Thanks to very careful researchers like jguss, the real, true story of a man named Lee who in late 1945 planned to take on the huge, giant KB&B corporation makers of millions and millions of pipes a year, will be better than any legend a storyteller might spin up.
One thing nobody can deny.
Government defense spending had killed the Great Depression.
Before the war, my parents said every town with a railroad stop, just outside of town had a hobo jungle.
Even as late as 1939 there were millions and millions of young men who simply could not find work.
When Hitler’s tanks invaded Poland America was pitifully, and utterly unable to muster any serious military power, because of Charles Lindbergh and other isolationists, convincing the public America should be isolationist.
——
Public opinion polling was still in its infancy as World War II approached, but surveys suggested the force of events in Europe in 1940 had a powerful impact on American ideas about the war. In January of that year, one poll found that 88% of Americans opposed the idea of declaring war against the Axis powers in Europe. As late as June, only 35% of Americans believed their government should risk war to help the British. Soon after, however, France fell, and in August the German Luftwaffe began an all-out bombing campaign against Great Britain. The British Royal Air Force valiantly repelled the German onslaught, showing that Hitler was not invincible. A September 1940 poll found that 52% of Americans now believed the United States ought to risk war to help the British. That number only increased as Britain continued its standoff with the Germans; by April 1941 polls showed that 68% of Americans favored war against the Axis powers if that was the only way to defeat them.
—-
After Pearl Habor, my parents said the hoboes outside town vanished, all gone off to war or defense jobs.
The Manhattan Project was so secret Vice President Harry S Truman only learned of it after FDR died in April 1945.
But even then, the engineers didn’t know if it would work.
But it did work.
en.m.wikipedia.org
But that also meant over seven million boys were coming home to a defense industry shut down as tight as a liquor store on Sunday in a Baptist town.
While many economists feared a return to the Great Depression , Lee was planning to make the world’s finest pipes.
You can’t make up better legends, than real life.
One thing nobody can deny.
Government defense spending had killed the Great Depression.
| Year | Unemployment Rate (December) | Annual GDP Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 1940 | 14.6% | 8.8% |
| 1941 | 9.9% | 17.7% |
| 1942 | 4.7% | 18.9% |
| 1943 | 1.9% | 17.0% |
Even as late as 1939 there were millions and millions of young men who simply could not find work.
When Hitler’s tanks invaded Poland America was pitifully, and utterly unable to muster any serious military power, because of Charles Lindbergh and other isolationists, convincing the public America should be isolationist.
——
Public opinion polling was still in its infancy as World War II approached, but surveys suggested the force of events in Europe in 1940 had a powerful impact on American ideas about the war. In January of that year, one poll found that 88% of Americans opposed the idea of declaring war against the Axis powers in Europe. As late as June, only 35% of Americans believed their government should risk war to help the British. Soon after, however, France fell, and in August the German Luftwaffe began an all-out bombing campaign against Great Britain. The British Royal Air Force valiantly repelled the German onslaught, showing that Hitler was not invincible. A September 1940 poll found that 52% of Americans now believed the United States ought to risk war to help the British. That number only increased as Britain continued its standoff with the Germans; by April 1941 polls showed that 68% of Americans favored war against the Axis powers if that was the only way to defeat them.
—-
After Pearl Habor, my parents said the hoboes outside town vanished, all gone off to war or defense jobs.
The Manhattan Project was so secret Vice President Harry S Truman only learned of it after FDR died in April 1945.
But even then, the engineers didn’t know if it would work.
But it did work.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Wikipedia
But that also meant over seven million boys were coming home to a defense industry shut down as tight as a liquor store on Sunday in a Baptist town.
While many economists feared a return to the Great Depression , Lee was planning to make the world’s finest pipes.
You can’t make up better legends, than real life.
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