Automobiles in the Postwar Economy

Report Outline
Pace of Reconversion in Automobile Industry
Automobiles in the Prewar Economy
Automobiles and Postwar Prosperity
Special Focus

Pace of Reconversion in Automobile Industry

Pressure for Quick Mass Production of Automoblies

The Whirlwind close of World War II on August 14, 1945, suddenly freed American industry for full reconversion to peacetime production. National attention has since been centered on the automobile industry. A rapid resumption of civilian production there would give direct and indirect employment to millions of workers, would stimulate activity in a host of subordinate lines, and would measurably accelerate the transition of the whole economy from war to peace.

War production cutbacks of $2.5 billion monthly ($30 billion annual rate) were announced, Aug. 16, by the War Production Board. More than one-third of the total cancellations were of orders for fighting equipment turned out by the country's automotive plants. Employment in the automobile industry doubled and dollar value of its output tripled during the war. Thousands of its workers were laid off immediately after the surrender of Japan.

R. J. Thomas, president of the United Automobile Workers of America, has urged complete reconversion of the industry's present facilities to provide jobs for all workers on its payrolls when the war came to an end. “To scrap this equipment and consign these workers to unemployment,” he said, “would be unforgivable waste of the nation's most precious resources.” Thomas wants the industry to aim for a production rate after reconversion of ten million vehicles a year.