Sliced Bread and the Second World War

[Music] there's archaeological evidence that people might have started to domesticate wheat as far back as 9 600 bc but the making of bread which was originally made with wild grains actually predates the domestication of wheat by thousands of years and there's archaeological evidence that people might have been making at least some form of bread as far back as 14 000 bc bread was frankly central to the development of many important civilizations and the humble loaf got a huge improvement in 1928 with the invention of the automatic bread slicer but 78 years ago today on january 18th 1943 u.s homemakers suddenly found their beloved sliced bread absent from store shelves leading many to argue that the worst thing to happen since sliced bread was the day the government banned sliced bread it is history that deserves to be remembered the earliest forms of bread would have been flat breads flour water and salt were rolled into a dough and bake flatbreads according to a march 2018 edition of the journal of ethnic foods fit well into the context of a subsistence economy and are among the earliest processed foods flatbreads are so versatile the journal notes that they are still produced today in fact flatbreads can be produced both in the same way as they were made thousands of years ago and in modern fully automatic industrial lines allowing tradition to meet innovation it's unclear when the first leavened or bread that used yeast to rise bread was invented but yeast was being produced by bread makers in egypt by at least 300 bc early breads were made from a number of different types of grains bread in ancient greece for example was most commonly made of barley loaves of bread could be purchased from baker shops in greece as early as the 6th century bc and bread was so central to the diet that the part of the meal aside from bread was a word that meant condiment or bread's accompaniment bread was not only central to the medieval european diet it was the primary way that meals were served with meals up to the 15th century being served on a flat piece of bread called a trencher as a diet staple however bread was occasionally caught up in world events during the great war britain faced bread shortages as they saw both a labor shortage due to the number of men going to war and the need to feed those troops coupled with a german u-boat blockade that restricted imports while the nation never actually rationed bread it took a number of steps to address shortages and price including regulating the use and extraction rates of various grains and mandating bread flour admixtures of barley oats rye soya or potato flour resulting in a darker bread called war bread the government supported voluntary rationing leading to the somewhat questionable claim that britain could defeat the u-boat by saving two thick slices of bread a day among the restrictions was a may 1917 ban on fresh bread that made it illegal to sell bread that was less than 12 hours old while the so-called bread order had several rationales behind it the most direct was the argument that people would eat less bread if they were forced to buy bread that was stale in october 1917 a tailor named louis horowitz was sentenced to a substantial fine of 50 pounds or 51 days in jail for the horrible crime of purchasing new bread although the home office decided that the penalty was too harsh and he was pardoned still while commodities like meat and butter and cheese were all rationed during the war the united kingdom never officially rationed bread during the great war and it was between the wars that this ancient technology met the modern era otto frederick roewetter was an iowa born inventor who in 1916 was so convinced as to the economic potential of one of his inventions that he sold his chain of jewelry stores in order to finance its development by 1917 he had both a working design and a factory in monmouth illinois ready to produce his marvelous new machine only to have the machine and blueprints lost when the factory was destroyed in a fire but by 1927 he had recovered and perfected his design for a new machine that would mechanically slice and then packaged to prevent from going stale a loaf of bread enough to apply for a patent which was finally granted in 1932 he sold its first machine to the chillicothe baking company in chillicothe missouri which sold its first package july 7th 1928. roewetter's son told a chillicothe newspaper in 2003 interview that the product was so popular that the bakery increased its bread sales by two thousand percent in just two weeks the invention was well timed almost contemporary with the 1921 patent by charles streit of an electric toaster that toasted both sides of the bread simultaneously and would then eject the cooked toast the first pop-up toaster after thousands of years of slicing our own bread people could now go to the store and buy pre-sliced bread an innovation that was so convenient that the sales of bread skyrocketed along with the sales of spreads like jams and jellies and peanut butter by 1933 sales of sliced bread exceeded sales of unsliced bread no one ever seems to ask what was the greatest thing before sliced bread but we know that today everybody competes to who has the claim to be the best thing since but sliced bread was about to run into the largest war in human history the us government took on an unprecedented level of control over the economy during the second world war among the agencies created was the war production board which directed the conversion of industries from peacetime work to war needs allocated scripts materials established priorities in the distribution of materials and services and prohibited non-essential production and the office of price administration which had the power to set price ceilings into ration scarce supplies of items including tires automobiles shoes nylons sugar gasoline fuel oil coffee meats and processed foods a wide array of goods were rationed during the war from gasoline to typewriters to lard this was accompanied by numerous regulations for example if you wanted to buy a new tube of toothpaste you had to turn the old tube in for recycling on january 18 1943 the long reach of regulating the war economy finally came for sliced bread claude r wickard the u.s secretary of agriculture issued food distribution order number one in conjunction with a war price administration order allowing a 10 percent increase in the wholesale cost of flour the order banned the sale of pre-sliced bread as well as placing restrictions on the types of bread that bakers could bake the times advocate of escondido california explained bakers who deal in retail sales to consumers are allowed to make only 15 varieties of bread including rolls not more than three shall be white bread and rolls will be limited to nine varieties three types of wheat bread may be baked the regulation was promulgated quickly leaving many surprised the chicago tribune noted on january 19th that the government ban on the sales-sized bread yesterday caught hundreds of chicago housewives by surprise and sent them stirring to hardware stores to raid depleted supplies of bread knives well just a generation before had grown up without sliced bread the loss of the product was sort of a crisis in 1943 the lodi news sentinel of lodi california noted the day the regulation became effective now if we view this operation with a jaundiced eye you will have to forgive us have you sliced the loaves of bread recently yourself have you a bread slicer in the home for that matter do you think providing you that slicer that you can turn out slices the same degree of accuracy as they come from the baker the answer probably is no to all questions the news journal of wilmington delaware proclaimed no official questionnaire has ever been issued but it is believed that the majority of american housewives are not proficient bred slicers the chicago tribune described the scene bakery clerks reported that some of the housewives were resigned others still uncomprehending stocked out of stores to look further for cut bread and a few flex their cutting arms in a manner one proprietary described as trouble and plenty of it by january 24th the cedar rapids gazette noted that instead of the regular half inch sections which came from the bread wrapper shapeless odd-sized sections of bread found their way to dinner plates certainly the law had its detractors the times of san mateo california summarized the problems bread knives were hard to get when you got them it took time to learn how to use them and after that it took more time to slice the bread daily if the knives were too dull they wouldn't cut and if too sharp they took a toll on fingertips and the time lost and injuries resulted in cost nation media man or woman hour and besides no matter how you sliced them it seemed the handcarved chunks still got caught in the toaster a woman named sue forrester wrote in a letter to the editor on the january 26 edition of the new york times i should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household my husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast without ready sliced bread i must do the slicing for toast two pieces for each one that's ten for their lunches i must cut my hand at least twenty slices for two sandwiches a piece and afterwards i make my own toast twenty two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry the chicago tribune reported that both retail and wholesale bakers here described the ban as a doubtful saving of time and labor cost a waste of bread and duration long lost of an investment in slicing machines but the response was not universally negative much of the response represented the sort of stoic bravery with which the nation and in fact the world faced wartime necessity mrs doris h steele a home demonstration agent wrote in the barry times of barry vermont in grandmother's day the loaf of bread had a regular place at the family table grandmother had an attractive board for the bread to stand on and a good sharp knife alongside grandmother knew that a sharp knife and a steady hand were the secrets of slicing bread she sliced as a family ass for bread and in this way she didn't waste any bread by cutting more than the family could eat let's all contribute to the war effort by slicing our own bread the miami news of miami florida ran a story january 24th entitled miami housewives renew art almost lost of bread slicing that described how many housewives were coping mrs m helper for example said i don't know what it's all about but it doesn't bother me very much because i already have a nice sharp bread knife i guess we'll all get along as best we can well mrs r.a oglesby responded i haven't been buying any bread since the order to stop slicing it came out i don't have a bread knife and i can't find one to buy so i'm baking biscuits and buying rolls even the lodi news sentinel after expressing how dubious they were proclaiming we don't like the order then framed it as being among 101 merchandising frills which we have taken for granted they're all on the way out because all of them mean extra work for someone and that extra work could be better applied in wartime to doing something that helps win the war concluding bring on the unsliced bread we'll manhandle it the first few days after a week or so maybe we'll get some slices out of it there won't be works of art but they'll be bread and the bread is the important thing isn't it and at least one person cheered the restriction the saint cloud times of saint cloud minnesota noted that actress olivia de havilland who hadn't been reading the papers and didn't know that sliced bread was a war casualty was delighted to hear it she said firmly that steps should have been taken long ago because bread was always sliced too thick and was about time the government stepped in still the law had its powerful critics new york city mayor fiorella laguardia an ally of president roosevelt director of the office of civil defense argued in a radio address on january 24th that bakeries who already own bread cutting machines should be allowed to use them but the government did not relent in fact the new york times reported on january 26th that the ban was going to be extended to local bakeries delicatessens and stores that continued to use their bread slicing machines john f conoboy the new york area supervisor of the food distribution administration explained that the extension was necessary to protect regular bakers against unfair competition the exact reasons for the ban were never clear but several were suggested first the regulations were intended to provide savings and reduced overhead which it was hoped would allow bakers to absorb the increased cost of bulk flour without raising the price of bread a second reason had to do with saving water supplies the government argument was that sliced bread had to be double wrapped with heavy waxed paper since sliced bread dries out and goes stale more quickly thus the odor saved both wax and paper the order also might save critical warm materials like steel needed to manufacture and repair the machines and the energy used to operate them some speculated that the order may also been intended to reduce bread consumption on the reasoning that pre-sliced bread had increased consumption so eliminating it might result in a corresponding decrease this could allow secretary wicker to avoid bread rationing which would have been unpopular finally some argued that eliminating slicing meant less waste as whole lows do not dry out as quickly and were less likely to mold in moist environments and all the reasoning frankly failed many bakers argued that sales did decrease for a number of reasons but the general idea is that the order caused more bread waste not less the akron ohio beacon observed waste resulting by consumers cutting slices either too thick too thin or discarding leftovers the chicago tribune pointed out that sliced bread actually lasted longer because a housewife opens one end of the sliced bread generally replaces the heel after taking out what she wants and the bread stays fresh to cut it herself she removes the whole wrapper and the bread dries out more quickly the beak in a pine it's a crime to waste food especially during wartime the charlotte observer noted that war production regulations already prohibited purchasing new bread cutting machines so the savings in steel would only be the tiny amount that would be used in the repairs of existing machines in fact the order might have had the opposite effect as the newspaper observed the odor has sent housewives going into markets to buy new knives for slicing bread bakers had already argued that the order produced no real cost savings the chicago tribune quoted a spokesman for a large wholesale bakery and said that time saving in the industry was negligible and the charlotte observer estimated savings to be less than one tenth of one cent on each loaf the harrisburg pennsylvania telegraph reported february 17th above all the bakers admit the purpose for which the bread slicing ban and other bakery regulations were instituted have been defeated and instead of affecting a saving cost to the bakers have increased that the ban was ill considered from the start was most evident in the fact that it was lifted less than two months after taking effect the chicago illinois suburbanite economist wrote on march 10th by permission of secretary of agriculture wickard sliced bread went back on sale yesterday mr workers said he had found there were more evils in stopping the slicing of bread by the bakers than in letting them go ahead and do it turns out there was no reason to save wax paper as bickers already had ample supplies on hand and wheat was also not an issue due to a bumper crop the year before in fact in the wake of the reversal suddenly no one seemed willing to take responsibility for the ban to begin with the belvedere illinois daily republican proclaimed sliced bread ban bears earmarks of whodunit the office of price administration put the baby on the agriculture department's doorstep an agricultural department spokesman said it was really the baking industry's idea the bakers said a spokesman for the american bakers association were much excited for their part war production board officials said that so many things have happened in the past two months that they couldn't remember who started the no slicing idea the columbus indiana republican reported that in washington none of the powerful war agencies want to take credit for the sliced bread ban order it begins to appear that the little man who wasn't will ultimately get the credit the opa says i didn't do it the wpb answers similarly and secretary of agriculture wickard says he had no part in it indiana representative forrest harness said in the indianapolis star i blame the little bureaucrat in the agriculture department rather than secretary wickard for the silly order of making an offense for the baker to sell sliced bread certainly forbidding sales of sliced bread wouldn't win the war in the end the story of the 1943 sliced bread ban was one of bureaucratic overzealousness as culinary laura magazine noted in 2017 the band and sliced bread probably was never given any real thought or analysis and it didn't last very long despite the ban having its supporters at the time the reversal less than two months later resulted in almost universal approval the san mateo california times proclaimed man cannot live by bread alone he wants it sliced mrs james p mclaughlin was quoted in the chicago suburbanite so now we have our ready sliced bread back and everybody's just a little bit happier everybody that is except for the sparrows and miss dorothy merton said in the detroit free press i was plenty glad when the opa decided to lift a ban on bread slicing because i hadn't had a good piece of toast in weeks and the best lesson maybe is that even in difficult times we should appreciate what we have because no matter the challenges of the day at least we still have sliced bread i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 307,216

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, world war II, wwii, sliced bread ban, us history, american history, home front

Id: i7Kc6Sfla3I

Length: 16min 59sec (1019 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/GiantsOfSF1958]

Used to live in Trenton. I was amazed when I found out about sliced bread.

[u/louiewood69]

That's my hometown!