"How about some meat?": The office of price administration, consumption politics, and state building from the bottom up, 1941-1946

Journal of American History

Volumn 84, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 910-941

  Jacobs, Meg ^a  

^a CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE   (United States)

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EID: 0038723289     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2953088     Document Type: Article

References (154)

1. Jessica Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict (New York, 1977), 30-31. Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon, vol. I: The Education of a Politician, 1913-1962 (New York, 1987), 101-4;
2. Paul Marshall quotation ibid., 103. See also Milton Viorst, "Nixon of the O.P.A.," New York Times Magazine, Oct. 3, 1971, pp. 70-76.
3. For general descriptions of rationing and price control during the war, see Richard R. Lingcman, Don't You Know There's a War On? The American Home Front, 1941-1945 (New York, 1970), esp. 234-70;
4. John Morton Blum, V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture during World War II (New York, 1976), esp. 90-116;
5. and Barbara McKlean Ward, ed., Produce and Conserve, Share and Play Square: The Grocer and the Consumer on the Homefront Battlefield during World War 11 (Hanover, 1994). The most comprehensive political history of the Office of Price Administration (OPA) is the 18-volume institutional study with chronology and bibliography; for a thorough overview, see Harvey C. Mansfield, Historical Reports on Wir Administration: Office of Price Administration, vol. XV: A Short History of OPA (Washington, 1947).
6. Sec also Andrew H. Bartels, "The Office of Price Administration and the Legacy of the New Deal, 1939-1946," Public Historian, 5 (Summer 1983), 5-29;
7. and Barton J. Bernstein, "The Truman Administration and the Politics of Inflation" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1963).
8. Ira Katznelson and Bruce Pietrykowski, "Rebuilding the American State: Evidence from the 1940s," Studies in American Political Development, 5 (Fall 1991), 301-39, esp. 322-25.
9. In my larger project, I explore how a group of labor liberal reformers sought to increase working-class consumption by politicizing wages and prices as the way to manage the economy. In this context, OPA stands out as the apogee of their efforts. Indeed, war "enabled" OPA but it did not determine its structure or its precise demise. The choice to rely on housewives was neither natural nor inevitable, and it left a powerful legacy of consumer empowerment. Moreover, even though OPA and its regime of controls passed from the scene, issues of wages and prices still stood at the center of a vigorous postwar debate over American political economy. See Meg Jacobs, "The Politics of Purchasing Power: State-Building, Political Economy, and Consumption Politics, 1909-1959" (Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1998).
10. Roy Rosenzweig, Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920 (New York, 1983);
11. Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939 (New York, 1990);
12. Dana Frank, Purchasing Power Consumer Organizing, Gender, and the Seattle labor Movement, 1919-1929 (New York, 1994).
13. for additional studies, see David P. Thelen, "Patterns of Consumer Consciousness in the Progressive Movement: Robert M. Larollette, the Antitrust Persuasion, and Labor Legislation," in The Quest for Social Justice: The Morris Fromkin Lectures, 1970-1980, ed. Ralph M. Aderman (Milwaukee, 1983), 19-47;
14. William Leach, "Transformations in a Culture of Consumption: Women and Department Stores, 1890-1925," JournalofAmerican History, 71 (Sept. 1984), 319-42;
15. and Lawrence Glickman, "Inventing the 'American Standard of Living': Gender, Race, and Working-Class Identity, 1880-1925," Labor History, 34 (Spring-Summer, 1993), 221-35.
16. Sec Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920 (New York, 1982); and Margaret Weir, Ann Shola Orloff, and Theda Skocpol, eds.. The Politics of Social Policy in the United States (Princeton, 1988).
17. Recent political studies underscore the significance of the 1940s for state development, though they disagree over its precise nature: sec, for example, Alan Brinklcy, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War (New York, 1995);
18. Nelson Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the fate of American labor (New York, 1995);
19. Katznelson and Pictrykowski, "Rebuilding the American State"; Michael K. Brown, "State Capacity and Political Choice: Interpreting the Failure of the Third New Deal," Studies in American Political Development, 9 (Spring 1995), 187-212;
20. Ira Katznelson and Bruce Pietrykowski, "On Categories and Configurations: Further Remarks on Rebuilding the American State," ibid., 213-21; and Michael K. Brown, "On Evidence and Interpretation: Reply to Katznelson and Pietrykowski," ibid., 222-28.
21. Edwin Amenta and Theda Skocpol, "Redefining the New Deal: World War II and the Development of Social Provision in the United States," in Politics of Social Policy in the United States, ed. Weir, Orloff, and Skocpol, 81-122.
22. For the overall significance of World War II in state development, see Brian Balogh, "Reorganizing the Organizational Synthesis: Federal-Professional Relations in Modern America," Studies in American Political Development, 5 (Spring 1991), 119-72.
23. The notion of a "just price" and its connection to the idea of a moral economy have animated political battles since the Middle Ages. Three excellent historical examples are Steven L Kaplan, Bread, Politics, and Political Economy in the Reign of Louis XV (2 vols.. The Hague, 1976);
24. Dana Frank, "Housewives, Socialists, and the Politics of Food: The 1917 New York Cost-of-Uving Protests," Feminist Studies, 11 (Summer 1985), 255-85;
25. and Barbara Clark Smith, "Food Rioters and the American Revolution," William and Mary Quarterly, 51 (Jan. 1994), 3-38.
26. See also E. P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century," Past and Present (Oxford) (no. 50, 1971), 76-131.
27. Lewis B. Rx (Beverly Hills, Calif.) to Harry S. Truman, Sept. 21, 1946, Meat Shortage Complaint File, box 17, Administrative Correspondence, Executive Offices, Office of the Administrator, entry 17 (UD), Records of the Office of Price Administration, KG 188 (National Archives, Washington, D.C.).
28. U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Banking and Currency, Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, 77 Cong., 2 sess., Jan. 2, 1942, p. 3. Bor a detailed description of OPA's origins,
29. see William Jerome Wilson, John A. Hart, and George R. Taylor, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, vol. I: The Beginnings ofOPA (Washington, 1947).
30. See also John Kenneth Galbraith, A Life in Our Times: Memoirs (Boston, 1981), 107-75; and Historical Reports on War Administration: Bureau of the Budget, no. 1: The United States at War: Development and Administration of the War Program by the Federal Government (Washington, 1946), 235-73
31. . 10 For additional discussion of these New Dealers, see Steve Fraser, Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor (New York, 1991)- For a thorough overview of the literature on the causes of the Great Depression,
32. see Michael A. Bernstein, The Great Depression: Delayed Recovery ana Economic Change in America, 1929-1939 (New York, 1987), 1-20. For additional discussion of monetary forces,
33. see Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwanz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (Princeton, 1963); and Peter Temin, Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression? (New York, 1976).
34. "Leon Henderson," Current Biography Yearbook (New York, 1940), 377-79; Samuel Lubell, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Pri-cees," Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 13, 1941, p. 86.
35. For an interesting discussion of Simon Patten, see William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture (New York, 1993), 231-44. See also Stephen A. Sass, The Pragmatic Imagination: A History of the Wharton School, 1881-1981 (Philadelphia, 1982).
36. For information on Henderson at the Russell Sage Foundation, see John M. Glenn, Lillian Brandt, and Emerson Andrews, Russell Sage Foundation, 1907-1946 (2 vols., New York, 1947), I, 336-47.
37. For Leon Henderson's statement, made in a 1936 memorandum, see Brinkley, End of Reform, 71. 13 Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 35.
38. Galbraith, Life in Our Times, 128-36, 163-66; Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 43-
39. Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 29-33, 65-70.
40. Lubell, "Daring Young Man on the Flying Pri-cecs," 86.
41. For a general account of the farm bloc's power in Congress during this period, see John Mark Hansen, Gaining Access: Congress and the Farm Lobby, 1919-1981 (Chicago, 1991), 78-97. Overall, inflation continued at an average rate of 0.5% a month: Mansfield, Historien/ Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 51-53.
42. Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Message from the President of the United States Transmitting a Recommendation That Congress Pass Legislation Placing a Floor under Prices of Farm Products," [Sept. 7, 1942], U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Currency, Amending the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, to Aid in Preventing Inflation, and for Other Purposes, 77 Cong., 2 sess., Sept. 21, 1942, H. rept. 7565, Serial 10664, pp. 4-6.
43. Though it did not win, OPA sought $1,235,000 in damages from Mars for charging the same price for a smaller piece of candy. "OPA Loses Mats Candy Suit," New York Times, Jan. 14, 1944, p. 23. For a thorough description of these and other common problems, see Peter G. Franck and Milton Quint, eds.. Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, vol. VIII: Problems in Price Control: Pricing Techniques (Washington, 1947), 67-72.
44. Mansfield, Historical Reports on War At/ministration: Office of Price Ac/ministration, XV, 55.
45. Ibid., 55-59, 226.
46. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings on H.R. 4376, 78 Cong., 2 sess., April 12, 1944, pp. 19-20, 39. "Bowles Promises to Avert Inflation," New Yore Times, March 16, 1944, p. 22.
47. Delman's Shoes, "Footwear That Requires No Ration Coupons," advertisement, New York Times, Jan. 25, 19-44, p. 16; "Leftovers Can Be Tasty!," Good Housekeeping, 118 (Jan. 1944), 89; "No Meat, but Enough Protein," ibid. Throughout the war, the New York Times printed daily menus in its "News of rood" column that included ration information. For wartime cookbooks, see Doris Weatherford, American Women and World War II (New York, 1990), 206. For a description of wartime suburbia, see C. B. Palmer, "The Story of Job (Suburbanite)," New York Times Magazine, Feb. 6, 1944, p. 24.
48. "Garden Week Gives Day to Vegetables," New York Times, March 24, 1944, p. 15;
49. "Bowles Stresses Need for Gardens," ibid., April 9, 1944, p. 22; "Roosevelt Extols Victory Gardeners," ibid., Jan. 23, 1945, p. 16; "Pressure Drive for Hats," /$;
50. FADA Radio and Electric Company, "Let's Bust 'Em Wide Open," advertisement, ibid., Feb. 5, 1944, p. 8. For a discussion of the bond campaign, see Blum, V Was for Victory, 16-21. Lawrence R. Samuel also makes the point that the war witnessed a fusion of private and public interests at the point of consumption, in this case the consumption of war bonds.
51. Lawrence R. Samuel, Pledging Allegiance: American Identity and the Bond Drive of World War II (Washington, 1997). See also Mark LefF, "The Politics of Sacrifice on the American Home Front in World War II," Journal of American History, 77 (March 1991), 1296-1318
52. . 25 For Bowles's help in writing the president's speech, see Bartels, "Office of Price Administration and the Legacy of the New Deal," 19. Franklin D. Roosevelt's annual state of the union address, 1944, as quoted in the New York Times, Jan. 12, 1944, p. 12.
53. For the best recent analysis that looks at splits within a "schizophrenic" Democratic party to account for an anti-New Deal sentiment, see Anthony J. Badger, The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940 (New York, 1989). See also James T. Patterson, Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-1939 (Westport, 1981).
54. Imogenc H. Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, vol. XIV: Volunteers in OPA (Washington, 1947), 69, 162; William Jerome Wilson and Mabel Randolph, eds.. Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, Miscellaneous Publications, vol. Ill: OPA Bibliography, 1940-1947 (Washington, 1947), 265. R>r a derailed discussion of the propaganda effort,
55. see Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 297-318. Far Bowles's claim, see House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, April 12, 1944, p. 39-
56. D'Ann Campbell, Women at War with America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), 224.
57. For a good example of popular perceptions of women's roles in the war, see a typical Good Housekeeping ad such as Swifts Brands of Beef entitled "Her Seven Jobs Help Win the War." After wife and mother come purchasing agent, then cook, salvage expert, war worker, and war bond buyer. This list obviously proceeds from more "feminine" to more "masculine" roles. Swifts Brands of Beef, "Her Seven Jobs Help Win the War," advertisement, Good Housekeeping, 118 (Jan. 1944).
58. Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 65, 88-89.
59. foi Fiorello LaGuardia's remarks, see "City Housewives Held Riod Experts," New York Times, April l, 1944, p. 16. Rr a general sampling of OPA's publications aimed at the consumer, see Wilson and Randolph, eds., His-toricat Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, Miscellaneous Publications, III, 207-70. This annotated list contains over 600 releases and bulletins aimed at consumers or tradesmen either directly or through community organizations and local OPA offices.
60. For the creation of the National Consumer Advisory Committee, see OPA Administrative Order 88, Nov. 30, 1943, as quoted in Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 86.
61. Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 143.
62. R>r a historical treatment of the role of women's networks in politics, see Paula Baker, "The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920," American Historical Review, 89 (June 1984), 620-47. For a discussion of women's volunteer efforts during the war, see Campbell, Women at War u'ith America, esp. 63-100. For a description of Géraldine Dodge's efforts, see Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration; Office of Price Administration, XIV, 51-52.
63. "Women Sift Plans to Cut Scarcities," New York Times, Jan. 26, 1944, p. 16; Chester Bowles, "OPA Volunteers: Big Democracy in Action," Public Administration Review, 5 (Spring 1945), 350-59; see also Bowles, Promises to Keep: My Years in Public Life, 1941-1969 (New York, 1971), 61-74.
64. Rar Bowles's discussion of price panel assistants, see Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 47. The March 1944 campaign is described in Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 248.
65. As much of the political science literature on interest groups suggests, consumers have proven notoriously difficult to organize, for an extremely insightful treatment of consumer politics, see David Vogel, Fluctuating Fortunes: The Political Pou-er of Business in America (New York, 1989). Bor a more general history on the consumer movement, see Colston E. Warne, The Consumer Movement: Lectures (New York, 1993).
66. "Ceiling Charts Get 'Feminine Touch,'" New York Times, Feb. 12, 1944, p. 17; "OPA Seeks Women as Price Wardens," ibid., Feb. 24, 1944, p. 20; "OPA Starts Test of Price Control," ibid., April 11, 1944, p. 22. For OPA training classes, see Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 62.
67. Bowles's speech in Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 90. Bowles often invoked the phrase "democracy in action." For example, see "The OPA Organization: Serving Every Local Community in America . . . Democracy in Action," Chart 58, House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, April 12, 1944, p. 1205. This was one of 144 charts that Bowles designed and brought with him to the price control extension hearings. Caroline F. Ware, "The Long Shadow of Mr. Bowles," Survey Graphic, 35 (April 1946), 139.
68. O. Ruehe, "OPA's Plan Held Unworthy," letter to the editor, New York Times, Feb. 11, 1944, p. 12; "Kitchen Gestapo," Business Week, April 3, 1943, pp. 75-76; Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 103, 145.
69. "Opposes Price Law to Control Profit," New York Times, Feb. 9, 19-44, p. 23; "Bowles Says OPA Bars Price 'Chaos,'" ibid., April 13, 1944, p. 36; "Price Law Changes Undergo Revision," ibid., April 14, 1944, p. 12.
70. Statement of Thomasina Walker Johnson, Legislative Representative of the National Nonpartisan Council on Public Affairs of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Washington, D.C., House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, May 11, 1944, p. 1661.
71. Rar OPA appeals to black consumers, sec Wilson and Randolph, eds., Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, Miscellaneous Publications, III, 213; and Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 68. rbr additional information,
72. see Frances Harriet Williams, "Minority Groups and OPA," Public Administration Review, 7 (Spring 1947), 123-38. For support for a strong reenactment, see statement submitted by Ethel R. Stephens, Chairman, Consumer Interests Council of Newport News, Va., to the House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, May 12, 1944, pp. 1822-23.
73. Statement of Annie Stein, Representing the Women's Auxiliary, Congress of Industrial Organizations, House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, May 3, 1944, pp. 991-1005. ft>r Annie Stein's political affiliations, see Carl Bernstein, Loyalties: A Son's Memoirs (New York, 1989), 93-94, 175, 208-12.
74. The American Home Economics Association survey is cited in Campbell, Women at War with America, 177. "Women Criticize WPB-Failure to List Dress Trimmings as Essential Is Assailed," New York Times, March 20, 1945, p. 16.
75. "Urge OPA to Widen Price Ceiling Scope," New York Times, March 19, 19-44, p. 34. Laura Somer's testimony, House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, May 11, 1944, pp. 1701, 1676.
76. From the time of their initiation in 1942 through the spring of 1946, price controls consistently received roughly 75% popular support. See, for example, Gallup polls surveying attitudes about price controls: for Sept. 15, 1942, poll,
77. see George H. Gallup, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971 (3 vols., New York, 1972), I, 347-48; Aug. 31, 1945, poll, ibid., I, 22-23; Oct. 24, 1945, poll, ibid, 535; March 4, 1946, poll, ibid., I, 561; and May 24, 1946, poll, ibid., I, 579.
78. A spring 1946 Fortune survey showed 67.2% of the public favoring price controls for another year with 70.7% of all women, 75.9% of all Democrats, and even 60% of the "well-to-do" also voting in favor of extension: "How about Price Control?," Fortune, 33 (April 1946), 8, 14.
79. Consumer Advisory Committee to Chester Bowles, "Reinstitution of Consumer Price Lists," memorandum. Jan. 24, 1945, as quoted in Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 114. rbr a description of this grocer-consumer debate, see ibid., 110-15.
80. Bowles, Promises to Keep, 91; Wilfred Carsel, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, vol. Ill: Wartime Apparel Problem (Washington, 1947). On the competitive nature of the textile industry,
81. see Stanley Vittoz, New Deal Labor Policy ana the American Industrial Economy (Chapel Hill, 1987). See also statement of Dr. Claudius Murchison, President, Cotton Textile Institute, House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, April 13, 1944, pp. 1083-1106.
82. A thorough account of the War Production Board, its reluctance to intervene in consumer markets, and its relationship with OPA is provided in Barton J. Bernstein, "The Removal of War Production Board Controls in Business, 1944-1946," Business History Review, 39 (Summer 1965), 243-60;
83. and Barton J. Bernstein, "The Debate on Industrial Reconversion: The Protection of Oligopoly and Military Control of the Economy," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 26 (April 1967), 159-72.
84. Donald Montgomery testimony in House Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act: Hearings, May 3, 1944, pp. 965-66. Far textile industry response, see "Price Relief Asked on Work Clothing," New York Times, April 1, 1944, p. 19. R>r a discussion of tensions between OPA and WPB as well as other supply agencies such as the Petroleum Administration for War and the War R>od Administration,
85. see Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 68-80; and Paul M. O'Leary, "Wartime Rationing and Governmental Organization," American Political Science Review, 39 (Dec. 1945), 1089-1106.
86. "Consumers Thank President," New York Times, April 15, 1944, p. 8. The tension between OPA and trade associations, especially the Cotton Textile Institute and the National Retail Dry Goods Association, began to escalate by early 1945.
87. See "Bowles to Tighten Control of Prices," ibid., Jan. 4, 1945, p. 24; "Cost Absorption Set for Expansion," /'£/
88. "Dealers Price Rise Spiked by Bowles," ibid.,Jzn. 23, 1945, p. 25; "'Profit-Squeeze' by OPA Condemned," ibid., Feb. 2, 1945, p. 24;
89. "Hahn Forecasts Strong Protests against OPA Cost-Absorption Plan," ibid., July 29, 1945, p. S5. R>r the formation of alliances among OPA enemies, see Bernstein, "Truman Administration and the Politics of Inflation," 187-98.
90. John Kenneth Galbraith citation in Studs Terkel, "The Good War": An Oral History of World War Two (New York, 1984), 320. Harvey Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America (New York, 1993), 97. Overall, the goods and services available in 1944 exceeded those of 1940. The average department store purchase rose from two dollars in 1940 to ten dollars in 1944. Blum, V Was for Victory, 91, 98.
91. Campbell, Women at War with America, 251- All OPA volunteers and price panel assistants received a button with the letters OPA and "a scale as the symbol of equal distribution." Putnam, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XIV, 140. For details on dietary changes, sec Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty, 87.
92. Anonymous, "Confessions of a Black-Market Butcher," Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 24, 1946, pp. 17, 101-3. Lewis Corey, Meat and Man: A Study of Monopoly, Unionism, and Food Policy (New York, 1950), 7-9, 179-84. for the structure of the meat industry,
93. see also Richard J. Arnould, "Changing Patterns of Concentration in American Meat Packing, 1880-1963," Business History Reviewhtä (Spring 1971), 18-34;
94. and Jimmy M. Skaggs, Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-198} (College Station, 1986), 130-68. Deconcentration of the meat industry occurred as a result of technological improvements in motor car refrigeration that allowed for packing at the source. With low entry costs, independents could take advantage of these nonmetropolitan, non-union job markets and produce at lower costs. They were also helped by the rise of independent wholesalers and retail chains.
95. "Worst Meat Dearth Predicted by Livestock Men -OPA Hit," Washington Post, Nov. 15, 1943, p. 1;
96. "Serious Shortage of Meat Held Near," New York Times, Jan. 31, 19-44, p. 19; "Price Violation Charged to OPA," ibid., April 13,1944, p. 25;
97. "OPA, WFA Blamed in Meat Shortage," ibid. Jan. 14, 1945, p. 33; "Big Meat Supply Is 'Underground,'" ibid., Feb. 1, 1945, p. 21;
98. "Scarcity of Meat Is Seen for Years," ibid., Feb. 2, 1945, p. 22; "'Famine' in Meat Is Reported Near," ibid., March 19, 1945, p. 13;
99. "City Food Outlook Is Reported Dark," ibid., March 20, 1945, p. 36; "New Food Charges Stir Revision Call," ibid., March 22, 1945, p. 25;
100. "Food Shortage Stirs Up Lively Rows in Capital," ibid., April 1, 1945, p. BIO;
101. "The Nation's Food," ibid., p. B2; "Senator 'Out for Meat,'" ibid., April 13, 1945, p. 30; "Over-All Profit Hit as OPA Guide," ibid.;
102. "Shortage of Meat Held City's Worst," ibid.. May 13, 1945, p. 18;
103. "Bowles in Battle over Amending OPA," ibid., June 8, 1945, p. 16; "Food Shortage Expected to Last until Spring," il>id,]u\y 9, 1945, p. 6; Ralph Robey, "Beefsteaks and Bureaucrats," Newsu-eek, April 9, 1945, p. 73.
104. "Oppose OPA Amendments," New York Times, March 21, 1945, p. 10; "Queens Women Fight Food Black Market," ibid., April 13, 1945, p. 14;
105. "Consumers Fight Price Ceiling Rises," ibid.. May 3, 1945, p. 20;
106. "Bids Women Voters Back Price Curbs," ibid.. May 11, 1945, p. 16; "22 Groups Support Extension of OPA," ibid.. May 28, 1945, p. 21.
107. Budge Van Lee (Fort Worth, Tex.) to Chester Bowles, Nov. 7, 1945, box 4, File of Chester Bowles, Letters Addressed to the Administrator from the General Public, Administrative Correspondence, Executive Offices, Office of the Administrator, Records of the Office of Price Administration, RG 188; Mrs. Bessie D. Beckett (California) to Chester Bowles, Dec, 6, 1945, ibid.; Ruth A. Beers (Arlington, Mass.) to Chester Bowles, n.d., ibid. In March 1946, 80% thought OPA was doing a fairly good to excellent job, and 73% thought OPA should be continued: March 4, 1946, poll in Gallup, Galltip Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971, I, 561. In May, polls showed 75% support for another year of price controls for food, 78% for rent control, 70% for clothing ceilings, and 66% for price controls on automobiles, radios, and other manufactured goods: May 24, 1946, poll, ibid., 579.
108. Brian Balogh has coined the term "proministrative state" to describe this type of expert-based policy making in Brian Balogh, Chain Reaction: Expert Debate and Public Participation in American Commercial Nuclear Power, 1945-197} (Cambridge, Eng., 1991). For another excellent example of this postwar political culture,
109. see Julian E. Zelizer, Taxing America: Wilbur Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975 (Cambridge, Eng., forthcoming, 1998). Sidney H. Boyton (Elyria, Oh.) to Chester Bowles, Nov. 19, 1945, box 4, File of Chester Bowles, Letters Addressed to the Administrator from the General Public, Administrative Correspondence, Executive Offices, Office of the Administrator, Records of the Office of Price Administration, RG 188;
110. Elizabeth G. Riley (Madison, Wise.) to Chester Bowles, Jan. 2, 1946, ibid. "More Good Meat Promised by OPA," New York Times, Jan. 12, 1945, p. 17; "Those Who Eat Out Can Still Get Meat," ibid., June 4, 1945, p. 21;
111. "3 Days Each Week without Red Meat Proposed by Mayor," ibid.,]zn. 15, 1945, pp. 1, 22;
112. "2 Meatless Days Ordered by Mayor to Be Enforced," /£J., Jan. 22, 1945, pp. 1, 20; "Eating Places Seek Right to Serve Liver, Tongue on Meatless Days," ibid.. March 7, 1945, pp. 1, 38; "LaGuardia Eases His Meatless Days," ibid., March 12, 1945, pp. 1, 20;
113. "Rationing Asked for Restaurants -Consumer Group Demands the Same Treatment for All as Meat Supply Dwindles," ibid., Sept. 13, 1946, pp. 1, 3. June 15, 1945,
114. poll in Gallup, Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971, I, 509. For an interesting discussion of the postwar struggle of different groups to speak in the name of the "community" and to promote consumer interests, see Elizabeth A. Fones-Wolfe, Selling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-1960 (Urbana, 1994).
115. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Currency, Extension of the Emergency Price Control and Stabilization Acts of 1942, As Amended, 79 Cong., 2 sess., 1946, 655-62; Lew Hahn, "Why You Can't Buy a Shirt," Saturday Evening Post, March 30, 1946, p. 20; Sen. Kenneth S. Wherry's statement in Lawrence Sullivan, "The High Price of Price Control," Nation's Business, 34 (March 1946), 98.
116. Craufurd D. Goodwin and R. Stanley Herren, "The Truman Administration: Problems and Policies Unfold," in Exhortation and Controls: The Search for a Wage-Price Policy, 1945-1971, ed. Craufurd D. Goodwin (Washington, 1975), 11-15.
117. Though historians assume that Americans feared postwar depression, in fact, there was no consensus whether the economy would experience recession or inflation. For a sampling of the divisions within the business community, see the following: "Surplus Releases to Civilians Urged," New York Times, Jan. 14, 1944, p. 23;
118. "Output Lag Called Economic Threat," ibid., Jan. 11, 1944, p. 25;
119. "Expansion Is Cited As Major Problem," ibid., Jan. 14, 1944, p. 34; "Analyst Sees East Reconversion; Another Estimates Year or More," ibid.,]3.n. 15, 1944, p. 18;
120. "Ayers in Warning on Reconversion," ibid.; "Offers Plan to Bar Surplus Goods Ills," ibid., Jan. 11, 1944, p. 27;
121. "Maps Action Plan for Reconversion," ibid., Feb. 4, 1944, p. 21;
122. "No Time to Take Our Eye off the Target," New York Times Magazine, Feb. 6, 1944, p. 12;
123. and Samuel Tower, "Day of Consumer Is Still Far Off," New York Times, July 15, 1945, p. E5.
124. Whether forecasts predicted recession or inflation, the debate centered around different ways to stimulate production, ranging in extremes from Bernard Baruch's plan for rapid removal of all controls to Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace's visions of a planned economy. For a discussion of Baruch's plans, see "Baruch Submits Post-War Report," ibid., Feb. 17, 1944, p. 15; Arthur Krock, "Baruch Report Offers Big Hope for the Peace," New York Times Magazine, Feb. 20, 1944, sec. 4, p. 3; and Arthur Krock, "Why Baruch Report Drew Fire from Capitol Hill," New York Times, Feb. 22, 1944, p. 22.
125. For a discussion of labor-liberal plans, see "CIO Political Unit Defended as Legal," ibid., Jan. 15, 1944, p. 26;
126. "Wallace Demands 'Fused' Goals Here to Avoid Fascism," ibid.,'Mi. 5, 1944, pp. 1, 8; "Post-War Voice Urged for Labor," ibid., Wo. 6, 1944, p. 33;
127. "Wallace Sees Rise in Post-War Living," ibid., Feb. 7, 1944, p. 15; and "Wallace Proposes New Jobs Agency," ibid., Feb. 12, 1944, p. 8.
128. See also Lichtenstein, Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, 220-24. For an interesting discussion about the weakness of postwar forecasting, see Everett E. Hagen, "The Reconversion Period: Reflections of a Forecaster," Review of Economics and Statistics, 29 (May 1947), 95-101; and W. S. Woytinsky, "What Was Wrong in Forecasts of Postwar Depression?," Journal of Political Economy, 55 (April 1947), 142-51.
129. In addition, a serious international food crisis forced the diversion of wheat from feed for cattle to exports. Bernstein, "Truman Administration and the Politics of Inflation," 198-219; Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 188-89.
130. Immediately after V-J Day on August 18, 1945, President Truman's Executive Order 9599 gave official endorsement to a policy of removing wage controls but not price controls. In 1946, labor struck in the oil, auto, electrical goods, coal, railroad, glass, steel, rubber, and meat industries, causing the loss of more work days in January and February alone than during the entire war, and 1946 became the record year for man-days lost and number of workers out on strike. Barton J. Bernstein, "Walter Reuther and the General Motors Strike of 19451946," Michigan History, 49 (Sept. 1965), 260; and Barton J. Bernstein, "The Truman Administration and Its Reconversion Wage Policy," Labor History, 6 (Fall 1965), 214-31.
131. For a discussion of the negotiations between steel and the administration, see Addison T. Cutler and Robert J. Benes, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, vol. VI: Studies in Industrial Control (Washington, 1947), 60-78. For Truman's comment, see president's news conference, Feb. 15, 1946, as quoted in Bernstein, "The Truman Administration and the Steel Strike of 1946," Journal of American History, 52 (March 1966), 791-803. Sec also Lichtenstcin, Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, 224-43, especially for contrast between UAW president Walter Reuther and Murray in regards to their concern with the OPA stabilization program.
132. Truman's veto message as quoted in Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 99, 100-101. "Farm Bloc on the March," Business Week, March 2, 1946, pp. 15-16.
133. Bernstein, "Truman Administration and the Politics of Inflation," 245-46.
134. Annie Stein, "Postwar Consumer Boycotts," Radical History, 9 (July 1975), 156-61; "Unorganized Consumers Hold Key to Buyers' Strikes," Business Week, July 20, 19-46, p. 16;
135. "Contented Voters-A Scarcity Item?," Saturday Evening Post, July 20, 1946, p. 124. For anticipated fears of a buyers' strike, see "A Consumers' Strike Soon? Return of Careful Shopper," U.S. News, May 17, 1946, pp. 14-15.
136. "Congress Session Urged to End Controls by OPA," New York Times, Sept. 25, 1946, p. 16; "Chicago OPA 'Vote' Today," ibid. ; "Anderson Warns Farmers on Meat," ibid. ; "President: Election Eve Price Retreat," Newsweek, Oct. 21, 1946, pp. 31-34. Rjr meat availability statistics, see Bernstein, "Truman Administration and the Politics of Inflation," 324-27.
137. "News of rood: Substitute for Meat," New York Times, April 4, 1945, p. 18; "U.S. Presses Hunt for Hidden Meat," ibid., Sept. 20, 1946, p. 17; "Country Is Near 'Famine' in Meat, Centers Report," ibid., Sept. 24, 1946, pp. 1, 8;
138. "Horse Meat Consumption by New Yorkers Is Rising," ibid., Sept. 25, 1946, pp. 1, 17;
139. "Rodeo Opens as Spectators Pine for Steaks," ibid., Sept. 26, 1946, p. 27; "Horse Meat Mart Here Soon Is Likely," ibid., p. 31; "Near-By Hospitals down to Minimum of Meat Supplies," ibid., Sept. 29, 1946, pp. 1, 4;
140. "No Beef in Months, Sioux City Men Say," ibid., Oct. 1, 1946, p. 4;
141. "City Search for Meat Supplies Fails to Uncover Any Hoarding," ibid., Oct. 2, 1946, pp. 1, 33; "Trenton Gets Its Meat but by Appointment," ibid., Oct. 4, 1946, p. 9; "10,000 Women in Lines at 3 Meat Stores; Police Reserves Called to Prevent Crush," ibid., Oct. 5, 1946, p. 9;
142. "Burglar in Butcher Shop Finds Cupboard All Bare," ibid., Oct. 10, 1946, p. 34;
143. "Queens Restaurateur, Worried over Meat, Dives off Brooklyn Bridge and Survives," ibid., p. 35; "Steakleggcrs," Time, Oct. 21, 1946, p. 42.
144. For a contemporary criticism of this press coverage, see A. J. Liebling, "The Wayward Press-the Great Gouamba," New Yorker, Dec. 7, 1946, pp. 88-97. Gouamba, Liebling explained, was an African word for the "inordinate longing and craving of exhausted nature for meat," a word that Americans simply did not have in English.
145. Eleanor L. Born (New York, N.Y.) to Paul Porter, Sept. 29, 1946, Meat Shortage Complaint File, box 17, Administrative Correspondence, Executive
146. see May 24, 1946, poll in Gallup, Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, W5-1971, I, 579; and Oct. 5, 1946, poll, ibid., 602. For the political impact of the meat shortage, see also "The Politics of Meat," Time, Oct. 7, 1946, p. 21; "Meat: Political Slaughter," Newsweek, Oct. 7, 1946, pp. 29-30;
147. "No Meat, No Votes?" Newsweek, Oct. 14, 1946, pp. 33-34; and "Sabotage by the Meatmen," New Republic, Oct. 21, 1946, p. 504.
148. Mrs. Marguerite Pendergast (New York, N.Y.) to President Harry S. Truman, Sept. 20, 1946, ibid. ;
149. Mrs. Mary K. Holmes (Cleveland, Ohio) to Paul Porter, Sept. 26, 19-46, ibid. ; Mrs. Charlotte Wheeler (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) to Paul Porter, Sept. 27, 1946, ibid. ; Mrs. AlthaJohnson (Santa Ana, Calif.) to Paul Porter, Sept. 28, 19-46, ibid. ;
150. Josephine Clarke (Los Angeles, Calif.) to Paul Porter, Sept. 30, 19-46, ibid.
151. The phrases "administrative bungling" and "mismanagement" appeared often and reveal perceptions about what the president ought to do and was capable of doing, indicating both expectations and disappointments about the managerial presidency. For such references, along with a discussion of meat and its impact on the election, see "Key Issues in 46 Election: Price Control at Top of List," U.S. News, Oct. 25, 1946, pp. 24-25
152. ; "Why We Won-Why We Lost: Candidates Analyze the Election," ibid., Nov. 15, 1946, pp. 26-29; "New Cycle in Politics: Break in Democratic Coalition," ibid, 13-14; and "Congress's Shift to Home Affairs," ibid., Nov. 22, 1946, pp. 22-23.
153. For Truman's remarks, see Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty, 99. For the rise in meat prices, see Corey, Meat and Man, 184.
154. "Address of Bernard M. Bâruch Delivered at the Graduation Exercises of the Industrial College of Armed forces," June 26, 19-47, as quoted in Mansfield, Historical Reports on War Administration: Office of Price Administration, XV, 27. for the low turnout of voters, sec Lichtenstein, Most Dangerous Alan in Detroit, 257. The most thorough treatment on the 1946 election is James Boylan, The New Deal Coalition and the Election of 1946 (New York, 1981). As Boylan points out, this election was decided outside the South in the border states and in the suburban areas between the Democratic strongholds in the cities and the Republican claim to the rural areas. ft>r example, in Wcstchester County, New York, no Democrat received more than a third of the vote, while in New York City, the working-class vote did not turn out, giving the Republicans a victory. "Election Results throughout Nation and Make-Up of New Senate and House of Representatives," New York Times, Nov. 7, 1946, p. 16. Sec also "Crisis for Democrats: Loss of Power in Key Cities," U.S. News, Nov. 29, 1946, pp. 22-23. In addition to its low voter turnout and anti-New Deal emphasis, the 1946 election was also noteworthy for its bitter anticommunism. What is interesting, though, is the extent to which scholars have overemphasized concern with anticommunism to the exclusion of price controls. In fact, price controls served as the main arena in which discussion of "bureaucratic regimentation" and "totalitarian shackles" took place.