GERMANY CONSCRIPTION AND RATIONING; Preparing Plan For War With Russia.
Germany releases 67-pg. document outlining how country is expecting war with Russia in next five years. Rationing during WW2, impact and will America be next to conscript soldiers and enact rationing?
During World War 2, the United States enacted broad powers with newly established federal agencies through the War Powers Act of 1941, also known as the First War Powers Act. The War Powers Act was an American emergency law that increased federal power during World War II. The act was signed into law by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 18, 1941.
After three intense years of fighting in World War 1, American allies in Europe were facing starvation. WW2 emerges shortly after the end of WW1 and the lessons learned from the WW1 food shortages were all but forgotten.
During WW1, farming supplies such as fertilizer were difficult to acquire and significantly reduced crop output in Europe.
Young healthy men were also taken away from the agricultural industry and thrust into the military wartime effort establishing an extreme shortage in the farming labor market.
Promotions from the newly formed U.S. Food Administration started to appear such as “Meatless Tuesdays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays” and implored Americans to voluntarily modify their eating habits in order to increase shipments to the fighting soldiers defending our freedom.
The promotions directed, choreographed and mandated throughout society during WW1 were so successful the same playbook was deployed during WW2 on a much larger scale.
On January 30, 1942, the Emergency Price Control Act granted the Office of Price Administration (OPA) the authority to set price limits, ration food and other commodities in order to discourage hoarding and ensure the equitable distribution of scarce resources.
Propaganda posters and advertisements started appearing on TV, radio, magazines and store fronts. Promotional posters where distributed on how to shop during this rationing period, were displayed at stores and through other channels of distribution instructing Americans how to comply and support the United States wartime effort.
Propaganda posters and advertisements started appearing on TV, radio, magazines and store fronts.
By March of 1943, coffee, meat, cheese, fats, canned fish, canned milk, sugar and other processed foods were added to the list of rationed provisions and was implemented through rationing coupon books. Gasoline rationing by our government ultimately made the list of items Americans were forced to comply with and had to adjust their livelihoods accordingly. The below picture is a rationing book from World War 2.
On May 15, 1942, gasoline rationing began in 17 Eastern states and spread through all 48 states in America.
The United States Office of Price Control (OPA) established federal criminal codes to charge violators if rationing rules were not followed. The OPA enforced action against 280,724 violators of rationing and price laws. Penalties went as far as one year in prison and a five thousand dollar fine. One in fifteen businesses were charged with illegal transactions. OPA actively enforced their stringent laws in attempts to control the wartime economy.
A government sanctioned poster was distributed widely encouraging “ride share programs” to conserve gasoline for the military wartime effort. The posters went so far as to suggest “When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler.”
The steel manufacturers were being consumed with defense military production requests for the wartime effort which created shortages in industries such as silverware, on October 1942, the United States Mint department removed all nickel from nickel coins. Everyday items became hard to find—can openers, kitchen utensils, steel wool, batteries, pie tins, hair curlers, razor blades, wristwatches, thumbtacks, paper clips, pins, needles, zippers, garden tools, and bed springs.
A recycling effort to conserve steel products for defense production during the wartime effort was implemented. It was America’s first large foray into recycling used products. Instructions were printed explaining how to safely prepare empty previously purchased tin cans in order to conserved the limited steel available for production in our defense manufacturing industry.
Many steel and rubber containing merchandise on the store shelves were becoming scarce even with the recycling efforts. Large and small appliances were not manufactured during wartime and families were forced to share appliances. Toy manufacturing companies were put on the back shelve because steel and rubber were reserved for wartime manufacturing operations. Tires for civilian automobiles became scarce. Typewriters were rationed in the US from March 6, 1942 to April 22, 1944, requiring a certificate from the local ration board for purchase.
Beauty products became hard to find but with public uproar, the manufacturers switched to glass bottles and beauty products eventually became more available for the newly minted independent working woman who suddenly had discretionary money to spend.
American women were thrust into the workforce to help produce wartime machines since many working age men were sent off to war which left the labor market with a shortage of qualified workers. With the added discretionary money woman had to spend, they put pressure on Congress and the manufacturers to devise a new way to produce, contain and sell beauty products the women demanded.
Beauty products became hard to find but with the public uproar, the manufacturers switched to glass bottles and “beauty and health” products eventually became more available.
In order to preserve metal for wartime, the blades used for sliced bread were banned. Alarm clock manufacturers stopped production in 1942, but through a national lobbying effort because of “employee absenteeism” issues, the ban was eventually lifted.
The idiom ‘Greatest thing since sliced bread’ became popular across the world after the comedian Red Skelton used the slogan during a radio interview in 1952. Was he referencing the absence of sliced bread during wartime?
During and after WW2, governments around the world continued rationing efforts in one way or another despite overwhelming resentment from the public as demonstrated in Gallup polls. The primary ideological party pushing the reasons for rationing was the “labor party” in the UK and the democrat parties elsewhere but it wasn’t entirely limited to one party. The socially conservative public outright dissented but the leaders of the world failed to listen to the public at large.
Many soldiers in the United States were sent off to fight World War 2, and numerous young soldiers died.
The United States primarily has fought wars on foreign land, across oceans and the American people are largely immune from the direct destruction and impact regarding the carnage war brings to a nation. But this might change unfortunately with the news breaking that Russia has sent four wartime ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine which will arrive in Havana next week, Cuban officials said yesterday.
Furthermore, it’s becoming more clear our nation is marching ever more closely to a full blown war given the recently approved Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, of 2024, which authorizes an additional $61 billion to the Department of Defense.
Lastly, it must be noted the strain and stress war puts on our enlisted and potentially conscripted military troops. World War 2 added a heavy cost on our young military personnel who were shipped overseas to fight the war effort.
Censorship during the World War 2 was implemented in order to prevent leaks regarding the United States military strategy. Soldiers through their penned letters highlighted the isolation they were experiencing and the difficulty of getting one letter mailed home during the war because of the censorship. The below letter from a United States lieutenant soldier during WW2 is profound and describes the isolation it brought to the soldier because of the government censorship.
As America and our western nations are quickly approaching a potential outright full blown war, I’d like to share a quote from a science fiction moving below;
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” The quote is from a postapocalyptic novel by the author G.
Prepare for more potentially hard times, stock up on necessary items and pray for our nation. Prayers should include verbiage that our leaders receive the appropriate guidance that will prevent any further escalation from our enemies. Americans also need to pray that our leaders implement the right strategies to curtail increased tension and conflicts.
If you believe my independent reporting and commentary provides value to your daily life, please consider supporting my work through a paid subscription, share my free articles with those who may benefit. Thank you for supporting my work. God Bless America.
These people are nuts. If war, no one wins. It will be destruction of planet Earth. The leaders lead like middle school children. Makes me so sick. The people don’t want war. The demons leading are creating this evil mess. Call out to God Almighty to destroy the Evil….