University of Virginia Library

Other Materials Salvaged

During the years 1942 and 1943 rags for cleaning Army and
Navy weapons were collected by the city of Charlottesville to the
amount of 1,273 pounds, along with other salvaged materials.[39]

The National Collection of Discarded Clothing, sponsored by the
Salvage Division of the War Production Board under the National
Used Clothing Program began on November 22, 1943, when the
desirability of providing garments for the destitute people of the
liberated countries had become obvious. The Defense Supplies Corporation
arranged for dry cleaning and shipment overseas. All dry
cleaners in Albemarle County and forty-four other counties in western
Virginia sent their collections to the Inland Service Corporation
warehouse in Charlottesville. The city sent 1,464 pounds by December
18, 1943, and the county 2,090.5 pounds. Another United
National Clothing Collection was launched by the same agency in
April, 1945. By the end of the month 30,000 pounds of clothing
had been donated. Members of civic clubs gave freely of their time
in collecting and packing the clothes, and merchants lent their trucks
for use in a house-to-house collection. Six deposit stations received
them also. Before the drive was brought to a close on May 15 about
34,400 pounds of clothing had been given by the city and county.
“The collection brought in excellent clothes that will still be useful,”
said Charles Youell, chairman for the drive. “There weren't a
dozen garments that could be considered unusable.” Persons having
additional used clothing to give away were asked to contact any
one of the several charitable organizations in the city.[40]

Other articles were salvaged on a less intensive scale. Boy Scouts
of Charlottesville contributed four truckloads to the 2,643 pounds
of aluminum salvaged here during 1942 and 1943. Discarded license
plates weighing a total of 1,480 pounds were collected during the
same period. In order that small quantities of shellac could be reclaimed,
old phonograph records were gathered by 4-H Club members
to raise money for the purchase of an ambulance to serve in Red
Cross overseas duty; the Paramount Theatre charged records for admission
to a movie; the Meriwether Lewis School organized a “flying
squadron” for this activity, and the 4-H Club of that locality
contributed more than half of the total quantity of records collected.
Old silk stockings were forwarded by the J. D. and J. S. Tilman
department store to be used in making powder bags and for other
similar defense purposes; the Girl Scouts helped raise the 125 pounds
for the first shipment in February, 1943. In the fall of 1944, 4-H
Club members in the county gathered forty-five bags of milk weed
pods, a quantity, according to Henry Brumback, assistant county
agent, sufficient to make twenty-two life preservers. Fur for lining

certain types of military uniforms was collected by the Shadwell
Chapter of the D. A. R.[41]

The salvage of thousands of tons of materials useful to the war
effort by this community during the war was not the only result of
the campaigns described. Proceeds from the sale of waste paper and
other scrap by the city of Charlottesville went to aid the U. S. O.
in its program of providing recreation for men in the armed forces.
The amount of $1,898 had been raised by the end of 1943.[42] Other
organizations which joined in the salvage drives used the money
raised for special projects of their own.

The people of Charlottesville and Albemarle County attained
creditable records in the salvage of waste paper, scrap iron and other
metals, rubber, and clothing. It is difficult to conceive that larger
results could reasonably be expected from efforts dependent upon the
volunteer, part-time services of busy individuals and upon the cooperation
of various organizations. Admittedly less successful were
the local efforts in collecting fats and tin cans. At least a partial explanation
of the fact that the community fell somewhat below the
national average in respect to these two items may lie in the tendency
of Southern cooks to use more fats for the seasoning of food and the
making of gravies than their Northern and Western counterparts and
to take from their pantry shelves foods locally preserved in glass
rather than commercially processed in tin. Moreover, salvage of
these articles required the daily cooperation of individuals who were
sometimes unwilling to save what seemed like inconsequential bits.
On the other hand, waste paper, scrap iron, rubber, and clothing lent
themselves more readily to organized drives in which team spirit
and rivalry brought better results.