The Home Front Takes Shape

This is the second in a series of excerpts taken from Sheer Will: the Story of the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel, Chapter 8 War and Recovery, which highlights the impact of Pearl Harbor and World War II on Houston.

While the war dammed up shipping from the Gulf, activity at the Port of Houston continued. Re-entering the port “scene” at this point is Jesse Jones. In 1940 he’d been tapped by President Roosevelt to serve as Secretary of Commerce. It is worth noting that Mr. Jones was a Republican serving in a Democratic administration. And he had proven himself repeatedly as an economic leader. Benefitting from that leadership, time and again, was the Port of Houston. Throughout World War II, he made sure industrial growth was heaped upon the channel.

Jones making calls during lunch. 

The first to get phone calls from Mr. Jones were the oil companies. The engine of modern warfare, after all, is the internal combustion engine. Not only did the refineries along the channel shift into high gear to meet wartime production needs, they also expanded. Aircraft, tanks, jeeps, and ships immediately needed fuel. And munitions factories needed toluene for trinitrotoluene—TNT. Toluene is basically a solvent that emerges during the gasoline production process. Add some nitric acid and things go boom. Actually it’s not quite that simple, but refineries along the bayou meant that TNT would not be in short supply.

Also at the behest of Mr. Jones, the petroleum industry helped solve a basic military need. Japan’s early command in the Pacific meant that rubber was under their control. America needed either another source of rubber or had to figure out how to synthesize it. In addition to paper drives and scrap metal drives, there were rubber drives.

For much of the war, American drivers rolled on bald tires and patched up holes in tubes as best they could. Many companies, like the milk industry, reverted to horse-drawn carriages to service their routes. But conservation and recycling old tires weren’t enough. In 1942, a good synthetic rubber was developed, and its formula included a petroleum byproduct. Fully recognizing the abilities of his neighbors along the Houston Ship Channel, the can-do attitude of the workforce, and the advantages of the channel’s close proximity to oil supplies, existing shipping, and rail facilities, Mr. Jones made sure that two of the plants were located near Houston.

While all this was enough to keep things clicking at the Port of Houston and the surrounding areas, Mr. Jones had additional expectations for his home port.