History, box 7, RG 33, NA. M. C. Wilson, "Feminine Land Army," New York Times, Feb. 28, 1943. 25 Suggested Procedure to be Followed in the Development of a Women's Land Army Program for the Use of Nonfarm Women on Farms for Wartime Food Production," March 1943, and Extension Service Memorandum No. A-115, Mar. 20, 1943, both in Divisional History, box 7, RG 33, NA. 26 Florence L. Hall, a native of Port Austin, MI, graduated from Michigan State Agricultural College in 1909 and taught high school mathematics in East Lansing for several years. In 1917 she was appointed home demonstration agent in Allegheny County, PA. Rising through the ranks of the Extension Service, in 1928 she was appointed senior home economist, with responsibility for the twelve northeastern states. Hall remained in this position until her 1943 WLA appointment. For biographical information about Hall, see Maxine Block, ed., Current Biography (1944), pp. 270-272. 27 USDA press releases, Apr. 10, 12, 1943, ERS; Washington Post, Apr. 13, 14, 17, 1943; New York Times, Apr. 13, 1943; and Washington Evening Star, Apr. 13, 1943. 28The legislation, Public Law 45, was passed on April 29, 1943. In addition to establishing the WLA, the law provided for the importation of foreign labor and for the establishment of additional emergency agencies as well as sundry other matters that emerged from the USDA reorganization. A discussion of the debate which ensued over this legislation appears in Rasmussen, History of the Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program, chap. 3, and Albertson, Roosevelt's Farmer, chaps. 16 and 17. Between April 21 and May 1, 1943, the Extension Service sponsored four regional conferences on the farm labor problem. The conferences, held in New York City, Chicago, Memphis, and Salt Lake City, included workshops on the Women's Land Army. Divisional History, box 7, RG 33, NA. 29 Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, p. 10. The 1943 studies Valentine conducted were Successful Practices in the Employment of Nonfarm Women on Farms in the Northeastern States, 1943, Women's Bureau Bulletin No. 199 (1944), and Women's Emergency Farm Service on the Pacific Coast in 1943, Women's Bureau Bulletin No. 204 (1945). Valentine prepared the 1944 study Women and Wartime Farm Work: A Study of Eight Midwestern States for the Women's Land Army of the Farm Labor Program, Extension Service of the USDA. See also Guides for Wartime Use of Women on Farms, Women's Bureau Special Bulletin No. 8 (1942). For information on the assignment of Frances Valentine to conduct studies of the WLA, see the May 20, 1943, Women's Bureau memorandum written by Bertha M. Nienburg; for a discussion of the Women's Bureau concern for the welfare of wage-earning farm women, see "Women's Bureau Farm Program," a statement by Jennie Mohr at the Farm Safety Section, National Safety Council, Chicago, IL, Oct. 5, 1943, all in Women Workers in World War II, 1940-1945, box 200, Division of Research, Women's Bureau, Records of the Women's Bureau, RG 86, NA. 30Washington Daily News, May 11, 1943; New York Times, May 11, 13, 1943. 31OWI press release, Mar. 23, 1943, box 200, RG 86, NA; USDA, Extension Service, Women's Land Army of the U.S. Crop Corps Needs Workers (1943); New York Times, May 26, 1943. In 1944 Miller's department store in Salem, OR, helped to promote the work of the WLA with a window display. 1944 Oregon Annual Report, p. 63a, Narrative Reports, box 18, RG 33, NA; and Elizabeth Spence, "Vacation Down on the Farm," Independent Woman (April 1943): 110. 32Hartford Courant, Feb. 15, 26, Mar. 16, 26, 1943. These courses were offered under the auspices of the Ratcliffe Hicks School. University of Connecticut Bulletin, 1942-1943 (February 1942): 100-104, 198-202. Jamie Eves kindly provided these sources for us. 33Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, pp. 7, 9. USDA, "Women's Land Army Changes Proposed," Oct. 2, 1943, ERS. 351943 Nebraska Annual Report, pp. 22-23, and 1945 Mississippi Annual Report, p. 61, Narrative Reports, boxes 6, 26, RG 33, NA. Many of the state annual reports of the Farm Labor Program included commentary on the important contributions that farm women made to the agricultural war effort. See also Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, p. 2. 36 Women Farm Workers, pp. [2], [4], 5. For additional information on the work of the WLA in the northeast and West Coast during 1943, see Valentine, Successful Practices in the Employment of Nonfarm Women and Women's Emergency Farm Service on the Pacific Coast. 37 For example, see the September 27, 1943, cover of Life magazine. Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, includes photographs of more than sixty magazine covers that featured the work of the WLA. Articles on the WLA's work in 1943 include Spence, "Vacation Down on the Farm'; Lucy Greenbaum, "At The Front With Our Land Army," New York Times Magazine, July 4, 1943, pp. 12-13, 23; and Florence Hall, "They're Getting in the Crops,” Independent Woman (July 1943): 194–196, 216. Transcripts of radio broadcasts are occasionally included in the state annual reports of the Farm Labor Program. See, for example, "Interviewing A Land Army Girl" (aired Aug. 29, 1944, on WPRO), 1944 Rhode Island Annual Report, Exhibit A, Narrative, box 19, RG 33, NA. 38 Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, p. 11; USDA press release, “Women's Land Army Advisory Group Meeting," Sept. 29, 1943, ERS. In 1944 the General Federation of Women's Clubs published a pamphlet, The Women's Land Army of the United States Crop Corps, that described ways that club members could help with the wartime food effort. 39Valentine, Successful Practices in the Employment of Nonfarm Women, pp. 41-42. 40 New York Times, Dec. 7, 1943. 41Women's Land Army newsletters, Sept. 27, 1943–Dec. 10, 1945, ERS. The newsletters, ranging in length from one to four pages, were not numbered. Twenty-eight newsletters are located at ERS. 42 Women's Land Army Newsletter, Dec. 17, 1943. The conferences were held in St. Louis, Denver, Berkeley, and Richmond. Information about the conferences and the report of the St. Louis WLA workshop are located in Divisional History, box 7, RG 33, ΝΑ. 43For a very good summary of the work of home demonstration agents with the WLA, see Florence L. Hall, "Observations Made During the Farm Labor Program Which Have a Bearing on Home Demonstration Work and Other Extension Programs," Dec. 4, 1945, ERS. **For example, see 1943 Illinois Annual Report, p. 76, 1943 Nebraska Annual Report, p. 23, 1943 New Hampshire Annual Report, p. 1, and 1943 New Mexico Annual Report, p. 32, Narrative Reports, boxes 3, 6, 7, RG 33, NA. For example, see 1943 Illinois Annual Report, p. 75, 1943 Iowa Annual Report, p. 9, 1943 Ohio Annual Report, p. 41, and 1943 South Dakota Annual Report, p. 15, Narrative Reports, boxes 3, 7, 9, RG 33, NA. Also useful is Caron Smith, "The Women's Land Army During World War II," Kansas History 14 (Summer 1991): 82-88, and Katherine K. Jellison," 'Tractorettes' Go to War: Midwestern Farm Women and World War II," The Newberry Papers in Family and Community History, Paper 91-1. 46On the need for additional child care facilities, see 1943 Oregon Annual Report, p. 119, and 1943 Washington Annual Report, pp. 16-17, Narrative Reports, boxes 8, 10, RG 33, NA. For information on training programs for nonfarm women, see 1943 Florida Annual Report, p. 5, 1943 Iowa Annual Report, p. 8, 1943 Michigan Annual Report, p. 8, 1943 Montana Annual Report, p. 12, and 1943 Oregon Annual Report, p. 120, Narrative Reports, boxes 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, RG 33, NA. Extension workers in South Carolina reported that there "was much antagonism to the very suggestion" of using white women as farm workers. A year later, the 1944 Kentucky Annual Report stated that "it is not in keeping with the southern tradition to think of [white] women as replacing [N]egroes." 1943 South Carolina Annual Report, p. 1, and 1944 Kentucky Annual Report, p. 1, Narrative Reports, boxes 8, 14, RG 33, NA. 481943 South Carolina Annual Report, pp. 1-2, Narrative Reports, box 8, RG 33, NA. In Virginia, black women from Norfolk who were recruited for farm work were "not considered a part of the Women's Land Army.” 1943 Virginia Annual Report, p. 17, box 10, ibid. 49Nannie Helen Burroughs Papers, General Correspondence, box 2, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. 50 Bolivar Commercial, Apr. 23, 1943. Quoted in Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith, eds., Dear Boys: World War II Letters from a Woman Back Home (1991), p. 90. For information on the agricultural work of Winnie Anderson, see the Bolivar Commercial, July 3, 1942. For additional information on the contributions of black women and men to the agricultural war effort, see the OWI/ USDA film Henry Browne, Farmer (1943). 51News articles on these conferences appeared in the New York Times, Feb. 17, 19 (Wilson's speech), 21 (Memphis conference), 23 (Chicago conference), and 28, 1944 (Denver conference). "800,000 Women Farm Workers Needed This Year," Labor Information Bulletin 2 (March 1944): 5. 52 New York Times, May 1, 1944; Bess Furman, "Land Army Seeks 800,000 Women," New York Times, May 17, 1944. 53 For examples of WLA posters and pamphlets, see the illustrations in Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program. In addition to the many articles on the WLA that appeared in the New York Times during the spring and summer of 1944, see "To the Rescue of the Crops"; "Women's Land Army," Nation's Business (May 1944): 48; "To the Land-Ladies," House and Garden (April 1944): 66; and Florence L. Hall, "Yes, Town Women Can Help," Farm Journal and Farmer's Wife (August 1944): 33. Three other relevant articles are "Need for Women in Agriculture," Monthly Labor Review (June 1944): 1248; "Women Prove Helpful in Meeting Nation's Food Crisis," Labor Information Bulletin 2 (March 1944): 3-4; and "800,000 Women Farm Workers Needed This Year," Labor Information Bulletin 2 (March 1944): 5. 54USDA, Extension Service, The Women's Land Army of the U.S. Crop Corps 1944 (1944), p. 8. 551944 South Carolina Annual Report, p. 2, Narrative Reports, box 19, RG 33, NA. 56Women's Land Army Newsletter, Oct. 12, 1944, p. 3. 1944 Colorado Annual Report, p. 136, Narrative Reports, box 12, RG 33, NA. Other examples from 1944 include 1944 Michigan Annual Report, p. 13, 1944 Ohio Annual Report, p. 17, 1944 South Carolina Annual Report, p. 16, and 1944 Virginia Annual Report, p. 6, Narrative Reports, boxes 15, 17, 19, 20, RG 33, NA. 57 Women Farm Workers, p. [2], and The Women's Land Army Works for Victory, p. [2]. Women's Land Army Newsletter, Apr. 4, 1944, p. 1. 1944 Maine Annual Report, pp. 171–172, includes information on tractor training and driving (Narrative Reports, box 14, RG 33, NA). 58 On the need for wartime day-care centers, see Litoff and Smith, Since You Went Away, pp. 152–159. 59 New York Times, Aug. 23, Sept. 6, 1944. 1945 New York Annual Report, p. 1, Narrative Reports, box 27, RG 33, NA; and Valentine, Women and Wartime Farm Work, p. 15. 60 Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, pp. 4, [18]. On the recruitment of Smith College women for agricultural work, see 1944 Massachusetts Annual Report, pp. 12-13. The account of the Sweetbriar College women saving the apple crop appears in 1944 Virginia Annual Report, p. 4. A discussion of the "Housewives' Special" is included in 1944 Oregon Annual Report, pp. 64-65. Narrative Reports, boxes 14, 18, 20, RG 33, NA. Summary information about the work of the WLA during the 1944 crop year, including an interview with Florence Hall, was pub lished in the New York Times, Oct. 13, 1945. 61The conferences were held in Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Springfield. A report on these conferences was included in the Women's Land Army Newsletter, Jan. 17, 1945. Florence Hall, "The Nation's Crops Need You," Independent Woman (July 1945): 187. 621945 New York Annual Report, pp. 1-2, Narrative Reports, box 27, RG 33, NA; New York Times, Feb. 7, 1945; and Hall, "The Nation's Crops Need You," p. 187. 63The phrase "call to farms" appeared on WLA posters. See, for example, the illustrations in Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program. Also relevant is USDA, Extension Service, A Call to Farms for Women of America (March 1945). 1945 Oregon Annual Report, p. 59, and 1945 Georgia Annual Report, p. 15, Narrative Reports, boxes 23, 29, RG 33, NA; Hall, "The Nation's Crops Need You," p. 187; and Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, pp. 15, [18]. 64Women Farm Workers, p. 8; 1944 South Carolina Annual Report, p. 7, Narrative Reports, box 19, RG 33, NA. See also the interview with WLA worker Edna F. Dickey of Gorham, ME, located at the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History, University of Maine, Orono, ME. 65This 1944 winning essay was reprinted in Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, p. 12. 66A. B. Love and H. P. Gaston, Michigan's Emergency Farm Labor, 1943-1947: A Report on How Michigan's Wartime Labor Shortage Was Met, Extension Bulletin No. 288 (1947), p. 16. T. L. Wheeler, Ohio's Farm Labor Problem in 1944 (1945), p. 7. For commentary on the WLA as a movement, see Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, p. 1. The 1943 Kansas Annual Report stated that "the accomplishments of the Women's Land Army program will not be measured in 1943 by the number of women enrolled in the organization, but by the general change of attitude in the state toward women and their place in agriculture during the war labor shortage" (p. 10). See also 1943 Kentucky Annual Report, p. 7, and 1944 Mississippi Annual Report, p. 19, Narrative Reports, boxes 4, 15, RG 33, NA. 67Of special relevance is Hall, “Observations Made During the Farm Labor Program." 681945 Georgia Annual Report, p. 15, Narrative Reports, box 23, RG 33, NA; Agricultural Extension Service, Iowa: Farm Labor Program. A Report of the Emergency Farm Labor Project of the Agricultural Extension Service, 1943–1947 [1947], p. 11; Correspondence, box 9, RG 33, NA; and Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, p. 6. 691945 Colorado Annual Report, p. 37, Narrative Reports, box 22, RG 33, NA; Women's Land Army, Extension Farm Labor Program, p. [19]. 70 Women's Land Army Newsletter, Dec. 10, 1945; The Women's Land Army Works for Victory, p. 6. "Marie Dawson, "Pitching In On the Home Front," Countryside (Winter 1990): 86. The Emergency Farm Labor Program continued through 1947. Although the Women's Land Army was discontinued in December 1945, the Extension Service recruited an additional 800,000 women for farm work during 1946 and 1947. Rasmussen, History of the Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program, pp. 149-150. Two USDA reports on the use of women as farm workers during 1946 and 1947 are Irene Fagin, "Women—A Continuing Source of Farm Labor," presented to the Regional Farm Labor Conference of the Extension Service, Salt Lake City, UT, Jan. 17, 1947, and Ruth J. Peck, "Women-A Continuing Source of Farm Labor," presented to the Regional Farm Labor Conference of the Extension Service, Chicago, IL, Jan. 22, 1947. Copies of these papers are located at ERS. Low farm wages, the decline of the rural population, the lure of better-paying and more prestigious jobs in urban areas, and the increased mechanization of farming militated against the employment of nonfarm women in farm jobs in the years after 1947. Legislative Origins of NASA By Glen P. Wilson T he aeronautical age began on December 17, 1903, with the first manned powered aircraft flight by two Americans, Orville and Wilbur Wright. It was not until 1909, however, that the U.S. government (U.S. War Department) purchased its first airplane, and by the beginning of World War I, federal involvement in aeronautics was still virtually nil. The centers of aeronautical progress were in Europe, not America. Somewhat belatedly, the U.S. government established the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1915 (by a legislative rider to a naval appropriations bill), but it did not begin construction of laboratories at Langley Field, Virginia, until 1917. Not a single American-designed airplane saw combat in World War I, which was well over by the time the first NACA wind tunnel began operation in 1920.1 While NACA was highly regarded for its many contributions to the advancement of the aeronautical sciences, it was not considered a major "operating" agency. It did not have contractual authority and owned no aircraft (it did research on vehicles "bailed" or loaned by the military or industry). It received its meager funds through military appropriations, and most of its facilities were co-located at military air bases. The total appropriation for NACA between 1915 and 1940 was only about thirty-one million dollars, and throughout its entire existence, until it became NASA in 1958, it received only slightly over one billion dollars.2 The launching of Sputnik I by the Soviets on October 4, 1957, was the beginning of a series of events that would dramatically change the funding, operations, and nature of this respected research agency. This Soviet achievement surprised everyone. Although the United States had announced on July 29, 1955, that it would launch a scientific satellite during the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which began in July 1957,3 no one paid any attention to the Soviets when they announced a few days later that they also were going to launch a satellite. Everyone assumed that the United States, with its vastly superior technological and industrial capabilities, would be first. The Sputnik launch came as quite a shock. When he heard of the Sputnik success on the early evening of October 4, Lyndon Johnson was on his ranch in Texas (Congress was in adjournment). Gerry Siegel of his Washington staff was there, and Opposite: The Vanguard Project, intended to launch America's first satellite, they immediately discussed the possible impact of this new development. That night, Johnson was in communication with his aide Solis Horwitz in Washington, Senator Richard B. Russell, and Senator Styles Bridges.5 (Senator Russell was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Bridges was the ranking Republican in the Senate and on the Armed Services Committee). Although Senator Stuart Symington (also on the committee) demanded an immediate, full committee investigation," Senators Russell and Johnson had already decided to handle the matter through the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee, of which Johnson was chairman. By Monday, October 7, 1957, Solis Horwitz had already communicated with Defense Department officials. On October 8 he requested a complete report, and staff briefings began on October 9.8 It is clear that despite some accounts that "Johnson] was slow to respond [to the Sputnik challenge]," the exact opposite was true. In the meantime, Sputnik was almost daily on the front pages in large type. People were confused and afraid. The stock market dropped to its lowest point of 1957.10 The announced throw weight of the payload and precision of the orbit had profound security implications because these factors were also required for long-range ballistic missiles. At 184 pounds Sputnik was almost nine times heavier than our announced Vanguard satellite. In fact, one British source suggested that a decimal point had been misplaced in translation, making the weight only 18.4 pounds! There were comments from everywhere and from everybody, but some of the most interesting ones came from officials of the Eisenhower administration. In an effort to calm things down, administration officials made a clear attempt to downplay the Soviet accomplishment. James C. Hagerty, White House press secretary, said "We never thought of our program as one which was a race with the Soviets . . . the satellite launching did not come as any surprise to the U.S."12 Sherman Adams, assistant to the President (today we would call him White House chief of staff), said we did not intend to get into a "game of outer space basketball"'13 with the Russians. Outgoing Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson called Sputnik "a neat scientific trick."14 Clarence B. Randall, presidential adviser on foreign economic policy, called Sputnik "a silly bauble"; he was "personally very gratified that our nation was not first" in getting one up.15 Even President Dwight Eisenhower said that the Sputnik did not bother him "one iota."'16 But some of the members of the President's own party were more than just passingly concerned, and Senators Styles Bridges and Leverett Saltonstall, both on the Preparedness Subcommittee, had joined with Johnson and Neither Eisenhower nor press secretary James Hagerty claimed to be concerned about the unexpected Sputnik launch. Russell to press the Pentagon for explanations of what was really going on with Sputnik and where the United States really stood. There was a feeling that it might be necessary to hold hearings even though Congress was not in session. George Reedy (assistant and press secretary to Lyndon Johnson) wrote a perspicacious memorandum to the senator on October 17. He pointed out the potential political payoff to Johnson and, most important, strongly recommended that the "immediate need is for gathering the facts and presenting them to the publicwithout hysteria, without elaboration and definitely without partisanship," and as it developed, looking for solutions to the problem rather than looking for scapegoats. 17 Gerry Siegel also notified Johnson that the Pentagon was ready to brief him and Senators Russell and Bridges. The briefing took place the following week. 18 After the briefing, another bombshell hit on November 3. The Soviets launched Sputnik II. Not only did it contain a living creature, a dog named Laika, but it weighed 1,120 pounds! That buried the 364 |