The War Industries Board (WIB) was a
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
government agency established on July 28, 1917, during
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies between the
War Department (Department of the Army) and the Navy Department. Because the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
(
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...
) would only come into existence in 1947, this was an ad hoc construction to promote cooperation between the Army and the Navy (with regard to procurement), it was founded by the
Council of National Defense
The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial s ...
(which on its turn came into existence by the
appropriation bill of August 1916). The ''War Industries Board'' was preceded by the General Munitions Board —which didn't have the authority it needed and was later strengthened and transformed into the WIB.
Under the War Industries Board, industrial production in the U.S. increased 20 percent. However, the vast majority of the war material was produced too late to do any good.
Despite its relatively brief existence, the WIB was a major step in the development of national planning and government-business cooperation in the United States, and its precedents —like the
National Recovery Administration
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a prime agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal of the administration was to eliminate "cut throat competition" by bringing industry, labor, and governmen ...
— were influential during the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
and World War II.
Members of the War Industries Board
The original seven members of the War Industries Board were:
*
Frank A. Scott (1873–1949), chairman
*
Bernard M. Baruch
*
Robert S. Brookings, head of the Cupples Co., a distribution firm
*
Robert S. Lovett, President of
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...
*
Hugh Frayne, of the
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...
and former president of the
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
*Army Brigadier General
Palmer E. Pierce
*Admiral
Frank F. Fletcher
Other later members included:
*Major General
James B. Aleshire, Army member of the priorities committee
*
Chandler P. Anderson, special counsel on international affairs
*
George Newell Armsby, member of the priorities committee
*
Lewis R. Atwood, chief of the paint and pigment section
*Captain
Clarence Bamberger, assistant chief of forgings, guns, etc., section
*
Ollie Josephine Prescott Baird Bennett
*
Robert J. Bulkley, chief of legal section
*
Samuel P. Bush, chief of ordnance (small arms, ammunition)
*
Anthony Caminetti, member of war prison labor and national waste reclamation section
*
March F. Chase (1876–1935), director of explosives division
*
William L. Clayton, member of cotton distribution committee
*
John Lee Coulter, staff expert, division of planning and statistics
*
William Byron Colver, member of the price fixing committee
*Charles H. Conner, chief of platinum section, wood chemical section and gold and silver section
*
John M. Curran, member of conservation division
*
Clarence Dillon, partner in
Dillon, Read & Co.
*Charles Edgar (1862–1922), director of lumber
*Colonel
George Henson Estes, Army representative, requirements division
*
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, advocating judicial restraint.
Born in Vienna, Frankfurter im ...
, Labor Department representative on priorities board
*
Harry Augustus Garfield, member of the price fixing committee
*
Edwin Francis Gay, chairman, planning and statistics division
*Army General
George Washington Goethals
George Washington Goethals ( June 29, 1858 – January 21, 1928) was an American military officer and civil engineer, best known for his administration and supervision of the construction and the opening of the Panama Canal. He was the first Go ...
(became a member in 1918)
*
Joseph F. Guffey, chief of petroleum section
*Commander
John Milton Hancock, Navy member of the price fixing committee
*
Charles P. Howland, member of the priorities committee
*Brigadier General
Hugh S. Johnson
*Colonel
Charles Keller
Charles Ernest Keller (September 12, 1916 – May 23, 1990) was an American professional baseball player. He played as a left fielder in Major League Baseball from 1939 through 1952 for the New York Yankees (1939–1943, 1945–1949, 1952) and De ...
, joint national power administrator
*
Victor L. King, chairman of the dye section
*
Henry Krumb, member of the priorities committee
*
Alexander Legge
Alexander Legge (January 13, 1866 – December 3, 1933) was a prominent American business executive, serving as president of International Harvester from 1922 to 1933. He performed public service during World War I on the War Industries Board and ...
, selected by President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
as vice chairman after the reorganization in March 1918
*
Charles Kenneth Leith
Charles Kenneth Leith (January 20, 1875 – September 13, 1956) was an American geologist. He was head of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisconsin geology department for 30 years. In 1942, he was awarded the Penrose Medal by ...
, chief of mica section and mineral import-export advisor
*
Isador Lubin, staff expert, division of planning and statistics
*
Charles H. MacDowell (1867–1954), director of chemical division
*Rear Admiral
Newton E. Mason, Navy member of the priorities committee
[''Navy Ordnance Activities, World War I, 1917–1918'', p. 29.](_blank)
/ref>
* Joseph A. McDonald, staff expert, steel division
*Rear Admiral Samuel McGowan, Navy representative, conservation division
* Eugene Meyer, Special Advisor to the War Industries Board on Non-Ferrous Metals
* Wesley Clair Mitchell, chief of price statistics
*Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hiester Montgomery, Army member of the price fixing committee
* Herbert R. Moody (1868–1947), chief of the technical branch of the chemistry division
* R. V. Norris (1864–1928), representative of U.S. Fuel Administration on the price-fixing commission
* P. B. Noyes, Fuel Administration representative on requirements division and priorities board
* Edwin B. Parker, head of priorities division
* Herbert E. Peabody (died 1930), head of woolen goods section, textile and rubber division
* George N. Peek, commissioner of finished products
* Thomas Nelson Perkins (1870–1937), member of priorities commission and chief council
* Charles Piez, Emergency Fleet Corporation representative on priorities board
* Thomas C. Powell, manager of inland traffic and member of the priorities committee
* J. Leonard Replogle, director of steel supply
* Albert C. Ritchie, general counsel
* Adolph G. Rosengarten (1870–1946), chief of miscellaneous chemical section
* Hugh W. Sanford (1879–1961), chief of the ferro-alloys section
* Jacob F. Schoellkopf Jr. (1858–1942), member of chemical division
* Arch Wilkinson Shaw, head of conservation division
* Edward Stettinius Sr., partner in J.P. Morgan & Co.
* Walter W. Stewart, staff member, division of planning and statistics
*George Cameron Stone
George Cameron Stone (August 6, 1859 – November 18, 1935) was a well-known American arms collector and author as well as an American mining engineer and metallurgist. He authored a glossary of the antique weapons of the world that remai ...
, head of Non-Ferrous Metal section
* Henry Carter Stuart, member of the price fixing committee
* Leland L. Summers, technical advisor and chair of Foreign Mission
* Herbert Bayard Swope, assistant to Bernard Baruch
* Frank William Taussig, member of the price fixing committee
* Samuel M. Vauclain, chairman, special advisory subcommittee on plants and munitions
* Edward R. Weidlein, technical advisor, chemical division
* Louis S. Weiss, member of legal section
* Theodore Whitmarsh
* Daniel Willard (1861–1942), chairman of the War Industries Board
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Records of the WIB at the National Archives
*
{{authority control
20th-century military history of the United States
Council of National Defense
Defunct agencies of the United States government
United States home front during World War I
World War I