1941.08.10 ”The Guy Who’s been Financing the Run”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
23 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.
A silk crisis came to America in the summer of 1941. That was the time when Japanese military-forces took total control over French Indochina, and the US government shut down all trade with Japan on July 26. We would not sell them any oil, Japanese accounts were frozen, and Japan could not sell goods in the US.
This embargo shut down silk imports to America, and the US government shut down all production of silk stockings on August 2, 1941.
The military commandeered all silk-supplies. Parachutes were constructed of silk because it was so strong yet supple, able to stretch and flex without ripping. Silk was also essential on battleships, as big naval guns used “powder bags” made of silk. Silk burned completely without ashes; hence, it did not smolder or clog the guns.
Because virtually all silk used in the US came from Japan, manufacture of silk stockings, dresses, fishing-lines, slips, neckties, and underwear all ended.
Since women wore silk-stockings in that era, there was a huge run on the existing silk hosiery. Curiously, some believed daily life would be insupportable without silk underwear.
After the remaining inventories of silk hosiery was exhausted, consumers turned to substitutes such as nylon, rayon, or cotton – or simply went bare-legged. Some painted cosmetic stockings on their legs.
Stocking-makers stepped up production of nylon products until that ended in 1942 when nylon also became essential for parachutes and military powder-bags as the stocks of raw silk ran out.
