USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume II > Part 20
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54 Bancroft, Connecticut State Finances, pp. 36-42; Message of the Governor, 1905, pp. 4-9; Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Hartford, 1908), in Public Documents, 1908, Vol. I, pp. 91-127.
55 Eugene Vernon Zumwalt, "Taxation and Other Factors Affecting Private Forestry in Connecticut," (Unpublished doctoral thesis, Yale University, 1951), pp. 9, 51-58; Austin F. Hawes, "Forestry, the Salvation of Wornout Connecticut Towns," New England Magazine, Vol. 39, September, 1908-February, 1909, p. 21; Message of the Governor, 1903 (Hartford, 1903), in Public Documents, 1902, Vol. I, Pt. 2, , pp. 16-18; Message of the Governor, 1909 (Hartford, 1909), in Public Documents, 1908, Vol. I, Pt. I, p. 20.
56 Capen, "Connecticut Institutions," in Osborn, ed., History of Connecticut, Vol. V, p. 427; Osterweis, New Haven, p. 399.
57 Capen, "Connecticut Institutions," in Osborn, ed., History of Connecticut, Vol. V, P. 441.
58 The Survey, Vol. 26, 1911, p. 313.
59 Capen, "Connecticut Institutions," in Osborn, ed., History of Connecticut, Vol. V, pp. 459-60; Message of the Governor, 1909, p. 11.
60 Mitchell, "Social Legislation in Connecticut," p. 159; Don C. Seitz, "Connecticut, A Nation in Miniature," The Nation, Vol. 116, Apr. 18, 1923, p. 462; Allen B. Mac- Murphy, "Revolt in Connecticut," The Nation, Vol. 131, Sept. 10, 1930, p. 263; Message of the Governor, 1909, pp. 9-10.
61 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 159-60.
62 Alfred Howe, "Connecticut's Labor Mayors," Independent, Vol. 55, p. 1260; Don C. Seitz, "Connecticut, A Nation in Miniature," The Nation, Vol. 116, Apr. 18, 1923, p. 462.
63 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 161-62.
64 Newman Smyth, "Political Corruption in Connecticut," The Outlook, Mar. 18, 1905, Vol. 79, pp. 690-92; "The Connecticut Senatorship," The Outlook, Vol. 79, Jan. 14, 1905, pp. 98-99.
65 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 161-63.
67 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 164-170, 189-90.
68 Message of the Governor, 1911 (Hartford, 1911), in Public Documents, 1910, Vol. I, Pt. I, pp. 3-41; Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 173-77, 184; "Governor Baldwin's Inaugural," The Outlook, Jan. 14, 1911, Vol. 197, pp. 45-46.
69 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 170-94; Report of the Civil Service Commission (Hartford, 1918), in Public Documents, 1918, Vol. I, Pt. 2, p. 6; Report of the Civil Service Commis- sion (Hartford, 1920), in Public Documents, 1920, Vol. I, Pt. 2, P. 5.
70 Message of the Governor, 1909, P. 9.
71 Ibid., p. 19.
72 Staff of the Highway Department, "Forty Years of Highway Development in Con- necticut," Tercentenary Commission of Connecticut (New Haven, n. d.), pp. 5-7; Message of the Governor, 1905, p. 28; Message of the Governor, 1907, p. 10.
73 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 177, 192; Seitz, "Connecticut, A Nation in Miniature," The Na- tion, Vol. 116, Apr. 18, 1923, p. 462.
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REPUBLICAN YEARS
74 Mitchell, "Social Legislation in Connecticut," pp. 28-29; Message of the Governor, 1905, p. 22.
75 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 111-12.
76 Message of the Governor, 1909, p. 15. The Supreme Court of the U. S. subsequently overruled Baldwin's decision.
77 Message of the Governor, 1905, p. 22.
78 Message of the Governor, 1911, pp. 20-24; Jackson, Baldwin, p. 192.
79 Message of the Governor, 1911, pp. 20-24.
80 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 178-79.
81 Ibid., p. 192.
82 Mitchell, "Social Legislation in Connecticut," pp. 68-73.
83 Jackson, Baldwin, pp. 177-95.
Chapter XXX Citizen and Soldier, World War I
T HE IMPORT of the outbreak of the European war in 1914 intruded slowly upon Connecticut's consciousness. The course of events which resulted in the march of the German army through the Low Countries in August competed for headlines with George Stallings and his Boston Braves who had begun their miraculous drive for the baseball championship of the world. Although the war stories pushed the political campaign of 1914 from the front page, Governor Holcombe, in his inaugural address, January, 1915, reflected an American as well as a Connecticut attitude by his failure to consider the possibility that this country might become actively engaged in the war.1 Westville citizens submitted to the President their own plan for stopping the war by suggesting to the President that the flow of food- stuffs to Europe be stopped. A sense of the implications of the impend- ing struggle was transmitted by the Connecticut tourists who related their harrowing experiences in escaping the war zones and in securing passage home. A greater awareness of the war developed, too, as muni- tions contracts flowed into the state.2
Connecticut was well situated to handle the war orders which flooded the state.3 It was natural for the munitions purchaser to turn to manufacturers with established reputations in the manufacture of ma- terials of war. In Connecticut, these included Colt, Winchester, Rem- ington, and Marlin. Those engaged in related industries quickly con- verted to the manufacture of bombs, shells and other necessaries of war.4 The impetus provided by the war resulted in a tripling of the rate of construction of industrial facilities in the years from 1914 to 1916 as compared to the previous two years.5 To the state's population of one and one-quarter million was added a steady stream of laborers from the eastern seaboard states, from Canada, and from the middlewest.6
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CITIZEN AND SOLDIER, WORLD WAR I
The booming munitions trade brought the populace ever closer to war. Trade relations made Connecticut residents more receptive to the English propagandists, while the efforts of Germany to halt the trade with the allies transgressed, not only upon the rights of a neutral, but also posed a threat to the state's booming prosperity. As the indus- trial interests expanded, rumors of Germany's using the state as a base for the operation of its saboteurs created alarm. The sinking of the Lusitania in May, 1915, and of the Sussex in March, 1916, further aroused bitterness against Germany. Calls for preparedness were drama- tized by parades in most of the larger cities and were opposed with equal vehemence by the Society to Enforce Peace. The attention of the populace was temporarily deflected from the international crisis when the state militia was ordered to assist in the patrol of the Mexican border. However, with Germany's announcement in January, 1917, of the resumption of submarine warfare, Governor Holcombe moved boldly to prepare the defenses of the state.7
An assessment of the military potential of the state was made, even before the United States declared war, through an inventory of the men and materials available within the state in the event of war. In response to the Governor's appeal on February 6, a corps of volunteers, includ- ing civic leaders, public officials, and hundreds of public-spirited citi- zens, was enlisted to make the survey. The facilities of the insurance companies, including their machines and operators, were made avail- able. Within two weeks, 10,000 agents had been commissioned to make the enumeration of those of military age, and the work was practically completed by the middle of March.8 The concentration of population in urban communities at one and the same time made the process more complex and made a more complete enumeration possible. Hartford is generally recognized as having most nearly perfected its method of enu- meration. Those on the voting list and the poll tax list were first identi- fied and then checked against the city directory and the school list. All the large employment units, including the insurance companies, the department stores, and the factories were canvassed. One foreman in a New Haven factory was credited with enumerating 17,000 workers in less than one hour.9 In some instances, as in a New Haven factory, there were those who refused to answer the questions, but were soon appre-
780
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
hended by their fellow workers. In other instances citizens organized an informal detective force and ferreted out those who escaped the count.10 By such methods a nearly complete census of the war potential of the cities was obtained.
(Courtesy Danbury Chamber of Commerce)
DANBURY-THE WAR MEMORIAL BUILDING
The rural towns responded equally well, but not without incident. Selectmen were made responsible by the direction of the Governor, and shortly there were volunteers in sufficient numbers to make the count. One Selectman who reported that his district was made up of "old hayseeds and young hyphens, neither of whom were in the least degree interested in anything like patriotism .. . " was embarrassed when a Hartford lawyer invaded the town and worked up a red-hot mass meet- ing and enrolled practically every one of military age. In some of the small towns poll tax enumerators, who had "been in the habit of split- ting their fee of six cents per name" with those whom they enumerated,
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CITIZEN AND SOLDIER, WORLD WAR I
laughed at the military census taker who tried to tell they were working for nothing and "consequently did not have the three cents divvy to hand out." These and similar problems were quickly settled from Hart- ford, and there resulted a military census which served as a model for many other states.11
While the military census was in process, steps were taken to pro- tect the state against any eventuality by the organization of the Home Guard. Within three months after authorization was granted on March 9, 1917, a force of 20,000 men were enlisted, half of whom were equipped. In addition to providing effective defense for the important industrial establishment, the force answered five alarms and partici- pated enthusiastically in liberty loan drives and recruiting campaigns.12
The mobilization of state troops was begun in the latter part of March and proceeded at an accelerated pace when volunteering was abandoned as a method of meeting the requirements of a national army and the selective service system was inaugurated. The National Guard, the First Regiment of which was called into service on March 25, 1917, was dispatched for patrol duty at bridges, power stations, and other key points throughout the state. The impulse to volunteer was blunted by demands that there be created a system of universal military training. This was enacted by Congress on May 18. In accordance with provisions of the Selective Service Act, inductees were to be selected by lot from classes determined by personal histories derived from the compulsory registration of all citizens between the ages of 21 and 30. The identifica- tion of these was made under the direction of the Attorney General by boards of volunteers organized in every town and hamlet in the state. The available manpower was reduced somewhat by the provision that aliens, of whom there were many in Connecticut, could not be in- ducted. Many aliens, however, became citizens and helped to fill the state's quota. During the course of the war, a total of 34,574 inductees were forwarded by the local boards to the several camps and were ac- cepted by the War Department. Approximately as many more were classified for general or limited service.13 By August the First Regiment of the National Guard was joined by the Second in New Haven to bring the total strength to more than 4,000 officers and men. These forces included the 102nd Infantry, 26th Division, more popularly known
782
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
as the "Yankee" Division. The 102nd trained in the shadow of the Yale Bowl until they entrained for Montreal, from which they sailed on Sep- tember 19. They were followed by artillery and machine gun units on October 9, by additional companies as American forces assumed the character of a fighting unit, and by still others as the exigencies of war required further replacements.14
Upon the outbreak of war, attention was immediately focussed on the aliens among the state's population. Registration revealed 58,596 men of foreign birth, between the ages of 21 and 31, in the state. At a moment when the unified effort of the whole country was needed, it was learned that there were many unassimilated groups who were un- familiar with American ideals. In contrast, there were found among the aliens thousands of the state's most loyal citizens: over 27,000 were re- ported to be in the selective service draft. A vast Americanization pro- gram indicated that unfamiliarity with American precepts in many cases was traceable to society's neglect of the alien. Although the alien's immunity to the draft was cause for occasional irritation, it was the po- tential threat to industrial production which caused the greatest con- cern. The problem was made more acute by Connecticut's proximity to the great ports of entry and by the fact that the state was a center of the munitions industry. Immediate steps were taken in many of the fac- tories to identify the alien. At the Winchester Arms Factory, for exam- ple, not only was a census ordered, but workers from Germany and Austria were to be dropped from employment pending further investi- gation. Those identified as enemy aliens were prohibited from living near munitions plants on orders from the Department of Justice.15
As troop trains pulled out of railroad stations bearing Connecticut sons to replenish the fighting forces, members of the soldiers' families became engaged in a host of volunteer activities which bolstered the morale of the home front while making some contribution to the war effort. To lessen the possibility that the soldiers would have to go with- out food, meatless and sugarless days were observed, and some of the finest lawns in the community were devoted to raising corn and pota- toes. Thousands of women cut and rolled bandages, prepared baskets for overseas, and marched in parades. The Knights of Columbus Fund was subscribed in an amount three times its allotment, and the quotas
(Courtesy Conn. State Lib.)
NEW LONDON-COAST GUARD ACADEMY
784
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
for the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A. were more than met. Representa- tives of these groups went overseas carrying tidings from home while contributing to the general war effort.16
Connecticut residents contributed to the financing of the war through the purchase of liberty bonds. The subscription was greatly increased because of the encouragement of the factories, the insurance companies, and the savings banks. The last introduced the then novel partial payment plan. The state exceeded its quota for the first and sec- ond Liberty Loans by 25 percent.17 The state was honored for selling the largest amount of any state in the Union, subscribing to a total of $437,475,103 during the War.18
After the United States entered the war, it became necessary to co- ordinate the state's war effort with that of the United States govern- ment. A state Council of National Defense was appointed on April 26, and local committees were named in every town in the state. The primary function of the State Committee on Food Supply was to in- crease and conserve the agricultural resources of the state, but the most important of the services which it performed were the preparation of a census of nurses in the state who were to be on call in the event of an emergency and the organization of a motor pool which was available on call.19 An importance attached to the home front activities and certainly Connecticut contributed its share, including its share of heroes, to the American Expeditionary Force, nevertheless, the truly distinctive fea- ture of Connecticut's contribution to World War I was to be found in her production of the tools of war.
The response of Connecticut industries to these demands were re- flected immediately in the expansion of factories. The amount spent for new mills in the two years ending July 1, 1914, was $6,288,230 as compared to approximately five and one quarter million for the two years previous to July 1, 1914.20 During the next two years, 1914-16, the amount spent, including repairs and additions amounted to more than 18 million dollars. Even though the Federal government curtailed building operations after the United States entered the war, Connecti- cut industries, since they were engaged almost entirely in the war effort, were able to secure permission to expand the facilities of 386 manufac- turers at a total cost of almost 14 million dollars. That much of this was
785
CITIZEN AND SOLDIER, WORLD WAR I
temporary and designed primarily, if not solely, for war production is suggested by the fact that, during the two years immediately after the war, the number of industries which expanded their facilities was only half that of the previous two years, yet the value of the buildings was almost ten million dollars in excess of the value of the total number of buildings constructed during the period 1916-18.21 Connecticut was ex- periencing the most prosperous era of her history and there was hope that the prosperity would be permanent.22
The established munitions industries provided the base for this wartime expansion. Colt, Remington, Winchester, and Marlin were national brand names when World War I came and had for years con- tributed to the perfection and development of firearms. Du Pont de Nemours, which had a branch in Middletown, occupied a similar posi- tion in the field of explosives. These companies anticipated the war and when the orders of allied governments began to flow into the state, bold action was substituted for the caution which had characterized their expansion. The Winchester Arms Company, for example, doubled its capacity. The stimulus of patriotism was added to that of profit when the United States entered the war. To these and dozens of lesser-known arms and munitions makers were added those who moved to Connect- icut from other states, such as the David Warner Arms Corporation which moved from Massachusetts to Middletown in 1917.23
Other companies rapidly converted to the production of the ma- terials of war. Wartime contracts made peacetime machinery obsoles- cent and surplus goods were put up for auction. Time and motion experts were in demand.24 The American Brass Company produced cartridge brass, discs for shell cases and countless other items in the ag- gregate of one billion pounds. The Scoville Manufacturing Company, which devoted practically its entire plant to munitions after the United States entered the war, produced time and combination fuses, artillery shell cases, and cups for cartridge shells. In a similar manner the hard- ware industry turned its attention to the fulfillment of government contracts. American Hardware, for example, devoted 75 percent of its production to the fabrication of marine hardware, hand grenades, French mortars, magazines for Browning rifles, and locks for canton- ments, arsenals, and new government buildings. Manufacturers not
786
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
only expanded their facilities, but also introduced new techniques and procedures, added new divisions, and revamped the management and organization of their factories to meet the new demands.25
Technical advances in the metal working field added materially to the volume of the production of munitions. The New Britain Machine Company, which had been organized in 1895, had brought under its management, in the years before the war, companies skilled in the op- eration of the automatic screw machine. Also, Christopher M. Spencer, one of the pioneers in the design of the automatic screw machine, be- came an associate, and through his efforts and those of R. S. Brown, another of the pioneers in the field, the multiple spindle automatic ma- chine was further improved. The Company, then, was well equipped to produce during the war the gun carriage for the 75 millimeter and anti-aircraft guns and the tripods for the machine guns.26
The closing of European sources of supply resulted in new op- portunities for some Connecticut manufacturers. Until 1914, 80 per- cent of the ball bearings used in this country were imported from Europe, principally from Germany. Until the war the Fafnir Bearing Company, which had been organized in 1911 and had pioneered in the production of ball bearings in this state, had secured all of its steel from Germany and all of its balls from England. With the outbreak of the war the Company developed an American source of supply of a suitable alloy and designed the tools and machines necessary for producing a product independently of European tools or materials. A similar situa- tion prevailed in the supply of metal thread. With the German market cutoff and the French companies absorbed in meeting their own needs, the J. R. Montgomery Company of Windsor Locks produced the great bulk of the metal thread needed by the allied armies for communica- tion purposes.27
The traditions and experience of the state were sustained in the construction of naval craft as well as in arms manufacture. Simon Lake of Milford had designed in the last decade of the 19th century a torpedo boat which was endorsed by the Naval Construction Board. The Lake Torpedo Boat Company was established in New Jersey in 1901. The United States House of Representatives failed at that time to appropri- ate funds for the purchase of Lake's craft, but foreign governments were
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CITIZEN AND SOLDIER, WORLD WAR I
more interested. Contracts were received from both Russia and Austria. The first contract with the United States government was entered into in 1908 and by 1914 three torpedo boats had been completed under it. The last of these was the first vessel to be built at a Bridgeport plant of the Company. In anticipation of war demands, the plant in Bridgeport was expanded from three and one-half acres to 29. By July, 1917, the Company had built 12 more boats for the government. It has been de- scribed as the only shipbuilding plant in the world exclusively devoted to the construction of submarines.28
There is, perhaps, no exact measure of the extent to which Con- necticut became the "arsenal for democracy." Much of the work was done by sub-contracting. The Birmingham Iron Foundry of Derby, al- though it did not seek government contracts, made its facilities available for war production when needed and was used primarily by the Water- town Arsenal. More important, perhaps, were the small shops without name or recorder, who performed untold secondary operations and added materially to the productive capacity of the large industries. The Connecticut Department of Labor estimated that in addition to the goods produced for the allies, the state produced over 45 percent of all the munitions used in the late war by the United States and 70 percent of the other war essentials.29
The high wages and shorter hours of industry attracted many who had been engaged in other pursuits and resulted in a labor shortage in other areas. Farmers from New England and afar flocked to the muni- tions industries. The short supply of agricultural labor was felt par- ticularly in the harvesting of tobacco. To alleviate the shortage negroes were imported from the South, but the expedient was found to be un- satisfactory. Partially, perhaps, this may have been due to the unfa- miliar surroundings, and partially because the negroes, too, were attracted by the higher wages in factories. To an increasing extent, children were employed in the harvesting of tobacco. There was a sim- ilar shortage of domestic servants, and stores, particularly in the Bridge- port area, suffered an exodus of employees.30 The mobility of the labor force is suggested by the increase in the number of positions filled by the State Employment Bureaus from 16,000 in 1913-14 to 37,000 in 1915-16.31
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
The industrial labor force was further supplemented by a notice- able increase in the number of women and children employed. Before 1910, the female laborer was found principally in the textile mills, but after 1914 women became proficient in the metal trade operations of priming, drilling, milling, and bending tubes. Women of 50, girls in their teens-all came to work. The number of women engaged in gain- ful employment doubled during the war, increasing from 43,380 in 1913 to 67,002 in 1914, and by an additional 20,000 by the last year of the war. When the second draft came, it appeared that women would have to be used to an even greater extent and employers flooded the labor department with inquiries as to the limits under which women could be employed. Night employment of women jumped until the practice became the subject of investigation in Bridgeport by the Rus- sell Sage Foundation. It was disclosed that employers were taking ad- vantage of a law which fixed the closing time for women employees at 10:00 P.M., but which established no opening hour, so that frequently a new shift started to work at 12:00 A.M. The flood of protests against this night employment went unheeded as the demands for war goods continued. Also, more children between the ages of 14 and 16 were em- ployed than ever before and at wages which previously would have been considered suitable for adults. The Federal Government's attempt to curb child labor generally failed of its purpose as the Federal Child Labor Act prohibiting the employment of children under 16 for more than eight hours a day or 48 hours a week was declared unconstitu- tional.32
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