This Week in Texas Methodist History Octobe 10 World War II Shortages Force Shortened Annual Conference October `1942 Shortages of rubber, nylon, gasoline, and fuels during World War II are well known. Readers of this blog will know about ration cards, meatless Mondays, and other attempts to save food and materiel for the war effort. Did you ever think that a shortage of hotel rooms also occurred? World War II put millions of people in motion and produced shortages in both transportation and accommodations. Some travelers were en route to new assignments. Others were living in temporary quarters while on special assignment such as procuring real estate for new military bases or factories. In October 1942 Bishop A. Frank Smith announced that the next two conferences over which he would preside, the Texas and the Southwest Texas would be shortened because hotel rooms were not available in San Antonio or Houston on the weekend. Annual Conference typically convened on Sunday night and continued through the next week, but not in October 1942 in those two conferences. Instead they would convene on Monday and adjourn on Friday freeing up hotel rooms for the weekend. The abbreviated annual conference was self-inflicted. Only a few years earlier, annual conference was held at various sites around the conference, and most members and delegates stayed in private residences. In the mid-1930s, though Jesse Jones, Houston’s most prominent businessman, made an offer to the Texas Annual Conference. His offer----hold annual conference in Houston every year, and I will offer a rate of $1.00 per night at my Lamar Hotel, just a few blocks from the conference site, First Methodist Houston. The conference took him up and the tradition of moving conference around to various cities and staying in private residences was broken--- When World War II created a huge demand for hotel rooms, Bishop Smith had to adjust.