Mobilizing for World War II

America Goes to War (again)

Mobilizing the Economy

The War Production Board Offered fixed, generous profits

for war contracts Helped finance conversion to

war production and new factories, shipyards, etc.

$175,000,000,000 in war contracts

$800,000,000 in research Industrial production increased

96%

Mobilizing the Economy

$ Office of Price Administration $ Estb. summer, 1941$ Control inflation by fixing prices

and rationing scarce commodities$ Limited meat, sugar, butter, silk,

nylon, coffee, auto tires$ Gasoline rationing : May, 1942

$ A, B, and C ration cards were issued to motorists, depending on need;

$ “A” cards received only 4 gallons per week (32,500 drivers were arrested by 1945 for using fake cards).

Mobilizing the Economy National War Labor Board

Like in WWI Mediate or arbitrate labor

disputes 4 labor leaders, 4 business

leaders, 4 private citizens Could ask for takeover

United Mine Workers went on strike and soldiers took over mines;

head of Macy’s refused to accept union workers and was carried out by arresting soldiers.

4,000,000 new union members by 1945

Mobilizing the Economy

Production figures 225% increase in arms

production in 1941 alone Dec. 1942: out-producing

Germany, Italy and Japan COMBINED

300,000 planes 88,000 tanks 3000 merchant ships $50,000,000,000 of Lend-

Lease Aid

Mobilizing the “Message”

Propaganda and Censorship

Mobilizing the “Message”

Office of War Information: June 1942 Controlled release of war news Banned release of photos of dead

U.S. Design and content of gov’t posters Radio series, “This is Our Enemy”,

“Uncle Sam”; started “Voice of America”

267 newsreels Japanese Internment

Mobilizing the “Message”

Issued guidelines to Hollywood: Will this picture help win the war? What war information problem does

it seek to clarify, dramatize, or interpret?

If it is an "escape" picture, will it harm the war effort by creating a false picture of America, her allies, or the world we live in?

Does it merely use the war as the basis for a profitable picture, contributing nothing of real significance to the war effort and possibly lessening the effect of other pictures of more importance?

Mobilizing the “Message”

Guidelines to Hollywood: Does it contribute something new to our

understanding of the world conflict and the various forces involved, or has the subject already been adequately covered?

When the picture reaches its maximum circulation on the screen, will it reflect conditions as they are and fill a need current at that time, or will it be out-dated?

Does the picture tell the truth or will the young people of today have reason to say

they were misled by propaganda?

Promoting Women in the Workforce

• And the dangers…

Targeting Production…and the Enemy

As always, a racial angle…

Life Magazine’s “how to”

Scare Tactics

Production and Conservation

The Ultimate: Persuasion by Guilt