government had marched for eight years toward the complete domination of
finance, business, and industry. He warned against using the rearmament pro-
gram as an excuse to promote the government’s initiatives in these areas. He saw
the trend of socialistic governments to tax savings out of existence in the course
of achieving complete government control of business. “In our desire to protect
ourselves from without let us not forget what goes on within.” 21
*
Such views were not limited to the President’s political opposition. Senators Carl
A. Hatch of New Mexico and Joseph C. O’Mahoney of Wyoming, both Demo-
crats, blamed the administration’s economic policies for unnecessarily destroying
the American system of free enterprise and rapidly building a totalitarian state.
Their comments gained authority from the fact that both senators were support-
ers of the administration’s foreign policy. 22
The battle of public opinion sometimes boiled over into criminal charges and
convictions. In Minneapolis eighteen persons were convicted by a jury on charges
of conspiracy to incite insubordination in the armed forces. These were the first
convictions under the Smith Act, itself an amendment to the Sedition Act of
1861. The Smith Act made it unlawful to advocate overthrow of the government.
What was the evidence adduced against the defendants in these cases? Raids on the
headquarters of the Socialist Workers Party offices in St. Paul had turned up two
red flags and several pictures of Leon Trotsky, who had earlier been assassinated in
Mexico. 23
Liberty and Justice for All: In the Matter of Race
There was never a day in the era of the Second World War when a sharp con-
tradiction was not readily visible between the ideals and principles the defense
program was defending, for which a great war would be fought, and the actual
treatment accorded American citizens of color in the military and in civil life.
In East Point, Georgia, six members of the Ku Klux Klan were convicted of
62 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941
f logging black fellow citizens. They pleaded for clemency but the governor stood
firm. He commented, however, “I am always sorry when I can’t grant clemency.”
The Governor would not comment as to his reasons. 24
Elsewhere, it was a matter of separate accommodations. The Denver City
Council voted $600 for the rehabilitation of a building that would be used as a
recreation center for “Negro” soldiers. It noted that the federal government had
already granted $1,900 for the same project. The members of the city council
may have sincerely thought that they were accommodating the “Negro” soldiers.
Those same soldiers might have entertained an entirely different point of view.
There were those who did not accept such treatment, whether deliberate or
grounded upon a misguided benevolence. In Portland, Oregon, Dr. DeNorval
Unthank, Chairman of the Emergency Advisory Council for Negroes, charged
that the Portland boilermakers’ and machinists’ unions had “systematically car-
ried on a program of racial discrimination” which excluded blacks from employ-
ment in defense projects; and that the unions had entered into an agreement
with vocational education departments of the Portland public schools, excluding
blacks from their machine tool, aviation sheet metal, and ship welding programs.
Yet these were the programs for which labor was in short supply at the booming
Portland shipyards. 25
Economic Indicators: Needs Along the Scale
The driving force of Japan’s expansionism in East Asia was the search for natural
resources by a resource-poor nation. Chief among these was oil, which would
fuel the ships, the planes, and the vehicles of the Empire in its quest for the New
Order in East Asia.
In its massive defense buildup, the United States had the same critical need for
an ample supply of oil, whether in sustaining the engines of war, the transportation
systems that would deliver goods to the points of need, or the utilities that under-
lay the daily life of the people. Fortunately, the country was richly endowed: the
Houston Chronicle headlined, “ OIL LEASING SPREADING IN EAST TEXAS .”
Hopkins County, growing out of testing operations at the W. B. Hinton and Talco
Asphalt and Refining Company, indicating a new pay opener at 4,755 feet in the
Paluxy sand. It was not a surprise, therefore, that independents were active in the
area and prices for acreage ranged from two to twenty dollars per acre within two
to four miles of the new prospect. 26 Timely advances in the science of oil exploration had made possible sharply expanded production. Dr. Everett Lee DeGolyer
was named the recipient of the John Fritz Medal for 1941 in recognition of his
pioneering work in geophysical exploration in the search for oilfields. His work,
it was estimated, had resulted in the discovery of three billion barrels of oil. The
presentation of the medal was to take place on January 14 at a dinner at the Wal-
dorf Astoria in New York given by the American Institute of Mining and Metal-
lurgical Engineers, of which Dr. DeGolyer was a past president. The stature of
the award may be measured by the list of former recipients including Thomas A.
Tuesday, December 2, 1941 63
Edison, George Westinghouse, Orville Wright, Guglielmo Marconi, and Herbert
Hoover. Dr. DeGolyer, it was said, had been the first engineer to understand the
importance of geophysical methods in prospecting for oil. 27
*
If oil stood at the inception of the economic chain, at the other end—after vary-
ing stages of manufacturing and distribution—stood the consumer, whose needs
were met through the vast retail trade. New York was the emporium where
the retailers went to shop for their stocks. The Arrival of Buyers was regularly
chronicled in The New York Times , and what the buyers sought and bought tells
us much about the state of the country, its economy, personal tastes, and pref-
erences. They came from far and wide. From Nogales, Arizona, S. Capin of
Capin’s Department Store came to town to buy ready-to-wear, house furnish-
ings, sportswear, infant’s and children’s wear, toys, and domestics. From distant
Johannesburg, South Africa, W. Fier came to buy dressmaker suits and fur-
trimmed coats at Frohman and Altman.
Filene’s of Boston sent a large delegation. The thin years of the Great Depres-
sion could be seen in Miss M. Kimball’s search for “misses’ cheap dresses” while
E. McElanen looked for even “cheaper misses’ dresses.” But there was an upper
end to the market, too, and Miss J. Morrissey was shopping evening dresses while
E. Melnick sought a category that has since disappeared into the mists of fashions
past, millinery. They came from Chicago: W. Sidelsky of Jean’s Style Shop for fur
coats, chubbies, and fur collars; from Jacksonville, Florida, Miss O. Coleman of
Flossy’s Ruffle Shop for ready-to-wear. It is curious to note that in the America
of December 1941 the most sought-after line of clothing was corsets. From across
the country they came to buy corsets:
Mrs. A. Manser of E. N. Joslin Co. of Mal-
den, Massachusetts; Miss B. Gray of William H. Block Co., Indianapolis, Indiana;
from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Miss S. B. Klee of England Bros. Co. Thalhimer’s of
Richmond, Virginia, sent Mrs. Kay Missleton, in search of “basement corsets” that
would presumably lend shape to “cheap” or even to “cheaper” dresses. And still
they came, corset buyers all: from Dayton, Ohio, Miss A. Wertz of Elder and John-
ston Co.; from the Outlet Co. of Providence, Rhode Island, Miss J. Lubosky; from
Frank and Seder of Pittsburgh, D. Ballman; and from The Parisian in Birmingham,
Alabama, Mrs. O. Sisson. It had been thought that the flappers of the twenties had
consigned their mothers’ and grandmothers’ corsets to the ash heap of history. But
it appeared, instead, that they had become the firmly girded matrons of the forties,
comforting the observer with the thought that, facing the stresses, the strains, and
the perils of a world at war, the women of America would confront them all on a
firm foundation. 28
*
In December 1941, the workhorse of American transportation was the steam
locomotive. Indeed, World War II marked the zenith of steam railroading, to
be transformed in a remarkably short time thereafter by the diesel locomotive.
Thus it was a major event when two new high-speed locomotives built by the
New York Central Railroad for its Empire State Express were dedicated in New
York. Governor Herbert Lehman presided over the ceremonies. He found in the
two new locomotives a “vital lesson”: that like the trains, the nation must be
streamlined in the face of an imminent threat to the American way of life and
its freedoms. It took two tries for Mrs. Lehman to break the ceremonial bottle
of champagne against the locomotive. The governor then donned an unlikely
engineer’s cap to pose for the photo opportunity, which also included former
governor Alfred E. Smith and Mrs. Smith, Postmaster General James A. Farley,
City Council President Newbold Morris, and Edward G. Budd, president of the
company which manufactured the passenger cars. 29
*
Denver was the great metropolis of a vast area of plains slanting upward to the
mile-high level from which arose the towering peaks of the Rockies. The Roo-
sevelt years had seen an unprecedented expansion not only in the operations of
the federal government, but also at state and local levels. Nevertheless, Den-
ver, with a 1940 population of 322,412, adopted a modest 1942 budget totaling
only $8,539,198. The combined city and county would garner some $4.8 million
from property tax, $2 million from miscellaneous taxes, a surprisingly modest
$165,000 from income taxes, less than the $280,000 from automobile taxes, and
the rest from miscellaneous sources. 30
To sustain the city and county’s needs for water, the Board of Water Commis-
sioners adopted a capital budget for 1942 of $698,857. These were the principal
items in the budget: $265,000 for the city pipe system, $117,432 for the conduits
division, $87,470 for the Moffat Tunnel diversion system, $100,000 for develop-
ment of the western slope water supply and $28,440 for filter plants. Clearly a
dollar went a long way in Denver’s budget for the coming year.
How far a dollar went in Denver is best exemplified by the menu of the Golden
Lantern Restaurant, “The Steakhouse of the West.” The restaurant offered a Blue
Ribbon club steak, charcoal broiled with a fresh mushroom sauce and French fried
potatoes, at 85 cents. This hearty main course was preceded by a choice of appe-
tizers: Southern gumbo soup, a seafood Louie cocktail, a fresh shrimp or oyster
cocktail, an imported crabmeat cocktail, a chilled half grapefruit or a fresh fruit
cup. Two vegetables were offered as accompaniments, together with a choice of
salads, including a pineapple cottage cheese salad, an endive salad with Roquefort
dressing and hearts of lettuce with Thousand Island dressing. And all was followed
by a list of desserts designed to meet every taste: a chocolate icebox cake, a baked
Rome Beauty apple, a date or a pecan torte, a hot fudge sundae, and, of course, the
iconic hot apple pie and sharp cheese.
A more expansive diner could order a sirloin steak with all of the trimmings
for 90 cents; big spenders could indulge in a tenderloin steak at $1.00 or a deluxe
Blue Ribbon sirloin steak at $1.25.
If Denver tastes ran to steak, Hall’s Restaurant at Seventh and K Streets
Southwest in the nation’s capital offered a whole broiled live Maine lobster
with salad and potatoes for $1.00, and also advertised as its Tuesday special, at
Tuesday, December 2, 1941 65
45 cents, a fried-chicken Maryland-style dinner with mashed potatoes, peas,
hot biscuits, and coffee. 31
*
In the midst of a world in flames, newspaper readers still had mundane concerns to
share. Letter writers to the editor of The New York Times that day opined that skill-ful driving would be a necessity for women serving in the Motor Corps. The ques-
tion whether pushcarts should be favored brought a vigorous affirmative response,
and there was quiet grief over the passing of the Tarrytown-Nyack ferry. 32
The Social Spectrum: Annals of Society
The New York Times was almost reverential and not a little bit patronizing in its report on the Baltimore Bachelors Cotillion held at the Old Lyric Theater and
carrying on a tradition that started in 1796. The seventy-three debutantes were
received by the wives of members of the Board of Governors; next followed the
Grand March. The background decorations glittered with gold candelabras and
brocades. Festoons of smilax graced the balcony and masses of orchids, roses, and
gardenias were banked along the front of the boxes that surrounded the dance
f loor. On the stage a pergola was decorated with roses and smilax.
Typical of the debutantes attending the party was Miss Emily Franklin, daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. John Merryman Franklin of Glen Cove, Long Island and
Cockeysville, Maryland. Her partners were Gaillard F. Ravenal, Jenkins Cromwell,
Blanchard Randall, and Thomas Barbour. Her mother and Mrs. Ravenal fulfilled
a function now archaic. They were her chaperones. Notable names among those
presenting their daughters that evening were Mr. and Mrs. Alan Welch Dulles of
New York and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Mrs. John V. A. MacMurray. 33
In the Second City the Baltimore Bachelors Cotillion was played as satire. The
Chicago Tribune reported that the Cotillion was the only door into Baltimore society. Nothing could erase the curse of exclusion from the Cotillion save a mar-
riage wealthy enough to enable the groom to snub all the people who had once
snubbed him.
But Chicago was quick to claim two of the debutantes as its own: Miss Jane
Jelke, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Jelke of Lake Forest, and Miss Frances
Connell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Phillip G. Connell of Scott Street. It reported
on their gowns, their bouquets, and their escorts and, overcoming its egalitar-
ian reflexes, concluded with proprietary pride that “the two Chicago buds were
among the belles of the ball.”
*
It is hard to conceive of a more frenzied social schedule than that of the Presi-
dent’s wife. On the day before, she had gone shopping at the bazaar held by the
American Friends of Yugoslavia at the Bundles for Britain headquarters. The
honorary chairman for that event was Mrs. Harlan Fiske Stone, the wife of the
Chief Justice of the United States, assisted by the wives of Yugoslavian notables.
66 Last Week at Peace: December 1–6, 1941
Also in attendance were the wives of the Ambassador of Brazil and of the minis-
ters of Greece, Czechoslovakia, and South Africa, “and a number of others from
the diplomatic set.”
From the bazaar Mrs. Roosevelt returned to the White House, where at tea she
received Mrs. Beatrice Rathbone, M.P., the second American woman to become a
member of the British Parliament. With Mrs. Rathbone were Mrs. Frances Biddle,
wife of the Attorney General, and Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Meyer, the proprietors of
The Washington Post.
On Friday, the First Lady was scheduled to receive Brazilian journalists at lun-
cheon, and later that day to attend a dinner for the “Open Road” group, sponsors
of field trips to various parts of the country. In between those two events Mrs.
Roosevelt would meet with a delegation of South Americans.
White House dinners on Saturday evening and a Sunday luncheon were described
as “purely personal.” But while in New York, Mrs. Roosevelt was scheduled to
attend a benefit sale and an immigrant’s conference and make a visit to the Henry
Street Nurses’ Home. Her Thursday lunch was to be with the Good Neighbor
group.
Mrs. Roosevelt said that Christmas plans for the White House would be similar
to those of years past excepting that there would be fewer children participating.
In fact, Dianna Hopkins, the daughter of FDR’s most intimate advisor, Harry
Hopkins, was the only child then living in the White House.
Mrs. Roosevelt said that no cellophane would be used on Christmas packages,
following advice that such materials should be saved, and she hoped that much less
tissue paper would be used—as a defense measure.
The previous Saturday Mrs. Roosevelt had attended the Army–Navy football
game. She had never been so uncomfortable, she said, at a football game in all of
her life. Usually, she reported, her feet began to freeze at the end of the first quarter and she wondered why an “old lady” ever goes to such a game. But indefatigably,