WORLD WAR II SALVAGING WAS POPULAR

Scrap-metal dealers started getting some respect during the years 1942-1945.

Scrap metals used with raw steel in making munitions and implements of war were short in supply and "Salvage for Victory" campaigns were conducted throughout the nation in the war effort.

The Cape Girardeau area was no exception.

Cape Girardeau County's quota for collecting scrap metal was 870 tons. During a 1942 drive in September, Cape Girardeau youngsters challenged adults to do their part in obtaining scrap metal. The results gave new definition to the term, "heavy metal."

Pupils of Cape County rural schools were on the prowl for scrap metal. A contest was on with a chance for a student and teacher to attend a coastal shipyard to launch a liberty ship.

During one 1942 drive in September, a local Southeast Missouri "Salvage for Victory" campaign was given a big boost when A.J. Jackson, a farmer from Gypsy in Bollinger County, brought in a 10,000-pound, 1907 model Case steam tractor along with assorted lots of other scrap metal. It raised his contribution to 14,300 pounds.

A Bell City man, B. Rust Brown, turned into the Stoddard County salvage drive one of his most prized possessions a collection of huge shell casings he picked up after World War I in Argonne Forest in France. He expressed the desire that they be melted down and remade into shells.

Four cannons that stood in Common Pleas Courthouse Park for years were given to the government as scrap metal by the Cape Girardeau City Council. Barrels of the guns were made of brass. Two of the cannons at the east side of the courthouse were 1,200-pound guns dated 1862; two on the west side near Themis were 427-pound Howitzers. They were dated 1861 and 1872.

The WPA offered to dig abandoned streetcar tracks out of streets of seven Missouri cities, including Cape Girardeau, recovering more than 18,000 tons of scrap metal for the war effort.

Because machines were needed for scrap metal in the war effort, SEMO Auto Salvage Co., 1801 Independence, disposed of its stock of 432 autos so the metal could be moved into war production channels.

During the early war years, many Southeast Missourians brought truckloads of scrap metal to Pollack Hide and Fur Co., then continued into Illinois where they purchased truck loads for winter heating fuel.