*** World War II -- automotive sector United States America








World War II Automotive Sector: Countries -- United States

American automobile industry
Figure 1.--Henry Ford revolutionized the nascent autoimobile industry with the Modet-T Tin Lizzie (1908). Ford soon domianted the American automobile induisty. The Model T- was a car that the average worker and fgramer could afford at atime that the car was basically a play-thing for the wealthy. Ford did not like the idea of making annual changes or purely cosmetic changes like different colors--they slowed and complicated down his assembly lines. Here we see a range of American cars we think in the late-1910s. We think this is a rural church prking area. Notice the children. They clearly come from modest income families. Notice the General (GM) Chevrolet. GM was created by Ford competiors to compete with Ford and in the early 1920s began to make annual changes to appeal to customers, such as offering different colors. This was the beginning of the competition between the Big Three. In the lead up to World War II, something like 80 percent cars and trucks were bring manufactured in America. Both GM and Ford was building more motor vehiles than any other country. This weuld hve a huge impact on World War II.

American and European companies made small numbers of luxury autombiles (early-1900s). They were done in very small numbers and very expensive. There was a large number of small manufactuerers. Henry Ford revolitionized the indudtry with the Model-T Tin Lizzy. Rather than making small numbers of luxury cars, Ford took the vital step of applying assembly line manufacturing techniques to motor vehicle contruction. The result was the Model-T--a vehicle for the average man. It was inmexpensive and American workers were paid enought to aford one. He result was a huge new industry for America's already expanding industry. At the time, the United States was the largest industrial economy in the world. The automobile industry enabled it to grow far beyond the capacity of the European countrues. The reulting economic boom resulting from the automobile industry created an industrial juggernaut far beyond the potential of the Eurpeamn powers. American motor vehicle production was something like 80 percent of world production. American motor vehicle production would be an important factor in World War I--primrily the trucks. When World War I began, transportation was just beginning to make the move from horse carts to trucks. In this trasition, Europe was far behind Anerica, in large part thanks to Ford's Model-T. World War I proved to be a major turning point in transportation. Before the War, goods wre mostly delivered to cities by rail and then horse-drawn waggons to wholesalers and reyailers. This shift began in America with the introduction of the Model-T Ford. Soon small trucks began to be built by Ford in large numbers. And the advantages of motorized vehicles soon became apparent. The Germans asked for an armistice before American industry had fully covered to war production. The automobile sector was of huge economic importance. The automible industry continued to grow in the Roaring Twnties, but production declined some 75 perceny after the Wall Street Crash (1929-32). The industry began to grow again as the economy began to revive (late-1930s). World War II wouild be very different than in World War I. The American automotive industry would play a crucially important role. And it was far larger than in World War I. In fact the American automotive industry had an economic footprint larger than the entire economies of most countries. The American automobile industry washard hit by the Depression. Curiosly many of the unemployed owned cars. Will Rogers quipped, "America was the first country to go to the poor house in the auromobile." The mass production of cars was still largely an American phenomenon, but Europe was beginning to change. In contrast to the Germans, the American automobile industry was fully capable, but American did not have a substantial army to equip. Instead American automobile companies in 1939 were having their first good year since the onset of the Depression, chuning out sleek new cars using large uany\tuies of steel, copper, and chrome. After Pearl Harbor (December 1941), President Roosevelt after nearly a decade of lambasting businessmen, he called then 'economic royalists.' he turned to them in a desperate effort to save America. And he understood the importance of the automotive industry. World War II was an industrial war and industry would be America's route to victory. In fact, the President called the leading and hugest paid businessman (Outside Hollywood) in the country--the chairman of General Motors--William Knudsen. His job became to mobilize the Arsenal of Democracy for war and the automobile industry would be a major part of it. America would not only arm it's own military, but help arm it's fighting allies. And at the heart of the production miracle that followed would be Knudsen and the American automotive industry. America had dominated the sector before the War. Unlike other countries, it was not only the well-to-do who owned cars in America. Henry Ford had brought the automobile within the purchasing power of the average worker. And a huge industry had grown up to fill that demand.

Early-20th Century

The automobile was created by French and German industrial pioneers (late-19th century). In America a patent attorney, George B. Selden, was awarded a patent fir an auitomible (1895). American automobile companies actually began paying him royalties, setting up an extended legal battle with none other than Henry Ford. American and European companies at the turn of the 20th century made small numbers of luxury automobiles (early-1900s). They were done in very small numbers and very expensive. There was a large number of small manufacturers. Working=-class Americans walked some might have bicycles. Astonishingly, in the space of 4 years, three American mechanics with no scientific background changed the world -- changed that would dominate the 20th century. The Write brothers would build the first heavier-than-air flying machine (1903). Than Henry Ford revolutionized the industry with the Model-T Tin Lizzy. Ford did not invent the basic technology for the automobile. That already existed at the time he began working on the Model-T. What Ford did was to make a play-thing for the well-to-do, a utilitarian vehicle for the farmer and urban worker. Ford adapted assembly line for automobile manufacturing as well as designing a very basic design. He took a further unprecedented step, paying his workers $5 a day, more than twice what most industrial workers were earning. This was enough to purchase one of the cars. Notably, $2 a day was more than most European workers were earning. Thus rather producing small numbers of luxury cars, Ford took the vital step of applying assembly line manufacturing techniques to motor vehicle construction. The result was the Model-T--a vehicle for the average man. Ford worked hard at making it inexpensive and American workers were paid enough to afford one. The result was a huge new industry for America's already expanding industry. Ford would dominate the automotive industry for more than a decade, but he was not the only player. William C. Durant founded General Motors (1908). GM was initially intended as a holding company for the Buick Car Company. Durant, however, saw opportunities. He began buying some of the biggest names in the automotive industry, companies that had launched the industry. They had all been eclipsed by Ford, including Cadillac, Oakland (Pontiac), Oldsmobile, and companies producing trucks--the future of GMC Truck. GM would become a real competitor in the 1920s. At the time, the United States was the largest industrial economy in the world. The automobile industry enabled it to grow far beyond the capacity of the European countries. The resulting economic boom resulting from the automobile industry created an industrial juggernaut far beyond the potential of the European powers. Ford had rural America in mind, seeing that it would prove useful to them if he could create a rugged vehicle at an affordable price. It would solve the problem of dustiness which isolated rural America. Ford also saw a market with industrial workers. Ford's simple design and assembly line techniques created an inexpensive vehicle for farmers and workers. As a result, Ford managed the impossible. The first Model-T touring car cost $950. Ford managed to get that down to $360 by 1916. Sales soared as the lower price made the Model T affordable to more and more Americans. Sales were an impressive 12,292 (1909). That was impressive in 1909 when other manufacturers were still selling very small numbers. Ford increased sales to an incredible 0.5 million (1916). This made Ford the largest car manufacturer in America which also meant the World. Ford became the largest car manufactured in America.

World War I (1914-18)

American motor vehicle production at the time of World War I was something like 80 percent of world production. American motor vehicle production would be an important factor in World War I--primrily the trucks. When World War I began, transportation was just beginning to make the move from horse carts to trucks. In this trasition, Europe was far behind Anerica, in large part thanks to Ford's Model-T. World War I proved to be a major turning point in transportation. Before the War, goods wre mostly delivered to cities by rail and then horse-drawn waggons to wholesalers and reyailers. This shift began in America with the introduction of the Model-T Ford. Soon small trucks began to be built by Ford in large numbers. And the advantages of motorized vehicles soon became apparent. The Germans asked for an armistice before American industry had fully covered to war production.

The 1920s

The automobile sector was of huge economic importance. No invention so affected American life and the history of the 20th century more than the automobile--especially Henry Ford's Tin Lizzie. Ford after World War I was producing half of the automobiles in America. Ford had very definitive ideas about producing his cars. His focus was on reducing production costs. He was less interested in what the public wanted. Options were an anthma, increasing prioductiion osts. He fmously said that public could choose whatever color car they wanted — so long as it was black. There were over 8 million Ford registrations by 1920. And regisdtrations contuinued to grow from there, reaching 23 million by the end of the decade. Ford was more than half of all the cars in the world at the time. Ford made a serious mistake at the time. He thought with his succes that he could ignore consumer demand. His competitoes, especially General Motors were able to break into Ford's dominance by, in contrasdt to Ford, castering to consumer demand including flashy new models. Thry began offering colors and oher consumer amernities. This began the tradition of annual model changes. The 1920s has been called, the style-conscious luxury decade. Ford would have to evntually do the same. He didn't like it becasuse options and annual model changes cost money snd made entailed productions costs, but he had to bend to conumer demand. Th industry becasme dominasted by the Big Three--Ford, GM, and Chrysler. (Ford and GM had about a third of the market each. The other third was smaller compnies with Chrisler the lsrgest.) The automotive indusdtry was the driving force of the Roaring Twenties. People were making money in the expanding industrisl economy and wanted to spend it. And a major item they wanted was a flashy new car. Even Ford had to fall in line. We see large, powerful, fast cars comping on the market, dripping with amenities and chrome trim. They became a mist hjsve for the well-to-do, including gangsters like Al Capone. Cars like the Duesenberg epitomized the era. The automobile industry was not important only by itself. It created while nbew industries and expanded existing industries. The rubber indstry in particulsr hd to be expanded, vucanized rubber was needed in large quantity. Cars used far more rubber than bicycles. And the internal combustion engine demanded enormous quantities of gasoline leading to a major expansion of the petro-chemical industry. Highay construction became a major industry as car owners demanded improved and well-designed roads. We also see gas stations, motels/motor-lodges, road-side diners springing up all asround the country. Metal industries expanded, including aluminum, chrome, copper, steel, and others. The automobile industry was the major mover. The automobile had become commonplace in America by the end of the decasde. Then Wall Street ceashed -- Black Tuesday (October 1929).

The 1930s

After two decades of rapid growth, the market for autmobiles collapsed with the Wall Street crash. The automotive industry was industry was among the sectors most adversely affected by the Depression. It was not so much the Wall Stree Crash. It was Governmen policies. The Federal Reserve and the Government turned a normal market decline into the Great Depression. By 1932, automobile sales hade plummeted by an incredable 75 percent. The industry reported an astonishing loss of over $190 millionn --an astonishing sum in 1932. By that time, unemployment was at record levels and banks and other business had begin to fail. Intereatingly GM and Chrrysler did a good job of weathering the storm. GM actually reported a profit in every year of the Great Depression. Chrysler did nearly as well, only reporting a loss in one year snd increasing their market share. Workers and suppliers did less well, but GM and Chrysler remained profitable. Part of their success was shifting to smaller less expensive models. Ther luxury end of the market collapsed, but did not disappear. Ford’s market share was permanently eroded and most smaller competitors had to close down. Ford did less well and msny smaller companies closed down. 【Rhodes and Stelter】 The 1930s saw a renewed focus on engineering--the mechanical chsrscteristics. Many imprtant innovations appeared in the 1930s and had become standard euipment by the end of the decade. We see synchromesh transmissions (for smooer shifting), low-pressure balloon tires, automatic chokes, built-in trunks, hydraulic brakes, and gear shifts on the steering columns known as 'stick-on-a-tree'. Heaters and radios appeared. There was a decided shift in styling, but it was a utilitarian change. Cars by mid-decade had made the transition, becoming smoother aerodynamic shapes as oppoosed to the boxy shapes of the 1920s. Chrysler even came up with the Airflow (1934). President Roosevelt's New Deal stabilized the economy, but there was no significant recovery until the end of the decade. The New Deal had little to do with the recovery,. In fact, the Roosevekt Recession undid some of the progress that had ben made. Whast did stimulate the economy was orders from Europe as Hitler began his aggresive moves. Curiosly, quite a number of the unemployed owned cars. This was especially the case on the Southern Plains where the Dust Bowl drove many farm families from their farms. People from Oklahonma and west Texas became known as the 'Okies' as they sttempted to ft to Oklahoma. Humorous/ social commentator Will Rogers quipped, "America was the first country to go to the poor house in the auromobile." The mass production of cars was still largely an American phenomenon, but Europe had made progress (mostly Britain and Francee). Germany had notably made little progress. The German commitment to high-quality manufacturing was an impediment to shifting to mass production. The American manufacturing industry in contrast had perfected mass production. And the asutomobile industry reported its first good year since the onset of the Depression, churning out sleek new cars using huge quantites of alluminim, chrome, copper, steel, and other ctritical metals (1939). While Detroit was only producing a fraction of its pre-Depression output, the plants and equiopmnt still existed meaning production could be rapidly expnded, creating what would become the great Arsenl of Democracy, the term coined by President Roosevelt in one of his most important Fire Side Chats (1940).

World War II (1939-41)

World War II would be very different than in World War I. The American automotive industry would play a crucially important role. And it was far larger than in World War I. In fact the American automotive industry had an economic footprint larger than the entire economies of most countries. After Pearl Harbor (December 1941), President Roosevelt after nearly a decade of lambasting businessmen, he called then 'economic royalists.' he turned to them in a desperate effort to save America. And he understood the importance of the automotive industry. World War II was an industrial war and industry would be America's route to victory. In fact, the President called the leading and hugest paid businessman (Outside Hollywood) in the country--the chairman of General Motors--William Knudsen. His job became to mobilize the Arsenal of Democracy for war and the automobile industry would be a major part of it. America would not only arm it's own military, but help arm it's fighting allies. And at the heart of the production miracle that followed would be Knudsen and the American automotive industry. America had dominated the sector before the War. Unlike other countries, it was not only the well-to-do who owned cars in America. Henry Ford had brought the automobile within the purchasing power of the average worker. And a huge industry had grown up to fill that demand. A huge induitrial capacity thast could bve converted to war production. This had begun before the War, and a a minor incident exemplified waht was happening. After Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) security concern became paramount. Federal Regulations restricted what the Federal Governmeny could spend for a car. Thus there were not special cars for the President. And the Secret Service wanted to make sure he was safe moving from thw White House to the Capitol to deliver his 'day of Infamy' declaratiion of War speech. The solution was Al Capone's huge armored Cadillac the IRS had seized a decade earlier, although it was not used for the ride to the capitol. The Declaratiion of War also brought Ford into the war production business. Henry Ford swas a pacifist. He refused to build arms for the Allies while America was still neutral. Ford refused a British contract tobuild Merrlin engenies. Instead the contact went to Packard. With America in the War, Ford followed GM, Chrysler, and the other automobile companies into the Arsenal of Democracy. Knudsen and his staff worked miracles. American industry not only produced more than the American military has anticipated, but far more than the Axis thought possible. The very peopkle who politicians had harried an oercecuted forv two decasd=casdes, not only saved Anmerica, but Western Civilization. American industry would maked made the concersion to war productyion far quicker than anyone anticipated--in part because the President had him working on it more than a year before Pearl Harbor. Hitler told his associates that it wiould be years before America was ready for War. Less than a year after OPeal Harbor, American forces were ion the offensive first in the Pacific and then uin North africa and by 1943 American industry was tuenuing out incredavke quanyiies of militaryv equioment fior thev land, naval, and air war.

Sources

Rhodes, David and Daniel Stelter. "How automakers accelerated out of the Great Depression," ECG (February 16, 2010).






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Created: 12:06 AM 9/25/2021
Last updated: 4:44 PM 5/6/2023