1941 - Commerce

Commerce

The Office of Production Management (OPM) created by President Roosevelt January 7 is headed by William S. Knudsen of General Motors with Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union as associate director general.

The unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down February 3 in the case of United States v. Darby Lumber Co. upholds the constitutionality of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, overruling the Hammer v. Dagenhart decision of 1918. Solicitor General Francis Biddle has argued the case; now 54, he is appointed attorney general, succeeding Robert H. (Houghwout) Jackson, who has been named to succeed the late Pierce Butler as a justice of the Supreme Court.

British Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin, 60, announces the first steps in a massive mobilization campaign March 11 and begins registering 20- and 21-year-old women for service in vital industrial and agricultural jobs as well as in the auxiliary services. Women work round the clock in war plants to free men for active service. Married women with young children are exempt from duty, but day and night nurseries spring up to care for children of working mothers.

Radical British labour leader Tom Mann dies at Grassington, Yorkshire, March 13 at age 84.

Ford Motor Company agrees April 10 to recognize the United Auto Workers as the union representing all its workers nationwide and to joint negotiation of production-line speed and other issues (see 1938; Battle of the Overpass, 1937). Ford has recruited blacks to break a 10-day strike that has idled its giant River Rouge plant and attempted to play on divisive racial prejudices in order to thwart union organizers, but the contract will be a model for all U.S. industry.

The Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (OPA) created by the president April 11 has New Deal economist Leon Henderson, 45, as its head, but wartime inflation increases the general price level by 10 percent for the year (see 1940; 1943).

Japan's Ministry of Labor opens more jobs to women that were formerly for men only (see 1939). The Patriotic Labor Corporation Order requires unmarried women aged 14 to 25 to participate in the war effort.

Japanese assets in the United States are frozen July 24 by order of President Roosevelt; trade between Japan and the United States is halted.

Standard and Poor's (S&P) is created at New York by a merger of the 28-year-old Standard Statistics Co. with the 74-year-old publisher Poor's. In addition to issuing dozens of financial publications, S&P will give ratings to bonds and commercial paper, and the S&P average will vie with the Dow Jones Industrial Average as an index of the New York Stock Exchange's ups and downs.

U.S. tax rates rise sharply in nearly all categories September 20 in an effort to raise more than $3.5 billion for war-related expenditures; a 10 percent luxury tax is imposed October 1. Congress authorizes another $6 billion in defense and Lend-Lease spending October 28. The U.S. Treasury issues war bonds to help reduce the amount of money in circulation. Priced to yield 2.9 percent return on investment, the Series E savings bonds come in denominations of $25 to $10,000. Hollywood star Dorothy Lamour sells so many war bonds that she is called "the bond bombshell," and Washington puts a private railroad car at her disposal for a bond tour (she will be credited with selling more than $300 million worth); film star Linda Darnell appears on the floor of the New York Curb Exchange November 18 to sell U.S. bonds and savings stamps for a fund-raising effort.

A Supplemental Defense Act approved by Congress December 15 provides for $10 billion in appropriations for Lend-Lease aid and for the U.S. armed forces.

Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closes December 31 at 110.96, down from 131.13 at the end of 1940.