Monday, February 18, 1946 The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny breaks out.

The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny began at the port of Colaba.  It was the first mutiny in British India since 1857.

The mutiny started over inadequate food.  It would rapidly spread.

Pope Pius XII announced the appointment of 32 new cardinals.  The Rocky Mountain News had an article about it.

A California Federal Court held that segregation of schools in California was unconstitutional.

President Truman signed the Rescission Act of 1946 reducing (rescinding) the amounts of certain funds already designated for specific government programs, much of it for the U.S. military.

$200 million previously appropriated to the U.S. Army for ordnance service and supplies was transferred to the Army of the Philippines by way of the act.

Eisenhower was in Denver.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 16, 1946. Potato consumption. Frozen food. Helicopters.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, 1960s, 1962, Aircraft, Boy Scouts, Food, Hypocrisy, It was because of World War Two, Lebanon, Russo Ukrainian War, Sakhalin Island, Strike Wave of 1945-1946, Syria, United Nations, USSR

Saturday, February 16, 1946. Potato consumption. Frozen food. Helicopters.

Frozen french fries were introduced by Maxson Food Systems of Long Island, New York.

From time to time, we'll have these a lot.

American per-capita potato consumption had interestingly declined since 1910, and was not measured at previous levels until 1962, when french fries were a fast-food restaurant staple.

I would not have guessed that, or frankly anything close to that.

Indeed a decline from 1910 to 1962 really surprises me.

I personally used to grow large volumes of potatoes, picking up where my later father had left off.  Maybe because its because I'm more Irish than most Irish, but I love them.

An item on frying fries:

Chugwater Fry-Off: Are Beef Tallow French Fries Really Better?

The first UN Security Council veto was made by the Soviet Union, killing a resolution concerning the withdrawal of British and French forces from Syria and Lebanon, while it still occupied parts of Iran.  Basically, the Soviet Union wanted the British and French out of Syria and Lebanon (which really was a French thing) while they still had their claws in Eastern Europe, North Korea, Sakhalin, and Iran.

They'd leave Iran, and with the fall of the Soviet Union, they'd leave many other places as well. With the Russo Ukrainian War, they're trying to claw their way back in, however ,and they've never left Sakahlian.

The Sikorsky S-51, the first helicopter sold for commercial rather than military use, although it received military use, was flown for the first time.

The chopper would be manufactured until the late 1950s.

By United States Navy - Scanned from Alexander, Joseph H., Fleet Operations in a Mobile War: September 1950-June 1951, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 2001, p. 39., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72961678

There was major news on the strike wave:

A Denver merchant noted the anniversary of Scouting:

Last edition:

Thursday, February 14, 1946. ENIAC.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Army, Banking and finance, Computers, United Kingdom, Weapons

Thursday, February 14, 1946. ENIAC.

The Bank of England was nationalized.

The U.S. Army introduced the early computer ENIAC, which calculated rocket trajectories.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 13, 1946. Harold Ickes resigns.

Labels: 1930s, 1933, 1940s, 1946, Department of the Interior, Franklin Roosevelt Administration, Harry S. Truman, Truman Administration

Wednesday, February 13, 1946. Harold Ickes resigns.

Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior since 1933, resigned in protest after President Truman said that Ickes could have been "wrong" in testimony given to a U.S. Senate committee about Truman's nominee for Undersecretary of the Navy. 

Ickes wrote to Truman saying, in part; "I cannot stay on when you, in effect, have expressed a lack of confidence in me."

His overall resignation letter was some 2,000 words in length and reflected a growing dispute with Truman.  Ickes was known for his combative nature.

Ickes had been appointed to the position by Franklin Roosevelt at a time at which the largely unknown Ickes was a progressive Republican.  Under Roosevelt, he was also head of the Public Works Administration.  He'd come up almost out of nowhere at the time as he'd not been nationally known at the time of his appointment, and was already 59 years old.  He was over 70 years old at the time of his resignation.

He also had an unusual personal life.  He'd married divorcee Anna Wilmarth Thompson in 1911, who was just about his own age.  They had one son, and he was the stepfather to her two children by a prior marriage.   They also had an adopted son.  She was killed in an automobile accident in 1937.  His adopted son Wilmarth killed himself on the anniversary of her death a year later.

Ickes and his second wife, Jane.

At age 64 he remarried 25 year old Jane Dahlman, the younger sister of his adopted son's wife. The couple had two more children, one of whom became Deputy Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 9, 1946. Stalin declares war inevitable.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Capitalism, Communism, Crime, Italy, Joseph Stalin, Mafia, Personalities, The Cold War, the spoken word, USSR, War

Painted Bricks: Dissing the ConRoy Building, and being inaccurate about it.

Painted Bricks: Dissing the ConRoy Building, and being inaccurate ...: What the crap? The original intent of this blog was simply to record the ghost signs of Casper, Wyoming.  It did that pretty rapidly, and th...

Dissing the ConRoy Building, and being inaccurate about it.

What the crap?

The original intent of this blog was simply to record the ghost signs of Casper, Wyoming.  It did that pretty rapidly, and then it went on to catch them elsewhere and expand out a bit from there. Basically, we like historic buildings here.

One of the things we've noted, however, in doing this is that fables grow up around buildings.  Sometimes it's really hard to figure out their origin.

I've been familiar with this building for over fifty years.  It's one of three sister buildings in Casper that all were designed by the Casper architectural firm of Casper firm of Garbutt and Weidner, who at least based on these three buildings, were heavily into the same appearance for their "skyscrapers" at the time. This is the "ConRoy Building", the Consolidated Royalty Building.  We noted its centennial several years, well nearly a decade, ago, elsewhere:

Happy Centenary! Things or rather places, that are 100 years old.

I've been meaning to post this forever but just wasn't in any big hurry to do it. Then it suddenly dawned on me that if I didn't do it soon, these places would be 101 years old, not 100. So here goes.

A thread dedicated to a few local places and establishments that made it to year 100 in 2017.

The ConRoy Building

 

 The ConRoy (Consolidated Royalty Building).  The building's appearance has changed somewhat, but you have to really observe it to notice the changes.  The windows were replaced from the original style about fifteen years ago, giving it more modern and more efficient windows.  The elevator shaft, not visible here, is an enlarged one to accommodate a larger elevator than the one put in when it was built in 1917.  The awning restores the building to an original appearance in those regards which it lacked for awhile, but at street level the building has a glass or rock masonry treatment which clearly departs from the original.

One that I've mentioned here before is the ConRoy, or Consolidated Royalty Building.  Built in 1917 as the Oil Exchange Building, the building was one of Casper's first "sky scrapers",  if in fact not the absolute first.  Ground was broken in the summer of 1917 and the building was completed some time in August 1917. The Consolidated Royalty Oil Company, a company in which former Governor B. B. Brooks had a major interest, occupied the fifth floor of the structure.

 

The ConRoy Building occasionally gets some interesting avian visitors.

Unlike its two sister buildings, the Wyoming National Bank Building (now apartments) and  the Townsend Hotel (now the Townsend Justice Center) designed by the same architect, the building has never been vacant and remains in use today.  At least one of the current tenants descends from a firm that was a very early tenant, and perhaps a 1917 tenant.

 

The building has been updated over time, and its appearance is slightly changed due to the addition of an odd decorative rock face in the 1950s, but it by and large looks much like it did in 1917 from the outside.  It's one of the few old downtown Casper buildings that hasn't undergone major appearance changes over the years.

May 2, 1917 edition of the Casper Daily Tribune announcing vacancies in the yet to be built Oil Exchange Building.  The remainder of this issue was full of war news, and indeed it was partially the oil boom caused by the war that brought the building about.

More recently it figured here, as the owners of the building commissioned some murals on the fire escape doors:

Backdoor art.

So how on earth does it end up in a political campaign?

Frankly, I have no idea, but the entire idea of it being built by "a Democrat" is a real wild one.  The principal figure in the building being built was B. B. Brooks, who served as a Republican Governor for Wyoming, as we noted above.  Brooks had his offices on the fifth floor of the building.

B. B. Brooks, Republican.  He would not be amused.

This building has been continually occupied since 1917, and some of the businesses currently in it have been in the building since the 1940s although as earlier noted, one of them might have been in the building as early as 1917. Of the other two sisters, one is now the Townsend Justice Center which houses Natrona County's courts, and Wyo. Bank Bldg is an apartment building with a cafe on the street level.

All three buildings originally had, fwiw, massive period style lobbies which are sadly now all gone although you can catch glimpses of them, particularly in the Wyo. National Bank Bldg. The ConRoy once had a cigar store and magazine stand on the street level, after the lobby was taken out, and into the 50s, which explains the current appearance of its very small lobby today.  Basically, the ConRoy and the Wyoming National Bank building were victims of "modernization" concepts in architecture from the 1950s and 1960s, at which time those buildings were forty years old and less, and nobody thought of them being particularly historic.  The Townsend probably retained its architecture the longest, as it was a hotel originally, and up into the 70s when it closed. By that time it was pretty much a flop house with a popular cafe.  I recall it as my father had lunch there until the cafe closed, which many other downtown businessmen and professionals did as well.  It made for an odd place to go as a kid, which I sometimes did with my father, as the cafe was really popular, as was the adjoined Petroleum Club, but in the lobby the working girls were recovering from their prior night.

The ConRoy, on the other hand, has hummed on much like it has since 1917, although some of the notable early tenants, like the Casper Star Tribune, have moved on.  The building was recently featured in the Oil City News when some of the equipment for a new elevator, replacing the one from the 1950s that replaced the one from 1917, was lifted by crane into the structure.

Anyhow, this is baffling.  Of course, I only know of this as somebody else whose familiar with the building pointed it out to me and was horribly amused by it.  I don't know that I am, as I like things to be accurate.

But why would a person do this, and how would such a wild rumor get started?

Blog Mirror: February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres

 

February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres

I was not aware that this was a 1976 movie, but then, I've never thought of the topic either.

I've actually never seen Taxi Driver all the way through.*  It's just too icky for me.  But the point raised here, tracking the depictions of New York City from the early 1960s into the 1970s, from "magical" to decline, is a really interesting observation.

Somewhere I have a series photographs of my mother in New York that must date from the late 1940s.  She and some friends went down from Montreal to visit.  She told me once how "clean" New York was, that being her observation from that trip.

I've been to New York state, but it's been years and years.  My exposure to New York City, however, is limited to the airport, a memory which is equally old.

Footnotes:

*Indeed, of the movies mentioned in this thread, the only one I've seen all the way through is Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Last edition:

Friday, February 6, 1976. Peltier arrested. Prince Bernhard implicated. Smith warns. Black Jack dies.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Indian Movement, Army, Crime, Equine Transportation, Monarchy, Personalities, Pine Ridge Reservation, Rhodesia, Rhodesian Bush War

Saturday, February 9, 1946. Stalin declares war inevitable.

Stalin in an "election" speech carried on Soviet radio, stated another war was inevitable due to the "capitalist development of the world economy", and that the USSR needed to plan accordingly.

The Chairman:

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin has the floor.

(Comrade Stalin’s appearance in the rostrum was greeted by the voters with loud cheers lasting several minutes. The entire audience in the Bolshoi Theatre rose to its feet to greet Comrade Stalin. There were continuous cries of “Cheers for great Stalin!” “Long live great Stalin, Hurrah!” “Cheers for our beloved Stalin!” )

Comrade Stalin:

Comrades!

Eight years have passed since the last elections to the Supreme Soviet. This has been a period replete with events of a decisive nature. The first four years were years of intense labour on the part of Soviet people in carrying out the Third Five- Year Plan. The second four years covered the events of the war against the German and Japanese aggressors — the events of the Second World War. Undoubtedly, the war was the main event during the past period.

It would be wrong to think that the Second World War broke out accidentally, or as a result of blunders committed by certain statesmen, although blunders were certainly committed. As a matter of fact, the war broke out as the inevitable result of the development of world economic and political forces on the basis of present-day monopolistic capitalism. Marxists have more than once stated that the capitalist system of world economy contains the elements of a general crisis and military conflicts, that, in view of that, the development of world capitalism in our times does not proceed smoothly and evenly, but through crises and catastrophic wars. The point is that the uneven development of capitalist countries usually leads, in the course of time, to a sharp disturbance of the equilibrium within the world system of capitalism, and that group of capitalist countries regards itself as being less securely provides with raw materials and markets usually attempts to change the situation and to redistribute “spheres of influence” in its own favour — by employing armed force. As a result of this, the capitalist world is split into two hostile camps, and war breaks out between them . . .

And so, how should our victory [in World War II] be interpreted? What can this victory signify from the point of view of the state and the development of the internal forces of our country?

Our victory signifies, first of all, that our Soviet social system was victorious, that the Soviet social system successfully passed the test of fire in the war and proved that it is fully viable.

As we know, the foreign press on more than one occasion asserted that the Soviet social system was a “dangerous experiment” that was doomed to failure . . . [but] now we can say that the war has refuted all these assertions of the foreign press and has proved them to have been groundless. The war proved that the Soviet social system is a genuinely people’s system, which grew up from the ranks of the people and enjoys their powerful| support; that the Soviet social system is fully viable and stable form of organization of society . . .

Now a few words about the Communist Party’s plans of work for the immediate future. As you know, these plans are formulated in the new five-year plan, which is to be adopted in the very near future. The main tasks of the new five-year plan are to rehabilitate the devastated regions of our country, to restore industry and agriculture to the prewar level, and then to exceed that level to a more or less considerable extent. Apart from the fact that the rationing system is to be abolished in the very near future (loud and prolonged applause), special attention will be devoted to the expansion of the production of consumers’ goods, to raising the standard of living of the working people by steadily reducing the prices of all commodities (loud and prolonged applause), and to the extensive organization of scientific research institutes of every kind (applause) capable of giving the fullest scope to our scientific forces. (Loud applause.)

I have no doubt that if we give our scientists proper assistance they will be able in the very near future not only to overtake but even outstrip the achievements of science beyond the borders of our country. (Prolonged applause.)

As regards long-term plans, our Party intends to organize another powerful upswing of our national economy that will enable us to raise our industry to a level, say, three times as high as that of prewar industry. We must see to it that our industry shall be able to produce annually up to 50,000,000 tons of pig iron (prolonged applause ), up to 60,000,000 tons of steel (prolonged applause ), up to 500,000,000 tons of coal (prolonged applause ) and up to 60,000,000 tons of oil (prolonged applause ). Only when we succeed in doing that can we be sure that our Motherland will be insured against all contingencies. (Loud applause.) This will need, perhaps, another three five-year plans, if, not more. But it can be done, and we must do it. (Loud applause) . .

In conclusion, permit me to express my thanks for the confidence which you have shown me (loud and prolonged applause. A voice: “Cheers for the great leader of all our victories, Comrade Stalin! “) by nominating me as a candidate for the Supreme Soviet. You need have no doubt that will do my best to justify your confidence. (All rise. Loud and prolonged applause rising to an ovation. Voices in different parts of the hall: “Long live great Stalin, Hurrah!” “Cheers for the great leader of the peoples!” “Glory to great Stalin!” “Long live Comrade Stalin, the candidate of the entire people!” “Glory to the creator of all our victories, Comrade Stalin! “

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was deported to his native Italy where he'd spend the rest of his life, dying in 1962 at age 64.

Luciano in 1948.

Born Salvatore Lucania, the Mafia boss had immigrated to the US in 1906 as a child.

Last edition:

Friday, February 8, 1946. Kim Il Sung's rise. Viola Faber, accused of murdering her stepson, gives birth.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, 1960s, 1961, 1966, China, Crime, Dwight Eisenhower, Food, Homicide, Kim Il Sung, North Korea, Occupation of Korea, Strike Wave of 1945-1946, USSR

Friday, February 8, 1946. Kim Il Sung's rise. Viola Faber, accused of murdering her stepson, gives birth.

Kim Il Sung was elected Chairman of the Interim People's Committee in the Soviet occupied portion of Korea.  Originally, the Soviets preferred Cho Man-sik to lead a "popular front" government but Cho, to his credit, refused to support a Soviet-backed entity.  Red Army General Terentii Shtykov supported Kim over Pak Hon-yong to lead the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea, and therefore Kim was selected on this date.

He remained subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.

More strike problems on the front page of The Rocky Mountain News.

A person had to read deeper into the News to see the story on Viola Elliot. Page 5, where you need to go, is set out below.

She was accused of the beating death of her stepson, Robert.  She denied it, but she was convicted of second degree murder.  Her 8 year old son by a previous marriage was a witness for the prosecution at the trial and Mrs. Elliot admitted at the time of arrest that she had hit and kicked the child on the occasion of his death.  She later changed her story and claimed he'd tripped on his pajamas.

Her parents and husband said they'd stand by her at the time of her arrest, but I wonder if that was still the case later on.  At her sentencing, she stated that Leslie was just as responsible for the death and the judge agreed.  Leslie had already been arraigned for assault and battery and assessory after the fact.  In April she petitioned the County to make her children wards of the County, to which her husband objected.  They were noted to be "estranged" by that time.

Viola was 27 years old and on her second marriage at the time.  She would have had her first child, if her son who testified was the first at age 19 in 1937 or 1938.  The paper mentioned that there were three children, including the murdered boy.  Interestingly, I can find one other reference to a "Miss Viola Elliot" from 1937 indicating that Viola Elliot was employed as an arts and crafts teacher.  A 1943 edition mentions a Viola Elliott as being just back in town after visiting her husband in Tennessee, who was probably in the service.

Viola received 15 to 20 years for the murder.

Leslie would receive six months for assault and battery.

Her mother, Alice Faber, testified at the trial, as did her father.  Alice died in 1966 and is buried in Denver.  Her obituary listed Viola as still living, still with the last name Elliot, and in Denver.  The Fabers also had a son named Wilmer, who was alive at the time.  The boy who testified at the trial was living in California.

Her father died in 1961.

Arguments were occuring on the Bomb.

A resort was being planned near Fort Logan.

An impressive imposter story was reported.

Last edition:

Thursday, February 7, 1946. France attacks in Bến Tre Province, Truman speaks. Bikinis appear in the press. Strike controls. Army shoes on the market.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Cheesecake, China Burma India Theater, Clothing, French Army, French Indochina, French Indochinese War, Harry S. Truman, Standards, Strike Wave of 1945-1946, The Cold War, The Press, Việt Minh, Vietnam

Thursday, February 7, 1946. France attacks in Bến Tre Province, Truman speaks. Bikinis appear in the press. Strike controls. Army shoes on the market.

France launched a large-scale campaign to take the island province of Bến Tre Province in the Mekong Delta which was held by the Việt Minh.

President Truman gave a press conference.

The President's News Conference

February 7, 1946

THE PRESIDENT. [1.] I have a most interesting letter which I would like to read to you this morning, from the famous Dean of Canterbury, Mr. Hewlett Johnson. He says:

"My dear Mr. President:"--

This is dated 31st of January, 1946·

--"May I categorically deny a statement, which I understand has appeared in the American press, that I regarded America as 100 years behind in everything save religion and 150 years behind in that." [Laughter] "That statement, which is of course ridiculous, was made in a jocular mood by my predecessor." [More laughter]

"I neither endorsed such a statement, nor do I think it is true.

"I believe and constantly affirm that America leads the world in industrial adventure, activity and achievement. Indeed, I am accused in England of over-enthusiasm for America's achievement.

"I am convinced that we in Europe have rich lessons to learn from America, especially in enterprise and the arts of production.

"I believe also that America may learn in the future from some European experiments in distribution and planned economy.

"I only write because had such a statement really been made by me, it would have shown the most gross ingratitude for the over-abundant kindness I received from you and your countrymen."

If anybody wants a copy of that letter, we will furnish it.

[2.] Now to get down to serious things, I am particularly interested in this food situation.

In most of the wheat-producing countries of the world, outside of the United States and Canada, there has been almost a total crop failure in wheat. Australia's crop is a failure. South Africa had a drought. All Europe suffered from a drought, so far as the wheat situation is concerned. And in the far East, the production of rice in India is from 12 to 15 percent short of the usual crop, and they are always an importing country on that part of their food, and they import from Burma and Siam and Indochina. Those countries' rice crops are, of course, a total failure on account of the fact that they have--were in this war situation, and they also have had adverse weather conditions along with the war situation. The Japanese crop, I am informed, is 15 percent short of normal, and they import usually 15 percent of their rice for food.

It is proposed under this program which we have inaugurated, that we hope to be able to ship 6 million tons of wheat in the first half of 1946. Now, if anybody needs a lesson in arithmetic, that is about 200 million bushels. The measures ordered should make it possible for us to come closer to what we want to do by about 500,000 or a million tons.

Wheat and other food products which we plan to export during the first 6 months of this year will provide 50 million people with a diet of 2,000 calories a day, or 100 million with 1,000 calories a day for a 6 months' period.

Now, some of the people in the devastated countries of Europe are living on much less than 1,500 calories a day. We eat about 3,300 here in the United States. The situation is so serious that we felt it was absolutely essential to take every measure possible to help keep the people in these countries from starving; because in those countries which are our friends and allies, they are not to blame for the situation.

And in enemy countries we can't afford to see our enemies starve, even if they did bring this situation on themselves. We can't do that and live according to our own ideals.

We have asked Canada and Australia, and all the countries which are supposed to have surplus foods, to join us in this program; and I think every one of them will.

If you want a copy of these figures and things, Mr. Ayers will be able to furnish them to you after the conference.

Q. Mr. President, is it possible we may have meat rationing as a--may we have to come to that eventually?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope not. If the packing plants can run at full blast, it will not be necessary. If it becomes necessary, in order to keep 10 or 15 million people from starving to death, I think we ought to do it.

Q. Mr. President, can you throw any light, in that connection on that same story, in your meeting with the Cabinet?

THE PRESIDENT. That is substantially the statement that was issued yesterday as adopted by the Cabinet as a whole.

Q. Mr. President, under the Potsdam Declaration, the rations of the Germans should be no higher than the European average?

THE PRESIDENT. That's right.

Q. Does this worldwide shortage, particularly as it affects Europe, indicate there will have to be a cut in German rations?

THE PRESIDENT. There will probably have to be a cut in the whole European ration. There is a cut in the whole European ration now. That is what we are trying to meet. We are trying our best to meet the thing on as equitable a basis as we possibly can.

Q. But this thousand calories would be less than the Germans are getting. Are we going to feed the enemy better than our allies?

THE PRESIDENT. No, we are not. That is what we are trying to prevent. We are not going to do that. We are going to take care of our allies first. That figure is in Poland and Germany, principally.

Q. I was thinking of Poland, that is what I mean.

THE PRESIDENT. Poland and Germany. But we certainly are not going to treat our allies worse than our enemies, you can be assured of that.

Q. Mr. President, are there any mechanical difficulties in milling the flour?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know. I don't know enough about the milling business to answer the question.

Q. Mr. President, can you say whether there is any problem of hoarding wheat in other countries at the present time?

THE PRESIDENT. I am not familiar with it, if there is.

Q. Mr. President, in connection with the extraction order, there are some rough spots in the milling industry, and I take it that the objection to that order is to get the wheat and the order--you would not object to the order being workable or flexible, so long as you got the wheat?

THE PRESIDENT. That's the point exactly. And I think we will get their cooperation-I don't think there will be anybody who isn't anxious to keep people from starving to death. It's un-American, I think, to have the idea to let people starve.

Q. Mr. President, when you were discussing this with the experts--with the agricultural people particularly--did they bring up details of this wheat shortage--grain shortage--in certain areas where farmers would be anxious to keep the wheat right with them, and you have to get it out? Is that part of the problem?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I think every phase has been gone into by the agricultural experts.

Q. Any particular answer to that situation ?

THE PRESIDENT. I can't give you an answer to that. We hope that this situation will work out. The reports that have been made indicate that everybody seems to think it answers the purpose.

Q. Mr. President, if there will be no rationing here, are the mechanics such that we will cut down, just not buy so much; that is, the American people--

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. Make contributions, just like they would clothing and everything else. I think they will do that. I think they will be pleased to do that.

Q. Mr. President, who will handle the equitable distribution of these food supplies in the various countries?

THE PRESIDENT. UNRRA will handle most of it.

Q. It will continue under UNRRA?

THE PRESIDENT, Yes.

Q. Mr. President, does this 6 million tons represent an increase in our commitments, or a decrease in our commitments?

THE PRESIDENT. No. There is, I think, a slight decrease in our first commitments. You will have to get those figures categorically from the Secretary of Agriculture, who has been the conferee with our allies in this setup.

Q. Mr. President, can you tell us what estimate you have on wheat saving from the livestock reduction program?

THE PRESIDENT. About--between 25 and 50 million bushels.

Q. Well, do you believe that this saving is justified in the light of the danger of short liquidation of livestock?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think there will be any short liquidation of livestock. Livestock will be slaughtered at a lighter weight than they ordinarily would. And 225-pound hogs will, I think, make just as good eating as 300-pound ones; and I used to raise them.

Q. [Aside] Better.

[3.] Q. Mr. President, about Mr. Pauley. Are you going to withdraw his nomination?

THE PRESIDENT. I am not. I am backing Mr. Pauley. I think Mr. Pauley is an honest man, and I don't think he is the only honest man in Washington or in the oil business.

Q. Have you any comment?

THE PRESIDENT. I think he is a very capable administrator, because he was the Reparations Director up until just recently and did a magnificent job in that, and I have the utmost confidence in him.

Q. Did Secretary Ickes advise you of his testimony before?

THE PRESIDENT. No, he did not. I didn't discuss it with him.

Q. Do you intend to now?

THE PRESIDENT, No.

Q. Mr. President, did Ed Flynn confide in you yesterday, when he was going to leave your office, that he was going to criticize Mr. Ickes?

THE PRESIDENT. No, he did not. I didn't discuss Mr. Ickes with Mr. Flynn. He was discussing other matters.

Q. Can you tell us what you were discussing, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. It was political matters in the State of New York. [Laughter]

Q. Mr. President, you don't consider that this situation involves anything at all, any change in your relations with Mr. Ickes?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so. Mr. Ickes can very well be mistaken the same as the rest of us.

[4.] Q. Mr. President, how is the price-what is the situation on the wage-price balance?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope to be able to make a complete statement on that in a day or two. I can't do it now.

Q. Will it come today possibly?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so.

Q. Do you anticipate, sir, that that would bring on an early settlement of the steel and other big strikes?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope so.

Q. Mr. President, has the administration made any suggestions on that wage-price formula that may be under consideration by U.S. Steel and Labor in their current sessions?

THE PRESIDENT. I haven't discussed the matter with either one, up to the present time.

Q. I was wondering whether Mr. Snyder may have passed it along for some suggestions for a formula?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so. They are working on it. That's what they are working--it will all be worked out.

Q. Is it a materially new wage-price stabilization policy, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. No, it isn't. It's a working out of the situation we are faced with now, and I think it will be worked out in a very satisfactory manner.

Q. Can you say when, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. I hope in the next day or two.

Q. There has been some speculation, Mr. President, that this will be called "the big steel formula"?

THE PRESIDENT [laughing]. I haven't heard that one.

Q. Does that mean it will be temporary, Mr. President, in meeting the present situation?

THE PRESIDENT. Here is the situation that we are trying to meet: We are all aware of the fact that what we need is production. We know that if we get production--mass production--on the basis that we are capable of putting out here in this country, that the situation will adjust itself; and whenever that situation comes about there will be no reason for a wage-price formula, for that will adjust itself.

And that is exactly what we have been working for, ever since V-J Day. That was the reason for the first directive on a wage price formula. It was my hope that we would, as soon as possible, begin working just as hard as we could to create production to meet the demand that has now piled up as a result of the war.

We have had some stumbling blocks. We are trying to meet those stumbling blocks now. The first wage-price formula would have worked, if we had been able to arrive at the production we were hoping we were going to get.

[5.] Q. If the steel and other strikes are not settled, will there still be a Florida trip?

THE PRESIDENT. I am still going to Florida.

Q. [Aside] Good!

THE PRESIDENT. I can still do business by telephone.

[6.] Q. Has the committee from the House Territories Committee reported to you on their investigation of statehood for Hawaii?

THE PRESIDENT. That's right. They recommended

Q. Can you report your views?

THE PRESIDENT. They recommended that Hawaii ought to have statehood.

Q. As you made in your annual Message for immediate statehood?

THE PRESIDENT. That's right. I think they were--they are in favor of that very thing.

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT, All right.

NOTE: President Truman's forty-seventh news conference was held in his office at the White House at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 7, 1946.

How nice it must have been to have a President who didn't sound like an idiot every time he spoke.

The India Burma Theater Roundup came out.  It was one of the many service newspapers of the Second World War.

The paper's masthead.

We've had Yank up here from time to time and that service magazine notably had a pinup in ever issue, an unfortunate indication of things to come, even though the pinup was always clothed.  Perhaps because of its distance from the continental US, the Roundup was packed with pinups.  This issue, which I'm not going to fully post, had a bikini clad young woman on every page.  I note that because, for whatever reason, I'd assumed that the bikini had come into being in the 1950s.  Not so, it had clearly arrived by the mid 1940s.

Because we put some newspapers up from the 1940s, well because we do it quite often, we've looked at quite a few and that's been revealing as well  The Rocky Mountain News was very obviously much more of a tabloid than it was later, and it had cheesecake photos in it a fair amount.  However, the other day going through it it had an article entitled "Denver Women Do Not Like Nude Look" featuring a woman wearing a see through blouse.  I don't doubt that Denver women didn't like it, but the fact that it even came up says something about the standards of the time.  Indeed, in looking at the issue for this day in 1946, a bikini clad actress was featured.  In a recent issue, a cartoon that focused on post war life had women a dressing room, naked bare backs to the viewer, in the drawing, with the cartoon page being the one that children favored.

Perhaps related, the Rocky Mountain News had this article for the day:

Hmmm.

In a more serious article:

And the Cold War was heating up.

This article for shoes in the same issue featured a type of shoe that we'd call a Service Shoe, that being an ankle high boot.  That type of boot has been discussed at length here, and is still made by companies like Red Wing and Whites.  They were the boot of the U.S. Army from 1902 until into World War Two, when they were replaced by the M1943 combat boot.  In 1945 some troops would still have had them.

The advertised manufacturer, Roblee, is still around.  They came into existence in 1908.  Roblee had been an Army contractor during World War Two and had made service shoes as well as jump boots.

Indeed both of the shoe designs depicted above would have worked for the Army uniform at the time, which leads us to suspect that these were contract overruns, or perhaps left over after contract terminations.

Related Threads:

Munson Last Boots, or how I became a hipster and didn't even know it. And reflections what hipster affectations mean.

Labels: Agrarianism, Agriculture, Army, Clothing, Commentary, Contra Mudum, Footwear, James Montgomery Flagg, Work