Then, during a period of rapid post-war redevelopment, most closed their doors permanently as new apartment blocks incorporated their own saunas and basic washing facilities for residents.
Western Europe's rapid post-war growth, he says, stemmed from more than the free play of market forces: cohesive trade unions and employers' associations, often inherited from pre-war times, and growth-minded governments were needed too.
But she can also be partisan -- going to Daschle earlier this year and recommending a kind of rapid-response war room from which to lob grenades at Republicans and the administration.
They argue it reflects increased college enrolment by the young, the approach of retirement for the baby-boomers and a levelling-off in women's participation after rapid post-war increases.
In recent years, the two parties and their most fervent backers have mounted ever-escalating arms races, with rapid-response war rooms and volunteer field organizations, with voter databases and handheld devices for door-knockers.
The firm has assigned former political operatives to develop a public relations strategy for the retailer, including a rapid-response war room and a blog that attacks its union-backed critics, like WakeUpWalmart.com, which organized a bus tour featuring Democratic leaders.
While a range of groups are working to advance gay rights, the movement has lacked a national rapid-response war room of the sort that can push back against homophobic messages in the media and the political arena and keep the pressure on elected officials, said David Mixner, a gay author and activist.
Japan's rapid post-war expansion - propelled by highly successful car and consumer electronics industries - ran out of steam by the 1990s under a mounting debt burden that successive government have failed to address.
It's not quite what you'd get from a rapid-response war room, but roughly two weeks after the National Endowment for the Arts demoted communications director Yosi Sergant, the agency is getting its side of the story out.
Like most corporations, their business model is based on profit through growth, and growth is most rapid when wars and preparations for more of them are the favored options in Washington. .
