model A Fords.......... if they hadn't been such well built cars like they were many many more would have been scrapped but a lot of them were still running and being used. I'd say Chrysler and GM cars and trucks made up most of the scrap drives along with extremely worn out Model T's. When Model A came out, Model T was really pretty obsoleted. How would you like to have been the guy that finally caved in in 1927 and bought a new Model T Ford, than later saw the 1928 Ford Model A's and think wow I sure wish I would have waited another year Model A was a lot better car in my opinion than Model T ever was.
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Old 01-14-2021, 03:36 PM   #27
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Speedway motors has a vintage racer that survived by a clever farmer safely covering it with corncobs in a corner of his barn, apparently to many knew it was idled for some time & felt it should be used for the war effort....good thinking & farm logic at work !

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Old 01-14-2021, 04:10 PM   #28
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Wonder if they could have gotten people to wear face masks in those days, or would that have been a bridge too far?
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Old 01-14-2021, 05:24 PM   #29
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

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Wonder if they could have gotten people to wear face masks in those days, or would that have been a bridge too far?
IMO, people in those days knew that what had to be done had to be done. I think they would have worn them without question.
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Old 01-14-2021, 05:34 PM   #30
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Tank turrets were cast,early defense against shaped charges use mattress springs.American Sherman's were known as "ronsons" they lit the first time,every time..American tankers were led to believe they had the best tank in the world..till they saw a Tiger..pound for pound,the best tank was the Russian T34..simple,robust..the operators tool kit came with a hand held sledge to assist shifting the transmission
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Old 01-14-2021, 08:35 PM   #31
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Maybe the soap industry was worried people would keep their grease and make their own soap, a fairly easy process.
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Old 01-14-2021, 08:48 PM   #32
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

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Maybe the soap industry was worried people would keep their grease and make their own soap, a fairly easy process.
There's evidence from industry memos that they were mostly concerned that, if soap were to be rationed, people would realize they didn't need as much soap as they'd been buying before the war. By creating a program to donate cooking fats "for the troops," the soap industry actually guaranteed itself a supply of free raw materials. This allowed them to continue producing more than enough soap to meet demand - thus soap was never rationed during the war.

The soap campaign was probably the most illusory of all the recycling drives; almost none of the material collected went "to the war" in any meaningful sense, nor did it, e.g., allow the industry to direct any output to the war effort.
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Old 01-15-2021, 10:46 AM   #33
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

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There was a similar thing with the cooking fat drives. The public perception was that the cooking fat was needed for glycerin to make ammo, but in fact the gov't had no trouble sourcing enough glycerin. Rockoff writes:
"Munitions makers operating on cost-plus contracts with the government could easily outbid rivals for what they needed. Rather, the fat salvage drive was undertaken for the soap makers who organized and financed the drive. Soap production was high during the war by prewar standards, and fat supplies were also relatively abundant, especially later in the war. By January of 1944, lard was so abundant that the government was having storage difficulties. But price controls meant that there was excess demand for soap. Early in the war (organizational meetings for the fat salvage campaign began in April 1942), soap makers feared that if soap were rationed, some of the consumers forced to cut their use of soap during the war would learn that they could do with less. Rationing, in other words, would spoil postwar markets. As far as the soap producers were concerned, anything that would avoid the need to ration soap was worth doing."

The fact that all these drives were "public-private partnerships," with the affected industry absorbing a lot of the publicity costs, gives you a different sense of whose interests were being served.

I'm told that stores used to post signs like "Ladies, bring in your fat cans on Fridays" in their windows. Used to cause a chuckle now and then.
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Old 01-15-2021, 06:28 PM   #34
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

Probably one of the most infamous examples of abuse in the WW2 scrap drive was the Spanish American War battleship "Oregon" which was a war memorial in Portland. It was taken for scrap, not scrapped (superstructure was removed) and used as a barge until after the war, when it was finally sold to Japan for scrap!
Also, lots of underused railroad lines were pulled up for scrap. Lots of neat historic stuff was destroyed besides cars.
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Old 01-16-2021, 05:54 AM   #35
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

very interesting thread. lots of knowledge to be learned.


I would agree that the drive was 50% for moral.
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Old 01-16-2021, 09:31 PM   #36
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

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ballyhoo? please explain.


I think "propaganda" would also fit.
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Old 01-16-2021, 09:47 PM   #37
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

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Wonder if they could have gotten people to wear face masks in those days, or would that have been a bridge too far?

I've read that during the Spanish Flu pandemic, San Fransisco required people to wear masks, and most did so. Later, when the flu hit hard a second time, some people began to resist. Kinda like people today?



Back to the subject, concrete ships were built during WWII as a result of steel shortages.
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Old 01-16-2021, 09:52 PM   #38
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Wonder if they could have gotten people to wear face masks in those days, or would that have been a bridge too far?

Look at pictures from the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920 and notice people wearing masks (and quarantining). People were smarter back then!
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Old 01-17-2021, 08:44 AM   #39
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

The scrap drives for WW2 were necessary, but Lady Bird Johnson's scrap drive to close down scrap yards was not necessary.
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Old 01-17-2021, 07:55 PM   #40
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Default Re: Scrap Drives May Have Trashed Cars, But Were the Drives Necessary?

On the "Sell your Jalopy" poster above aren't the guys in the Dodge Brothers wearing white masks??
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