Word: curfew
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Still, Small Voice. To thousands the official explanation-that the curfew was designed to save coal, manpower and transportation-was simply bunk. Mumbled a Chicago barfly: "Turn off the furnace and let us drink in our overcoats." Everywhere citizens pounced gleefully upon a shattering rebuttal: "It's going to be summer pretty soon...
...truth about the Byrnes order was that it was mostly psychological, in orgin and intent. Last October Assistant President Byrnes went to Europe and got religion about the war. The curfew was a Byrnes attempt to operate the U.S. conscience...
...Texas Too. In San Antonio, Texans asked if the curfew applied in Texas too, and many added: "If it does, we'll just have to start getting drunk an hour sooner next Saturday." The only ordinary citizens who would really be inconvenienced were swing-shift workers. Many of them thought their lives were uncomfortable enough anyhow; there is something chronically annoying about working from 4 in the afternoon until midnight...
...would the War Manpower Commission enforce its curfew? Most WMC offices did not know. Said an official in Seattle: "The curfew shall ring, but for whom the bell tolls we know not." Most police forces eyed the new rule without enthusiasm...
...week's end the mayor ended all the hopeful cheering by announcing his considered decision-the curfew would stand in New York. And everywhere else-in Reno, where gambling houses had stayed open all night, in Chicago. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami-night spots decided to observe it. In the comparative calm which followed this reluctant acceptance, a Detroit bartender gave the new rule a name. "First we had the race tracks closed," he said. "Then we had the brown out and now we've got the Byrne...