From: Everette (194cbteng@bellsouth.net)
Date: Tue Feb 07 2006 - 05:18:47 PST
February 7
1942 The War Cause
On this day, the federal government ordered passenger car production stopped
and converted to wartime purposes. In spite of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt's exhortation that the U.S. auto industry should become the "great
arsenal of democracy," Detroit's executives were reluctant to join the war
cause. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the country mobilized
behind the U.S. declaration of war. The government offered automakers
guaranteed profits regardless of production costs throughout the war years.
Furthermore, the Office of Production Management allocated $11 billion to
the construction of war manufacturing plants that would be sold to the
automobile manufacturers at remarkable discounts after the war. What had at
first seemed like a burden on the automotive industry became a boon. The
production demands placed on the industry and the resources allocated to the
individual automobile manufacturers during the war would revolutionize
American car making and bring about the Golden Era of the 1950s.
Deo adiuvante
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