Word: fabrics
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...their prices on the other, found themselves squeezed out of profits. Result: they largely quit civilian production-and "upgraded" the rest. Half of production went into military orders. The other half became "higher-quality" merchandise-sometimes a matter of adding as little as an extra color to a fabric-where the spread between costs and selling prices nets a profit...
...trusted in combat. An A.S.C. officer scrounged some asbestos from the French for a crucible, made an oven from adobe brick, heated it with acetylene torches. With aluminum from salvaged German propellers and a little copper he made new hinges, put the planes into combat in three days. When fabric parts needed repairs, the same officer borrowed the only available sewing machine in town from a French dressmaker. It had no needles. He made some out of bicycle spokes...
Improper Propriety. When the writings of Confucius were first translated, the finespun fabric of his thought, delicate as Chinese silk and colored and varied as the hills of his native northeast, was ripped to shreds. The varied meanings summed up in the Chinese term li-a concept which in government meant order, in social life politeness and good manners, and, deeper than these, "the harmony in the soul which prompts action in accordance with true natural instincts"-were rendered by militant English missionaries as "propriety...
...European unification. Marlborough, Pitt and Wellington have all fought to keep a balance of power on the European continent, and the small trading nations-The Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries-have usually welcomed British intercession. When madmen like the French Bourbons, Napoleon and Hitler have tried to reconstitute the fabric of a united Europe by force, they have gone down to defeat...
Despite some black-market shenanigans, most of the price increases have been perfectly legal under OPA's regulations, because normal profit margins are allow able, and higher fabric and labor costs pyramid from textile weaver to manufacturer to retailer...