Business chronology for 1942
January
2nd – Manila falls to Japs. Stocks open year firm, close higher under lead of rails. Retail sales of autos and trucks banned. After production of 200,000 units, car output to be banned for duration.
5th – Auto industry asked to deliver $5-billion finished weapons in 1942. Steel operations 96.4%.
6th – President Roosevelt in address to Congress asks for expenditure of $56 billion for arms program. President calls for production in 1942 of 60,000 airplanes, 45,000 tanks, 8,000,000 deadweight tons of merchant shipping.
7th – President in budget message hints many items may be rationed; estimates next fiscal year deficit as $35.5 billion; government debt at $110 billion. Production of vacuum cleaners cut 25-40%.
8th – OPM puts distillers 60% on war alcohol. Donald M. Nelson appointed war production chief.
9th – New Blue Network formed to segregate WJZ from NBC.
12th – U.S. Steel 1941 shipments 20,458,927 net tons, a record. National War Labor Board given broad powers to adjust labor disputes.
13th – Hosiery industry hereafter to rely to synthetic fibers. Government to pay premium on production of copper, lead, and zinc mined above 1941 quota.
17th – Government approves $400-million program to make artificial rubber. Maritime Commission announces contracts negotiated for 623 additional merchant ships to cost more than $1 billion.
19th – Marriner Eccles, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, advocates higher taxes, withholding tax, no sales tax, no more excess profits taxes, lower exemptions.
20th – Ganson Purcell made chairman of Securities & Exchange Commission, succeeding Edward C. Eicher who was made a chief justice in the District of Columbia court.
21st – Chamber of Commerce grants railroads 10% passenger fare increase. Reorganization of war program scraps OPM, centralizes authority in War Production Board.
22nd – Steel Workers Organizing Committee asks Republic Steel for wage rise.
23rd – Erie RR directors declare $5 dividend on preferred.
24th – Radio and phonograph makers ordered to cut output in half in the next three months and to undertake $2-billion military program.
February
1st – Ceiling prices fixed in new automobiles for rationing.
2nd – General Motors cuts dividend to 50¢ from 75¢.
3rd – J. P. Morgan & Company, Inc., shares offered to public for first time in history.
9th – Clocks advanced one hour for war time. President asks $27 billion added funds for Army and Maritime Commission; signs appropriation bill for Navy of $26 billion.
13th – Conversion to war work of radio industry ordered, effective in three months.
14th – Sales of new tires banned for duration. Wholesale refrigerator stocks frozen.
16th – DuPont cuts dividend from $1.75 to $1.25. Supreme Court holds regulation of war profits up to Congress, not courts; finds against government in suit to recover $8 million alleged excess profit of Bethlehem Steel in World War I.
17th – Chrysler cuts dividend from $1.50 to $1, reports 1941 net income at $9.22 a share, against $8.69 in 1940. Secretary Ickes calls for voluntary cut of 15% in use of gasoline. Complete allocation control established for aluminum.
19th – Rationing begins on retreads and recaps.
27th – RCA reports 1942 net income at best level since 1929. New York Stock Exchange reports 1942 net loss of $608,864, against net loss of $895,749 in 1940. House rejects proposal to suspend 40-hour week.
28th – Japs invade Java. Emergency price ceilings set on canned goods.
March
2nd – Rationing of new autos begins. Men’s clothing styles restricted. Twenty defense communities given 60 days to reduce rents.
5th – Stocks of typewriters frozen preliminary to rationing. Japs take Batavia.
9th – Installment payments restricted to 15 months from 18.
10th – WPB bans manufacture of tractors using tires after May. House votes to increase debt limit from $65 billion to $125 billion.
11th – Wholesale prices of price goods frozen at March 7-11 levels.
14th – WPB orders 20% cut in gasoline deliveries in 17 Eastern states.
16th – High stock exchange commissions effective; average 25% higher. Maritime Commission orders 234 more Liberty cargo ships. Manufacture of jukeboxes banned.
17th – Nelson reports plane output up 50% since Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt opposes anti-strike legislation.
18th – Retail gasoline prices frozen.
19th – U.S. Steel reports record sales for 1941; net profit $116,171,075, against $101,211,282 in 1940.
20th – Princeton University survey finds 48-hour week best for peak efficiency in war production.
23rd – Stock Exchange resumes full-figure stock and bond sales totals. General Motors’ 1941 report shows net profit equal to $4.44 a share, against $4.32 in 1940. Retail prices frozen on refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, stoves, washers, ironers, radios, phonographs and typewriters.
24th – Stock Exchange seat sells at $17,000, a new low since 1897.
26th – Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) in constant decree provides free public licensing during war of the company’s patents for producing synthetic rubber and gasoline.
27th – Frozen stocks of refrigerators released for unrestricted retail sale.
April
2nd – Metal office furniture stocks frozen.
8th – George P. Rea resigns as Curb Exchange president.
10th – SEC orders Commonwealth & Southern to recapitalize in common stock; company to fight order.
15th – Walter S. Gifford, president of American Telephone, says company’s dividend payments are uncertain. General Foods cuts dividend from 50¢ to 40¢.
21st – President orders seizure of all alien patents for war and civilian use.
23rd – OPA announces gasoline rationing in Eastern states to start May 15.
24th – Otis Steel stockholders vote to merge company into Jones & Laughlin. President Roosevelt favors merger of telegraph companies.
27th – Atlantic Refining cuts dividend from 25¢ to 15¢. J. P. Morgan & Company, Inc., made member of Federal Reserve System.
28th – Stock market in new low ground for 1942. OPA fixes prices on virtually all consumer goods at March levels; rents frozen in 302 war production centers.
29th – President Roosevelt signs $19-billion war supply bill which provides renegotiation of war contracts. American Tobacco cuts dividend from $1 to 75¢.
30th – Refrigerator production halted.
May
4th – American shipyards complete 106 ships first four months, exceeding full 1942 output.
5th – WPB halts use of iron and steel in more than 400 civilian articles; virtually ends production of durable consumer goods.
7th – WPB bans use of copper in more than 100 civilian articles.
14th – Federal grand jury indicts eight chemical corporations and 20 officials on charges of monopoly in dye industry.
15th – Gasoline rationing in Eastern states starts.
18th – DuPont cuts dividend from $1.25 to $1. Retail prices, under freeze order, returned to highest levels of March.
28th – Federal grand jury indicts 20 corporations and 30 individuals in baking industry, charging conspiracy to restrain trade in bread and other bakery products. Chrysler announces plans to build world’s largest war plant.
June
1st – President Roosevelt authorizes purchases of war materials abroad to be admitted duty free.
5th – Aircraft companies discontinue quarterly reports.
8th – President Roosevelt asks $39.5 billion for war for fiscal year ending next June 30. Auto industry war orders total $14 billion.
11th – President Kellogg of Edison Electric Institute says electric power facilities of nation are more than adequate for war production.
12th – Stock sales 220,220 shares, smallest full session since Aug. 26, 1940.
19th – Erie RR declares 50¢ dividend on common stock and certificates; first dividend on common in 76 years.
July
1st – Price Administrator Henderson permits 15% price rise in 1942 canned fruit pack.
2nd – Secretary Morgenthau says war will take 55% of national income in 1943.
6th – Daniel Willard, Baltimore & Ohio president for three decades, dies.
9th – Fur coat ceiling set at last year’s top.
10th – War production chief Nelson predicts $45-billion war output in 1942 and between $70 and $75 billion in 1943.
13th – WPB restricts garden tools, merry-go-rounds, vanity cases, magic lanterns. George P. Rea, former Curb president, made president of Drexel Technology Institute, Philadelphia.
16th – War Labor Board awards 44¢ daily pay rise to workers in “Little Steel,” basing grant on 15% cost of living rise since Jan. 1, 1941.
17th – WLB limits production toiletry and cosmetic items to save chemicals and other critical material. OPA freezes size and quality of soaps. WPB curtails bicycle models in July and August – 32% of 1941 rate.
18th – Stock sales of 99,810 shares, smallest Saturday since Aug. 24, 1940.
19th – New and retread tires banned on beer and soft-drink trucks.
21st – Permanent gas rationing starts in East.
22nd – Bethlehem Steel accepts WLB order on 44¢-a-day wage increase under protest; order provides maintenance of union membership. Ceilings eased for machinery makers.
August
4th – Westinghouse Electric discontinues wage-salary bonus plan because of law requiring renegotiation of war contracts.
5th – Grumman Aircraft raises dividend from 50¢ to 75¢.
8th – American Iron & Steel Institute revises annual steel capacity as of July 1 to 89,198,320 net tons, rise of 628,000 tons compared with Jan. 1; capacity up nearly 8,000,000 tons since the war started.
20th – Net profits of 72 steel companies in first six months, $116,407,000, against $167,421,000 in last half of 1941, according to American Iron & Steel Institute; total is smallest six months since first half of 1933.
24th – U.S. agrees to buy Mexican silver at 45¢ an ounce, a 10¢ premium.
25th – SEC orders American Power & Light and Electric Power & Light to dissolve.
26th – WLB grants U.S. Steel employees 5.5¢-an-hour wage rise, retroactive to Feb. 15.
September
7th – President Roosevelt in Labor Day address tells Congress to act to curb inflation or he will take the necessary signs himself. Record passenger traffic for holiday.
9th – Double-time pay for Sundays and holidays abolished by executive order.
11th – Baruch Committee report suggests nationwide gasoline rationing, appointment of czar for rubber.
14th – Federal Reserve cuts reserve requirements of New York and Chicago banks from 24% to 22% of deposit liabilities.
15th – William M. Jeffers, president of Union Pacific, named rubber czar.
25th – Fourteen non-operating rail unions ask 20¢-an-hour wage rise, union shop.
29th – Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe declares $2.50 dividend, bringing 1942 payments to $6, best since 1931.
October
1st – President Roosevelt’s tour of nation’s war plants announced after his return to Washington. W. L. Hemingway, of St. Louis, made president of American Bankers’ Association.
2nd – Coffee shortage reported in many cities.
5th – James F. Byrnes appointed director of economic stabilization. President Roosevelt stabilizes bulk of nation’s economy – wages, rents, salaries, food prices – under new anti-inflation law. Price administrator sets emergency price ceilings on all food items hitherto exempt.
8th – Gold mines ordered closed to divert miners to strategic metals. Stock sales cross 1,000,000 shares for the first time in 1942.
16th – General Motors announces completion of arrangements for $1-billion revolving credit with 400 banks.
19th – Steel operations 101.1% of capacity, all-time record on tonnage basis.
21st – President Roosevelt signs Revenue Act of 1942, biggest tax bill in history.
27th – Economic Stabilization Director Byrnes sets $25,000 salary ceiling.
29th – New York Federal Reserve Bank cuts discount rate to ½ of 1%.
30th – Great Britain releases $50 million in frozen profits of American film companies.
November
5th – Homestake Mining fails to act on usual monthly dividend.
6th – Department of Commerce reports income payments for September at $10 billion; yearly rate $116.2 billion, a record.
9th – Stock sales at highest of year – 1,207,653 shares – as market rises on U.S. invasion of North Africa.
11th – New York Central declares $1 dividend, first since Nov. 2, 1931.
17th – Gas ration in East cut from 4 gallons to 3.
19th – Office of Defense Transportation launches “don’t travel” appeal.
20th – Big Five railroad brotherhood to seek 15% wage rise. Treasury announces record of $9 billion for December financing.
23rd – Walter C. Teagle resigns as chairman of Standard Oil (New Jersey); Ralph W. Gallagher elected chairman of board. Walter S. Gifford, president of American Telephone, says company will fight FCC order contemplating drastic rate reduction on long-distance calls.
26th – House Interstate Commerce Committee approves measure providing merger of telegraph companies.
29th – William S. Farish, president of Standard Oil (New Jersey) , dies.
30th – Nationwide coffee rationing starts. $9-billion Treasury financing drive starts. U.S. debt crosses $100 billion.
December
1st – Nationwide gasoline rationing starts.
4th – Donald M. Nelson says U.S. now producing armaments equal to all Axis nations.
6th – Paul V. McNutt given full control of manpower. James Byrnes and Leon Henderson ask Interstate Commerce Commission to cancel increases in passenger and freight rates applied earlier this year, involving $500 million in transportation revenues.
7th – Secretary of Agriculture Wickard made food administrator.
9th – Record-sized special offering of 65,527 shares of International Paper common stock at 57.75 per share quickly oversubscribed.
11th – Treasury announces sales of war victory securities reached $6.6 billion level, indicating success in $9-billion drive.
