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 .p134 Edgar Kaiser built first Portland shipways in two months
 .p134 [[ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-11-mn-916-story.html | Clay Bedford ]] and West coast shipbuilder Edwin W. Hannay
 .p134 Todd and the Six Companies shipyard in Portland Maine
 .p135 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Gibbs | William Francis Gibbs ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_&_Cox | Gibbs and Cox ]] in New York, largest naval architecture firm in the US
 .p135 Kaiser's men never boarded a ship, much less built one
 .p136 Seagoing boxcar, 8000 tonnes cargo, not comfortable
 .p136 Richmond yard built 747 Liberty ships over 4 years
 .p137 Kaiser's partner [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Bechtel_Sr. | Stephen Bechtel ]]
 .p139 Labor unions "biggest obstacle to war production"
 .p142 Strikes cost months of progress, "Communist-dominated" [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations | CIO ]] Congress of Industrial Organizations

Freedom's Forge

How American Business Produced Victory in World War II

  • Arthur Herman . 2012 . Bvt Lib 940.531 HER .


  • p003 PROLOGUE


  • p014 Ch01 THE GENTLE GIANT

  • p009 Henry Morgenthau George Catlett Marshall

  • p020 Model T traversed the line start to finish in 90 minutes, 500 per day
    • When William S. Knudsen arrived at Ford Detroit in 1913

    • 10 hours per day, 6 days per week, so 50 cars per hour, 3000 cars per week
    • 4500 hours of work in 60 hours, ...
    • Soon to 8 hours per day, 5 days per week
  • p029 Knudsen showed a muffler with two minute assembly time to purchasing agent Donald O'Keefe, turned down

  • p029 Two weeks later, Knudsen is Chevrolet VP
  • p031 Knudsen: Speed produces nothing, accuracy is the only straight line to production. From workshop mentality to modern manufacturing. Sales went from 72K to almost 250K in 1922
  • p032 Knudsen: "I vanr vun for vun!" (Chevrolet sales up to Ford sales)
  • p033 "flexible mass production", constant modification and change
  • p034 1927 Chevy forced Ford to replace Model T with Model A, stopping production for almost a year
  • p035 Chevy outsold Ford almost every year until 1986



  • p058 Ch03 THE WORLD OF TOMORROW


  • p066 Ch04 GETTING STARTED



  • p107 Ch06 ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY

  • p108 Republic Steel . Tom Girdler fought unions

  • p109 "I've never done it before, but I can do it again" Jesse Jones about Henry Kaiser

  • p111 Machine gun production tools, belt driven, 20 to 70 years old
  • p112 Knudsen: complete retooling of most American factories in 18 months
  • p112 first appropriation 4,247 aircraft, second appropriation 14,385 aircraft, Roosevelt expecting 50,000
  • p113 autos hard-cast dies, aircraft flexible soft dies
  • p114 Billy Mitchell staffer Jimmy Doolittle

  • p114 Car body makers Briggs Manufacturing , Fisher Body , Murray Corporation

  • p115 suspended annual automobile model changes when less than 25% of Americans supported war involvement
  • p115 General Motors made 10% of everything during WWII
  • p116 National Aviation Board decisions made by labor, government, business
  • p117 Reuther labor plan failed, car companies and unions made parts, not airplanes

  • p118 plenty of tasks and growth for subcontractors, the war would create more than half a million new businesses
  • p119 Kaiser and the Six Companies

  • p120 Eliot Janeway "a victory small enough to be organized is too small to be decisive"

  • p126 Lend-Lease

  • p129 novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald heart attack 1940 age 44, "the party is over"


  • p130 Ch07 SHIPS, STRIKES, AND THE BIG BOOK

  • p130 Kaiser Shipyard Richmond. experts predicted six months to build solid ground, Kaiser's men took three weeks, 300,000 cubic yards of rock and gravel

  • p132 :-( "Oregon was settled by Missourians who didn't want to work" from Cooke, "Home Front"

    • Bullshit. Cooke's Home Front describes life at home during the US Civil War. Not many Oregonians fought on either side of the Civil War; indeed, they formed militias in Oregon after US regulars (from the east) returned east to fight.
    • https://depts.washington.edu/moving1/Oregon.shtml shows Oregon birthplace by decade; Missouri was 14% in 1850, 8% in 1860, 11% in 1870, 6% in 1880, 4.3% in 1900, 3.6% in 1910 (Illinois was 4.7%).

      • In 2022, Oregon was 45% Oregon-born, 14.9% California born, 5% Washington born, 3.5% Mexico born ... with Missouri in 19th place, 0.55%
      • Missouri was the start of the Oregon Trail; rail lines did not connect to Oregon to the east before 1883, or through California before 1887. Presumably many eastern US emigrants traveled to Oregon incrementally, spending a few years in Missouri, earning the money necessary for a wagon and supplies for an Oregon Trail wagon train.
  • p133 Henry Kaiser demanded much from son Edgar, made them an inseparable team

  • p133 "... you pile it on and they do more and more. Pretty soon you have men you can rely on absolutely"
  • p133 Portland operation: 7500 components from 600 suppliers, from ... switches ... to engines
  • p134 Edgar Kaiser built first Portland shipways in two months
  • p134 Clay Bedford and West coast shipbuilder Edwin W. Hannay

  • p134 Todd and the Six Companies shipyard in Portland Maine
  • p135 William Francis Gibbs Gibbs and Cox in New York, largest naval architecture firm in the US

  • p135 Kaiser's men never boarded a ship, much less built one
  • p136 Seagoing boxcar, 8000 tonnes cargo, not comfortable
  • p136 Richmond yard built 747 Liberty ships over 4 years
  • p137 Kaiser's partner Stephen Bechtel

  • p139 Labor unions "biggest obstacle to war production"
  • p142 Strikes cost months of progress, "Communist-dominated" CIO Congress of Industrial Organizations














  • p069 Alistair Cooke 2006 The American Home Front

    • Forest Grove Library 940.5373 COO

FreedomForge (last edited 2026-10-20 07:51:32 by KeithLofstrom)