Leave it to our government to outlaw sliced bread

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You’ve heard it all your life, “best thing since sliced bread.”

The invention of the bread slicer was a life changer and Chillicothe Missouri’s claim to fame.

Chillicothe, MO - birthplace of sliced bread (Photo submitted by Bob Ford)

But what in the world would cause the U.S. Government to prohibit the sale of sliced bread? World War II. Claude F. Wickford, Secretary of Agriculture and head of the War Food Administration on January 18, 1943, directed, “henceforth the sale of sliced bread will be banned in the United States of America.”

Women throughout the country were furious! The sacrifices made on the home front during the war were immense.

Wickford (Photo submitted by Bob Ford)

Normal living was put on hold, as “all-out war” meant everyone had to do their part whether it was working a man’s job, volunteering towards the war effort or dealing with shortages of most everything—but sliced bread?

Otto Rohwedder had been developing a commercial bread slicer for decades. Through fire, injury and financial strife, in 1928 he introduced the innovation that honored Chillicothe and changed the kitchen. It took the baking industry by storm.

Rohwedder (Photo submitted by Bob Ford)

By 1930 Continental Baking’s sliced Wonder Bread, you know: “Builds Strong Bodies in 8 Ways,” cornered the market. People had been slicing, tearing and biting into loaves for millennia ever since wheat was milled into flour and baked.

Now pop-up toasters became the rage, slices were uniform and could always fit right in, but hold on. Secretary Wickford with his infinite wisdom thought the steel used to manufacture the slicer and wax wrapping paper needed to keep the bread fresh would be better used in the war effort.

Households revolted. New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, obviously listening to his incensed wife Marie, announced he would not enforce the ban. Across the country women were forced to pull out their grandmother’s serrated knives and begrudgingly saw into fresh loaves. So much for your new pop-up toaster if your slice wasn’t perfect. Burnt toast, time wasted and frustration left many a housewife with bloody fingers and a dull weapon in her hand, cursing at Wickford.

Essential raw materials were in demand by our allies: coal, tin, wood, oil, rubber and sugar are just a few of what people had to live without. Many common everyday items made the ration list too: steel, meat, dairy, coffee and interestingly shoes.

Even in 1939-40 before the United States entered the conflict our government started gearing up, knowing war was inevitable. France fell to the Nazis in ‘40 leaving a depleted England in the West and Russia to the East as the last European powers to try and slow Hitler.

Churchill and Stalin pressed the United States for desperately needed help. Many in the United States didn’t want to become involved in another European war; the last one was devastating. Roosevelt knew the country’s military wasn’t ready but our vast industrial base was.

The Lend-Lease Act of March 1941 allowed the U.S. to become the “arsenal of democracy,” supplying allies with much needed military equipment, food and munitions. A provision in the Act allowed allies to pay the U.S. back, “as they could,” because in the long run as the President knew, these supplies were actually for the defense of the United States.

In all, 50 billion dollars’ worth of supplies went out; that’s 700 billion dollars in today’s dollars. Aircraft, ships, tanks, trucks and weapons were shipped overseas in convoys dodging German subs in the North Atlantic. Under the agreement after the war, United States equipment delivered was to be returned if not destroyed.

Just protein-packed Spam itself introduced to the world in 1937, at its height, the U.S. military purchased 15 million cans of the Hormel product per week. Even though the delicacy was much maligned, “Spam the ham that couldn’t pass its physical!” General Nikita Khrushchev credited the “canned ham” with saving his fighting men on the battlefield from starving to death.

Back on the home front after Pearl Harbor, rationing became a way of life. Rationing coupons looked much like S&H Green Stamps. Remember? Victory Gardens sprung up everywhere with old time bartering making a comeback. Every household item was subject to shortages which, of course, spawned black markets.

Women would use eyeliner down the back of their legs mimicking they were wearing nylons. Generations of a family moved in with one another to save on costs and products, including mine. Everyone went without, you understood, except for that sliced bread thing? After the war products slowly came off the ration list, sugar was the last item pulled in 1947. Its sweetly used in explosives manufacturing.

Only two months after being imposed, the restriction on sliced bread was rescinded. Who knew what went on at the Wickford household, but one of his directors on the Food Administration Board was caught in a sliced bread black market ring. No kidding! Sliced bread was the only product to get a reprieve off the restricted list in the middle of the war.

Mister Secretary, as politicians do, didn’t admit a mistake in lifting the ban. “The restriction didn’t save as much as expected and the country has plenty of wax paper.” He caved, bakers were happy, housewives put away their knives and finally, harmony on the home front. From there, we of course, went on to win the war!