November 2007 23
Table 2 reports the US annual marriages for time periods associated with major phases of the WWII period.
of it, and a feeling of “now or never”. In some cases, feet of workspace. With contracts for PBY Catalinas
the draft of 1940 or the identification of overseas war and B-24 bombers, the company grew to 30,000 em-
assignments only accelerated plans already made. In ployees in 1941 and then to 41,000 employees in 1943.
others, many people seemed to have decided that a The federal government response to the housing short-
soldier-husband for a few days and then a long sepa- age was slow and limited by war material that had a
ration was better than waiting and possibly having no priority need for planes, ships, etc. Eventually the
husband at all. In one survey done by Chicago’s As- government funded $7 billion of barracks, trailer
sociation for Family Living in 1942, about half of the grounds, mobile homes, dorms, housing projects, and
soldiers interviewed thought a quick marriage was not other types of shelter that provided housing for six
fair to the girl because of separation, lack of a home million of the nine million people who needed it. Fi-
for the bride, and the possibility of having to deal nally, there were approximately 3.1 million births in
with babies alone. 1943, almost one for each of the 3.3 million marriages
These were all valid concerns for the time. T
in 1942-1943. This often exacerbated the housing
o start,
there were a total of approximately 4 million mar
problem, as decent family housing was often the hard-
-
riages where the husbands were soldiers. They served
est to find. Landlords could easily find individual rent-
an average of three years in the military, with half of
ers who, when added together, paid more rent than a
that time overseas. Regarding housing, the increase
family with children. And yet, still, there were those
in defense industry workers led to a shortage wher
4 million marriages.
-
ever the plants were located. In just one example, Figure 1 is an envelope containing a congratulations
Consolidated Aircraft Corporation moved from New card sent to a newlywed couple in January 1942. Usu-
York to San Diego in 1935, and started manufactur- ally, the December-February period has the lowest
ing airplanes with 874 employees and 247,000 square number of marriages; it is not unreasonable to theo-
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