File:City Hall Metal Drive WWII.jpg

Summary

The notation on the back of this photo was "World War II Metal Collection: City Hall - A Street". Items like these were donated for the war effort as part of the "Salvage for Victory" program that was launched on January 10, 1942. Citizens scoured their homes, farms and businesses for metal. Housewives donated pots and pans, farmers turned in farm equipment and children even sacrificed metal toys.

Unfortunately, only 25% of the iron work collected was used for munitions and by 1944, much of it sat rusting in council depots or railroad sidings with some filtering through to the post war metal industry.

In the photo are (top L-R): Mayor Al Harris, Sonny Cannon, Ed Gladstone and Police Chief Lee Merriman.

The boys in front are (L-R): Eddie Pace, ??, Juby Anderson, ??

Charles Foster The object of the scrap metal drive was to get people involved, not really to recycle metal. To that end, it worked.

Smoketown History (Brunswick, Md.) Lee ("Babo") Merriman served two terms as Brunswick Police Chief (1941-1950; 1963-1967)...Peter

(Photo courtesy of Mindy Niles from the Duane Smith Collection and the City of Brunswick MD History Commission; "Salvage for Victory" information from the Library of Congress)