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It was on this day (June 22) in 1944 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the GI Bill of Rights. It was one of the most important and influential pieces of legislation ever signed by an American president, but the newspapers barely covered the story at the time. They were too busy reporting on the Allied invasion of Europe.
The law was passed in part because of the experience of veterans of the First World War. Many of them had lost their jobs during the Great Depression and became homeless. They had been promised a veteran's bonus when they reached the age of retirement, but many worried they'd never live that long, since they were sleeping under bridges and starving on the street. A group of veterans went to Washington, D.C., to demand their bonuses early, and they had to be driven out of the city with tanks and tear gas.
Legislators in Congress didn't want that to happen again, especially since there would be so many veterans coming home from World War II. Economists at the time were predicting a post-war depression, and politicians were terrified of the idea of nine million unemployed former soldiers wandering the country. The first version of the GI Bill just guaranteed unemployment benefits for a year. A congressional committee threw in the idea that veterans should get money to go to college if they wanted to.
The presidents of many of the most prestigious universities around the country thought the GI Bill was a terrible idea. They argued that flooding the universities with veterans who might not have the same level of education as traditional college students would ruin the whole university system. Other critics said that the GI Bill would encourage laziness, helping veterans avoid real jobs. But the Congress and the president went ahead and passed the GI Bill anyway.
Even the supporters of the bill didn't think very many GIs would really want to go to college. In fact, about a million veterans applied for the money within the first year after the war, and ultimately 2.2 million veterans used the money to obtain higher education, many of them becoming the first members of their families to receive a college diploma. Before the war, about 10 percent of Americans attended college. After the war, that figure rose to about 50 percent.
The surge in enrollment was difficult for many college campuses. New students set up Quonset huts and surplus barracks on campus lawns. A college in Ohio set up a dormitory in a Coast Guard boat on the Muskingum River. Stanford converted a military hospital into a set of apartments.
And contrary to most expectations, the grade-point averages at most colleges went up with the influx of veterans, and dropout rates went way down. Professors at the time said that the veterans were the most serious and disciplined students they'd ever seen. The cost to taxpayers of the GI Bill was about 5.5 billion dollars, but the result was 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 22,000 dentists, 17,000 writers and editors, and thousands of other professionals. It helped spur one of the greatest economic booms in American history.
The following article was researched by Phyllis Beam
Metaline Falls News, August 3,1944
GERMAN WORKER IN FOREST NO PRISONER There has been some misunderstanding about the use of German internees by the Forest Service, therefore, a statement regarding their status is issued by Roy A. Phillips, Kaniksu Supervisor. They are not prisoners of war, but are for the most part men who have lived in this country for years but who had not become naturalized. A few of them are sailors taken from merchant ships and a few were brought to this country from Costa Rica for internment. They have been put in internment camps for the duration of the war by the Immigration Service and are paroled to the U.S. Forest Service for as long a period as it can keep them gracefully employed. A few of these men have been given paroles that enable them to go where they please, but they have elected to stay in the internment camps for the duration of the work. These men are paid $55 a month and board, with the provision that if they stay for a three month period a bonus of $15 a month additional will be paid . Men who refuse to work or fail to display the proper attitude for assignments given them are returned to a federal internment camp. They are given a weekly recreation trip to town as a rule, but if they do not behave themselves they are confined to camp or possible returned to federal interment camps. Groups of them here at times have been brought to Newport for recreation. They are engaged at present on blister rust work and when that season ends will be employed on slash disposal. They are given fire training and will be used for fire suppression work should that become necessary. The work they do is financed from regular forest allotments and with the present labor shortage in mind. A useful and necessary public service is being accomplished by these men who would otherwise be held, probably idle, in an internment camp at government expense. They are doing good work in their assignment and are at least paying their way and serving a useful purpose in doing work, that left undone, might result in a loss of valuable timber resources of the country.
THE NEWPORT MINER
Then came the Mexicans Metaline Falls News, June 14,1945 The 60 Mexicans who are assigned temporarily to the Forest Service this spring at Sullivan Lake and Usk, left recently for work in the sugar beet fields of Montana. The Forest Service utilized the men in cooperation with the War Foods Administration (WFA) The Mexicans were imported by the WFA primarily to meet the urgent requirements for labor in the sugar beet fields during a few weeks in the spring and then again in the fall during harvest time. Because a guarantee of several months employment was necessary to induce the men to leave Mexico, arrangements had to be made to employ them intermittently at other work. The Mexicans employed in Pend Oreille County were used primarily to dispose of logging slash which creates a serious forest fire menace. If some crews return for a few weeks during the summer, they will be used to combat the white pine blister rust disease which is killing the pine and threatening the white pine industry of the Inland Empire. Also they will be available for fire fighting. Many Americans think the Mexican laborer is a slow and more or less disinterested railroad section worker. The crews used on the National Forest in Pend Oreille County, however, proved to be good. They worked hard and liked it. All of them expressed a real desire to return here during the summer when they are not needed in the sugar beets. The Forest Service had an interesting time learning to feed the Mexicans the type of food they liked. Their favorite diet consisted mainly of potatoes, beans and chili peppers. They had little taste for the meat and jam sandwiches provided for their lunches the first few days. After some questioning, it was learned that they preferred sandwiched filled with beans and chili peppers — no butter. One day an ingenious flunkie decided he'd try something different. So, he prepared sandwiches of bread and mashed potatoes - again without butter. That evening he went to the Mexicans and asked "how about sandwiches?" "Ah," they said, "bueno, bueno, mucho bueno (plenty good" Potato sandwiches were favored from then on. The Mexicans liked some meats but not all. Cold lunch meat just could not be "sold". One evening they were served corned beef. As they were going to the table one of the American boys made some passing remark about the horse meat on the table. The Mexicans must have heard him because they would not eat so much as a sliver of it. Yet the next night when it was ground up and served as meat balls, they ate it with relish.
Wickenburg, Az, April 2, 2005
Yes, Gene I was laying on the Chase Lounge out in the back yard having a cool Corona beer and doing some early age reminiscing and how we met 69 years ago during the summer of l937. You and I lived less than ten miles from each
other (in Kansas, Oklahoma) before we met and did not at the time know it. You lived in Picher, Ok., less than four or five miles from the Ok., Kansas border and I lived just a few miles out of Galena, Ks less than three miles from the Ok., border. You and your family left Ok., for Metaline in 1936, my family and I left Kansas for Metaline arriving in the summer of l937. We met and became good friends because we both were crazy about airplanes and probably built more airplane models than anyone in the state. During my seventh and eighth grade years I lived and worked over at Anna Lincolns dairy and we both went to the Metaline school and Sadie Halstead was our teacher the first year I was there and Miss Thorpe was our eight grade teacher. I graduated from the eighth grade in l939 with Bobby Miller, Irene Beatty, Janice Peters and Ralph Brown. I believe you were a year or so behind us in school. I was the baby sitter in those days, I remember sitting for Pat Lincoln, Jack Cody,
Frank, Shirley and Leslie Beatty. I left in 1939 to attend high school in Longview, Wa. I came back in l942 and worked as a helper on a diamond drill run by George Stuver. That same summer I purchased a l935 Ford convertible from Bruce Shackleton who was going in the service. I joined the navy that same year and after nearly four years of service in World War II and year or two later I went to Alaska. In l951 my family was living in the old Anna Lincolns place and I had my Dad ordered from Lon Shackleton, the Chevrolet Dealer in Metaline Falls, my first new car; a Chevy Belaire and I came down picked it up and drove it back to Alaska via the Alcan Highway, boy what a trip in those days. I was able to renew my friendship with you during the all school reunion in Metaline in l981. I must say my wife and I look forward to the visits each summer in Metaline, and as far as I can determine the most beautiful place left in this world that has not been spoiled. See you this summer, just around the corner.
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The following article was sent by Phyllis Beam from the archives
at the Metaline Falls Library. (See note at bottom of article.) This has an
enormous amount of information in it, beyond the repair of the flume. One item I
found to be really startling, was the fact Marie Newman had been married
previously to marrying Art. Unfortunately, it does not mention what happened to
her first husband, George Marr. With his blase attitude about riding the flume,
maybe he died of damn foolishness. Many of us remember Marie busily zipping
about town reading meters. Art, as I remember, was a fan of cricket - you know,
the game with the sticky wicket - and they used to go up to Canada to watch
cricket matches.
Another wonderful item, is the note about the construction of
"10 modern stucco bungalows." This puts a date on the Lehigh Row of
houses, all of which are in private hands now. I'm guessing that Jim Shaw, Bill
Ball, Kellers, Badlys, Turnquists and Elmer Dehuff families must have been some
of the very first tenants of the new housing. Also, anyone interested in the
history of the cement plant, can pickup up on H. C. Helwig as the first
Superintendent, followed by A. R. Dehuff, who lived upstairs in the office
building. I believe that would have made Al Schaeffer the third manager of
Lehigh. Anyway, a very rich source of information. Thanks for sending it along,
Phyllis.
The picture below illustrates one of the causes of the flume
collapsing. A leak would let ice start to build, until tons of ice would be
pulling the flume down, plus the overflow would wash out the underpinnings. As I
have reported before, the last drop of water that came down the flume was in
February, I believe the year was 1956. A pipe that bridged a washout had frozen
shut, and the Box Canyon and PUD Line crews were trying to thaw it out. The water
overflowing the flume washed out the support pilings and the flume suddenly
turned to kindling.
Member Mary Gilmore reminds me as follows:
This flume photo is the one I sent quite awhile ago and it is my Grandfather Brooks who is the man in the "Yellow,"
sweater, not the one in the lighter jacket on the edge.
From: Spokesman Review, Sunday, September 19, 1920
COMPLETE FLUME AT METALINE FALLS
Cement Plant Soon to Supply 2000 Barrels a Day
After a shutdown since April 1, the Lehigh Portland Cement company plant at Metaline Falls, Pend Oreille county, resumed operations last week and within 10 days will be operating its two kilns to full capacity and producing 2000 barrels of cement a day.
In April, the flume whereby the company conveyed water from Sullivan Lake to its power plant in Metaline Falls collapsed, forcing the shutting down of the cement plant. The old flume that had been in use for nine years and for several years past had frequently broken, causing interruption of operations for several weeks at a time. A year ago the company realized the necessity of replacing the flume and at its sawmill at Sullivan Lake sawed 1,500,000 feet of lumber and got out 87,000 lineal feet of piling to carry the flume.
The new flume is two and one-third miles long from the head-gate at the lake to the point where the water enters the penstock for delivery to the power plant. It is five feet high by six feet wide and will carry 70 cubic feet of water a second, at a velocity in the flume of 3 1/2 lineal feet a second. The flume is built of matched, grooved lumber and all joints have been calked to prevent loss of water.
From the penstock the water has a drop of 460 feet through a 36-inch pipe in a tunnel to the power plant. Before entering the two water wheels the water is reduced to a 3 1/2 inch pipe and has a pressure of 200 pounds to the square inch. The water wheels produce a maximum of 4000 horse power and the cement plant in full operation uses about 1800 horse power. The town of Metaline Falls is also
provided with light and power by the cement company.
Work of engineering on the new flume was done by Superintendant H.C. Helwig and A.R. DeHuff, resident engineer of the company. In working out the details many interesting problems were met by these gentlemen, including the delivery of lumber as the building of the flume progressed. The flume winds around the sides of Sullivan Creek canyon, several hundred feet above the bed of the creek and there is no roadway for delivery of the material. Piling were floated down the flume as the bents were completed. To get the lumber down ,the flume was boarded over and a delivery of lumber was made by a motorcycle
hauling a two-wheeled lumber truck.
The motorcycle was equipped with a third wheel but the trip down the flume was productive of thrills to the spectator. The rider, George Marr, a young man who saw service in France, as a motorcycle dispatch rider, saw nothing unusual in the job, and considered it mild compared with some of his experiences in the war. At places the path he rode was several hundred feet above the canyon bed, and an error in
judgment in rounding the curves or a skid would have dashed him to certain death.
The new flume has cost the Lehigh company more than $125,000 to build, and through the necessity of its construction the company has lost six months of operation at a time when there existed a shortage of cement throughout the country and there would have been a market for every pound of cement that could be manufactured.
The Lehigh company recently bought the Washington hotel in Metaline Falls, a brick building with 40 rooms, which it will use as a boarding house for its employees, retaining a few rooms for transport
accommodation. In addition the company has within the last year erected 10 modern stucco bungalows to house families of employees.
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Winnie LaSota wrote below;
The above article in regard to building second flume in 1920, together with snapshot album and several very special larger pictures, including photo of Mr. and Mrs Louis P. Larsen, were given to the historical society by Mrs Marie Newman, former resident of Metaline Falls and now Cathedral City, Calif.
Mrs. Newman is niece of Mrs Larsen and came here from Pennsylvania. Was employed in the ofice of Mr. Larsen as Light and Water Supt. from about 1920 until that department was taken over by Pend Oreille Co. P.U.D. in the 1940's. She married George Marr, the motor cyclist mentioned in the above article. He had served in France, World War l as a motor cycle dispatch rider.
On his death she married Mr Art Newman, now deceased. He was a purser on one of the river boats in the early days and later book keeper in the Pend Oreille Mine office.
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Some of the albums and photos that Winnie speaks of above are in the "Metalines' Library Historical Collection" in the library.
End of article.
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