Industrial America in the world war; the strategy behind the line, 1917-1918

Front matter

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The Strategy Behind the Line 1917-1918

Preface

Tuis volume deals with the final, culminating, and decisive phase of America’s mobilization and use of her industrial and economic resources in the World War.

This phase, of necessity, has to do with the United States War Industries Board in the full flower of its powers and performance. No attempt has been made to depict the preliminary industrial mobilization under the Council of National Defense other than to describe in high relief the evolutionary process, often dramatic, out of which came the War Industries Board in its final form.

Similarly, little or no appraisal has been made of the achievements or personalities of the hurried war preparations under the Council of National Defense and its subordinate bodies from six weeks before the entrance of the United States into the war until the autumn of 1917. This period may be treated in another volume, which would also, of course, include an account of the great field forces of the Council of National Defense under which operated the 184,000 units of the state, county, community, and municipal councils of defense throughout America, a machinery which transmiited to the people of the country the war measures and needs of the National Administration, sent back to Washington the moods and aspirations of the people, and maintained the morale of American citizenship from beginning to end of America’s participation in the war. It would likewise contain a recital of the stirring and fruitful contribution of the women of America organized under the Council of National Defense.

In the present work, the writer has not only devoted many months of research into the official records to supplement and verify his own knowledge of the events described; he has, in addition, taken nearly 700,000 words of statements from the pivotal figures in the administration of the War Industries Board dealing with things and rendering conclusions of a substance and color that no official record ever viii PREFACE contains. Throughout, the greatest possible care has been exercised in statements of facts, a precaution imperative in the interpretative analysis of industrial and ecenomic matters.

The present volume is in no sense a special pleading for anything or anybody. The writer has earnestly tried to deal with this particular bit of history in a just, detached, and objective manner. He has eliminated himself as much as possible from the narrative, departing from this course only when it has seemed useful to do so.

The writer acknowledges with much gratitude the codperation extended to him by the great company of business men who moulded the work of which he writes. They have, without exception, given him the underlying facts that he desired, and given them to him candidly without seeking to influence his own analysis and appraisal of the events and achievements described.

The writer was irresistibly impelled to this recital because nowhere, in the Government or out of it, could he discern any adequate recognition of the services of these men — the dollar-a-year men, if the reader please — with whom he was associated in what were to him the most worth-while years of his life. The lack of appreciation of what they did and of the spirit that underlay their contribution is, in the writer’s judgment, supremely unjust. He trusts that the following pages will in some measure illumine their quiet unselfishness and their tremendous deeds.

Finally, it is a matter of regret that in a history of this kind it is not possible to do justice to all of the personalities of the action. Their mere number precludes that, and the technical and specialized nature of the duties of very many of them would shroud any account in dullness and weariness for the general reader. The men who did the real work of the War Industries Board must, like the common soldiers in battle, remain largely unknown and unhonored.

The military historian has no choice in the tale of a battle but to italicize the victorious general and. pass by and bury the individual soldier in the sum of casualties. So it is in this recital. Highly important but more obscure and unpretentious achievements must be unnoticed. Little can be done to offset this inevitable inequality than to preserve in the

PREFACE ix

Appendix the roll of the personnel of the War Industries Board and of vital bodies directly concerned with its work. These men were singularly heedless of praise or recognition, and they will understand. They worked as the best soldiers fought, pro patria; the strong and poignant satisfaction of honest service in an impelling hour was their chief reward, and, after all, there is no reward equal to that.

GrosvENor B. CLARKSON

NOTE TO SECOND EDITION

SINCE the foregoing preface was written, the Distinguished Service Medal has, at the instance of the President of the United States, been conferred by the Secretary of War upon the following members of the War Industries Board: Alexander Legge, Hugh Frayne, Leland L. Summers, George N. Peek, J. Leonard Replogle, Robert S. Brookings, and Rear-Admiral Frank F. Fletcher. It was also awarded to Charles Edgar (deceased), the Board’s Director of Lumber, Charles H. MacDowell, Director of the Chemical Division, and Pope Yeatman, Chief of the Nonferrous Metals Section. Bernard M. Baruch, Chairman of the Board, and Edwin B. Parker and Major-General George W. Goethals, members of the Board, had previously received the same distinction.

G. C.

Chapter I The Crisis And How It Was Met

The inexorable demands of modern war — A contest of peoples and industries as well as of armies — America the last reservoir of resources — The untold tale of the war— The Nation’s inertia before the storm — Staging the huge industrial drama — Approximating autocracy. Pen ASE 6 uae

Chapter II

THE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE AND ITS ANTECEDENTS Preparedness in a democracy— The roots of industrial defense — The

Council’s birth — Early gropings — First contacts with industry — The cry for concentrated power— The mass begins to move. . . ..... «

Chapter III The War Industries Board Emerges

The objective in sight — Synchronizing the civilian dollar-a-year man with the military — The machine lags— The bitter price of unpreparedness — The President acts— Enter Baruch— Review of the drifting period — Baker and Baruch— The new dispensation — Industry now stripped for Atta TeME Sit sei Mee ete eM emere nt cans ces a atelier eit e nelt ec eth en nen sire

Chapter IV The Personal Element

Baruch—Conscripting the brains of industry—The dollar-a-year man arrives — Seeking the industrial doer — Willard — Scott — Legge — Peek — Replogle — Parker — Brookings — Summers — Frayne — Fletcher — OHTISON MACs UN esis oho onl otk loge mir els ai etns s. sicsc tied eike/oney (eat either

Chapter V The Source Of Power

From the acorn the oak — Administration by request — The right to commandeer — Codperation the supreme power — Discipline through public opinion— Baruch and Wilson— Baruch in the saddle— Tying-in the executive agencies for a common will to war. . . . . + + + + « »

CHAPTER VI THE DRAMA OF REQUIREMENTS AND RESOURCES I, GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS AND “CLEARANCE” War on the modern scale— America asleep — The awakening — The cry of the Allies — Doing the impossible— Chaos in the War Department — Harnessing the flood of orders — Clearance and its workings. . . . »

xii CONTENTS

Chapter VII The Drama Of Requirements And Resources

(continued ) II. Tue BroapeR PHASE

“Business as usual” to the scrap-heap — Taking the long view — “Requirements” a central codrdinator — Demanding team-work of the star players —General March and the War Industries Board — Through the neck of the bottle to victory — The stupendous military programme — Baruch and a cablegram from Pershing — The lesson of a disaster averted. . . . - 121

Chapter VIII Disciplining A Nation: Priorities In Principle And In Action

The torrential demand for goods— Visualizing a nation’s need — The making of an explosive shell— Everybody for himself — What priority is — Priority becomes a center of power — “Essential” versus “non-essential” industries — Rationing a people and their commerce — The parable of the eggs — “Class AA” to “Class D”— Business and the spirit of common service — The army calls for underwear— The national policing of industry — Locomotives, steel, brass, nitrate, acetone, coal, cotton — Which first in the race against time? — Saving the French 75’s — Pershing wants mules'— Priority ‘supreme. |. 042. «sls ks sl fee etter te ele on eet sa en lod

Chapter IX The Control Of Prices

Public justice and price-fixing; but above all, production for war — Raw materials the heart of the problem —Forestalling the profiteer — The famous copper agreement — Checking the rising prices — Steel control — Price-regulation in a democracy — Wilson and prices— An isolated judicial body — Baruch’s conception of industrial control — The mechanics of the question — Avoiding rigid policies—Sense and sentiment in prices — Judge Gary queries Judge Lovett — General results of control. . . . 160

CHAPTER X Va BALANCING SUPPLY AND DEMAND

The twilight zone between essential and non-essential industries — Looking beyond the war— Jewelry and automobiles—An industrial operating clinic— What happened to the building trade— Baruch writes Mayor Hylan — Politics adjourned — Rifles, artillery, gun mounts — Ferreting out /hoarded goods — Housing fifty army divisions — The Board and the rail- [ ways — Breaking a great transportation jam — The searchlight of statistics \— The War Trade Board ties in—The legal factor. . . ..... . 181

Chapter XI Conservation: Reducing America’s Surplus Tissue

Thrift at the source — Shaw projects his plan— First, economy; second, economy; third, economy — Bread for two hundred thousand persons saved — The chemistry of voluntary codperation — The technique of procedure —

CONTENTS xiii

Curtailing the capricious customer — Paper wrappers for wooden cases — Excising the dead matter of industry — Nine lines of approach — Ambassador Jusserand and the modistes — Shaw attacks corset steel, tin, spool thread, typewriter ribbons, farm wagons, buggy axles, trace chains, motor-cycles, alarm clocks, tinfoil— Salvaging wool for nine hundred thousand uniforms— Peace-time benefits — Shaw meets Baruch — Conservation without destruction succeeds — Lessons for to-day and to-morrow. . . . . . 209

Chapter XII Conversion: The Metamorphosis Of Industry

What France learned — Our own peculiar problem — Making haste slowly — Converting regions as well as plants — Should our industries have been pooled with the Allies’? — The early days of conversion — Peek arrives — Otis goes into action — He converts Baruch — The regional system is born — Conversion by long-distance telephone — Applying the continental vision of industry — Those who also served —Graphic forms of conversion. . . 232

Chapter XIII

DISBURSING FIFTEEN BILLION DOLLARS: THE INTER-ALLIED PURCHASING COMMISSION

The New World succors the Old—A golden key for the Allies — Establishing a central control—Legge’s way— The traditional obstacles — Mastering the common problems of supply —A great coalition at work — eel million dollars for one item — Northcliffe, Brand, Tardieu, and =a OZZI MG EECUE SUL ochiee Tol: 6) ete cioe ete Het. «ee tebe oe eases

Chapter XIV

AMERICA AND WORLD WAR ECONOMICS: THE FOREIGN MISSION AND INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVES

Buttressing the world’s economic structure — Baruch demands reciprocity from the British — The Foreign Mission lays its plans — The British Government meets Summers— Austen Chamberlain and Winston Churchill cooperate — Seventy-five million dollars saved — Summers takes charge of a meeting — Conserving steel for war — The story of two million shoes. . 261

Chapter XV The Control Of Labor

The human understanding of labor — Obtaining workers for war industries — Salvaging waste man power and materials— Gompers in the war — His call to labor — Scrutinizing the 1.W.W.— Some early history — The Taft- Walsh Board — The War Labor Policies Board — Employment management

— Labor after the war— Priorities in labor. . . . 276

Chapter XVI In The Seat Of Power

Pacifism and the dollar expended — Industry in a blind alley — The transformation — A one-man authority arises— Should it have been expanded further? — The Board’s hard road to power.

xiv CONTENTS

Chapter XVII The Backbone Of The Board: The Commodity Sections

Baruch taps three hundred and fifty industries — Administrative organization at its height— The mechanism vizualized —The Board’s genesis — The discarded committee plan — Dissecting the commodity sections — The appetite for facts—A head center for producer and consumer — Guesswork annihilated — Industry mobilized, drilled, and militant — Codrdinated industry at the service of coordinated consumption— The philosophy of business in Government — Dreams of an ordered economic world. . . .

Chapter XVIII Steel: An Epic Of The World War

I. A conflict of blood and iron — The super-demand for steel — A nation’s industries rock — The Board a storm center— Demand breeds demand — The attitude of the steel producers — Replogle’s faith — Baruch and Gary negotiate steel for the navy — Wilson demands reasonable prices — Legge, Replogle, and Summers lay a foundation— The Board threatens to seize the steel plants — An historic meeting follows — Analysis of price elements — Production drops— Replogle repeatedly summons producers — Mastering the facts of steel— Baruch demands a show-down — The crisis is met — Details of the Steel Administration.

IJ. The automobile industry fights control — The Board and the industry meet — The industry denounces: Baruch, Replogle, et al., reply — A stenographic report — Legge states a desperate case — The Board takes a peremptory stand — A great industry pleads for its life — The final agreement.

Ill. The steel industry’s contribution to the war — The Federal administration of steelvappratsedsir. mn.-<) ol be skon.e) eo eaten Mecano aee

Chapter XIX The Story Of Copper, Brass, And Other Non-ferrous Munitions Metals

The myriad needs for copper—The copper producers fall into line — Forty-five million pounds for the army and navy — Further price agreements— The copper mines deliver— Brass for the merchant ships and navy — Zinc — Aluminum at the Government’s price — Antimony for shrapnel bullets — Lead — Nickel — Quicksilver. . .

Chapter XX

I. Smuggling platinum from Bolshevik Russia — Bartering with the British for tin.

II. Where the world’s tin is—Tin and the “ring merchants” of London — Driving down the price and saving millions—Tin cans and the economics of war — Tin for bombs, fuses, and flares—A moral to be drawn.

Iii. Platinum the indispensable — Twenty thousand ounces under ambassadorial seal — Requisitioning platinum, iridium, and palladium. . .

. 345

CONTENTS xv

Chapter XXI

The steel industry jeopardized — Manganese and the lost collier Cyclops — Sailing vessels bring chrome metal from Rhodesia — Basic policies of raw materials procurement — Their operation vital to national defense — Tungsten and vanadium — Henry Ford, Baruch, and zirconium — Other precious RGINCLALS Yom tyon apt eco embers MURS cleo veer ad ed Ln Sly SLO

Chapter XXII The War In The Nitrates And Potash Sector

The vital need for nitrates— Why Von Spee sought Craddock’s squadron — America ignores lack of nitrates—JIn the war, and no nitrate reserves — Baruch and Summers take bold steps— The navy intercepts a message to Berlin — Baruch and Summers beat down the price — Securing control of Chilean sources — Nitrate shortage a constant specter of defeat — Developing potash from brine — Potash for powder, optical glass, and gas-masks — Ogden Armour asks McDowell a question — The nitrate lesson — Hlaveswealearnedt it caurcgeemeniom oe os Wter ee ct pcmaiinaies! a epnetne ohteanat of (esresOOe

Chapter XXIII Explosives And Chemical Warfare

Chemical action in modern war — The Board takes control of sulphur production — Five hundred thousand tons of sulphuric acid monthly attained —Nitric acid, caustic soda, chlorine— The mighty cotton linter — The role of alcohol — Summers warns of the T.N.T. need, and the army learns a lesson — Our powder on the Western Front — America’s explosive problem and programme— The plant at Muscle Shoals— Pershing cables imperatively — The Board protests the Du Pont contract — Baruch calls in Jackling — What civilian experts did in producing smokeless powder. . 397

Chapter XXIV

ARTIFICIAL DYES: THEIR CRITICAL RELATION TO THE WAR— OTHER CHEMICAL AND AUXILIARY MINERALS

The wonders of synthetic chemistry — We develop a dye industry — Driving up toluol and phenol production— Sulphide of soda for olive-drab cloth — Acetone for aircraft dope and high explosives — Substitutions and adaptations — A mosaic of brilliant chemical and commercial effort. . . 412

Chapter XXV The Forests Do Their Bit: | Likewise The Pits And Quarries

Mobilizing the Jumbermen — Edgar meets an emergency — Lumber for the cantonments— Pershing calls for timber; the forests answer — Filling demands unforeseen and gigantic: warehouses, docks, construction in France, wooden ships, aircraft, hospitals — Agreeing on prices — Curtailing news print — Building materials. . ......- NE a ec OK VAD

XVi CONTENTS

Chapter XXVI Leather And Rubber Go To War

A million sets of harness —Fifty million pair of shoes — Regulating the shoe trade — What might have happened — Rubber an economic freak. . 432

Chapter XXVII Waging War With Textiles

Blotting out Civil War scandals—The early Rosenwald Committee — Clothing the fighting millions — The final stupendous requirements — The reign of wool— The story of “shoddy” — Mobilizing the cotton goods— Eight hundred million yards for the army — The industry falls into step — Gingham-makers produce uniforms— Cromwell cracks the whip. . . 439

Chapter XXXI Appraisal— With A Few Comments On Public Administration

The unsung men in mufti— Dropping the reins of power — Democracy and decision joined — Private life versus public life— A panorama of the task and the achievement — The philosophy of priority — The trend toward general control— The Board reaches its zenith— Lessons for another war— Industrial aftermath — Industrial strategy, in war and peace — The curtain rings down — The Board becomes history —Its organism in perspective — Industrial democracy vindicated. . . . . . vations . 475

CONTENTS xvii

APPENDICES

I. Section 2 of the Army Appropriation Act, approved August 29, 1916. 491 iieenexOvermanvActh. im storie coker ess sve ue ete 6. 6 493 III. Committees under and codperating with Mr. Baruch, in his capacity of member of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Wefencerecmrsn taai-terea cee ctor eis OSL stmt piece h aslli'S heb os se, Merce. 0 405 IV. The War Industries Board, with its main divisions . . ... . . 501 Wem Regional KA dviSOlsaic a) ane e 6 eitawerway es Su ice ti woes: VI. Members of the War Industries Organization. . . . .. . ~ « 509

VII. War Service Committees of the Chamber of Commerce of the sid States, and» members thereof; <1... . « es « « « «

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE GENERAL STAFF OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN THE WoRLD War: Tue Unirep Srates War INpustTRIES BoARD IN SEs-

SION Frontispiece

Tue Unitep States Councit or NATIONAL DEFENSE AND Its Apvisory Commission IN Joint MEETING IN THE GREAT ANTEROOM OF THE SECRETARY OF War, SPRING OF 1917

Masor-Gen. GEorGE W. GOETHALS Member of the War Industries Board representing the Army

Rear-ADMIRAL FRANK F. FLETCHER Member of the War Industries Board representing the Navy

Bric.-GEN. PatMer E. PIERCE Representing the Army in the early organization of the War Industries Board

BERNARD M. Barucu Chairman of the War Industries Board

DANIEL WILLARD Chairman of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense and the second Chairman of the War Industries Board

Frank A. Scott The first Chairman of the War Industries Board

SAMUEL GOMPERS Member of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense representing Labor

Rosert 8. Lovett Member of the War Industries Board in its early organization

ALEXANDER LEGGE Vice-Chairman of the War Industries Board, Manager of the Allied Purchasing Commission, etc.

GeEorGE N. PEEK Member of the War Industries Board and its Commissioner of Finished Products

J. LeEonARD REPLOGLE Member of the War Industries Board and Director of Steel Supply

16 36 xx ILLUSTRATIONS

Epwin B. ParKER 88 Member of the War Industries Board and Priorities Commissioner

Letanp L. SUMMERS 92 Technical Advisor to the War Industries Board and Chairman of the Foreign Mission

Tue ‘War CABINET” 128 PRICE-FIXING COMMITTEE OF THE WAR INDUSTRIES Board 168 CONSERVATION DIVISION OF THE WAR INDUSTRIES BoaRD 210 FInisHED Propucts Division oF THE WAR INDUSTRIES BoARD 240

AxBErRT C. RITCHIE 266 General Counsel of the War Industries Board

Hucu FRAYNE 266 Member of the War Industries Board representing Labor

Rosert 8. BRooKINGS 266 Member of the War Industries Board and Chairman of its Price-fixing Committee

ELECTRICAL AND PowER EQUIPMENT SECTION OF THE WAR InpusTRIES BoaRD, WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 11, 1918 306

CHEMICAL DIVISION OF THE War INDUSTRIES BOARD 394.

Burtpincg Materiats Division oF THE War INDUSTRIES BoarpD 430

Introduction

HERE is a good and useful book. There is no better school for nations than the school of truth, and it is never too early to lead them to it. The industrial history of the war has never yet been written. To it, Mr. Grosvenor B. Clarkson makes a first and most authoritative contribution. It is certain that no one of the victorious armies could have conquered but for the support of its industries. It is no less clear that no European industry could have survived but for the support of American industry.

All of us, without exception, make mistakes. Had we been better prepared for war, victory would have come sooner and cost less. As to military preparedness, our army was magnificent and admirably trained. But there was another kind of preparedness which had everywhere been neglected, that of the productive forces essential to the existence of the soldiers. One of the prime movers of American industrial mobilization spoke the truth when he said that “twentiethcentury warfare demands that the blood of the soldier must be mingled with from three to five parts of the sweat of the man in the factories, mills, mines, and fields of the nation in arms.” Germany, which, living only for the war, understood its requirements better than we did, had to pay dearly for unpreparedness. In the first quarter of 1915, she passed through a munitions crisis which was not far from being fatal.

America, despite the power of her production, only escaped the common danger by the magnificent effort of which Mr. Clarkson tells the story. As he so rightly says, America was the “last reservoir.” We in Europe, when we lacked steel or high explosives, had only her to turn to. She, however, was obliged to find everything within herself, to meet her own requirements and satisfy the demands of her allies. |

The competition of European and American needs was our constant anxiety. To cope with the danger, there was but

Xxii INTRODUCTION one hope: strong and constructive organization. Is there any need to add that in a nation of individualists like the United States such organization met with strong opposition from the very first? It will be the imperishable glory of President ‘Wilson, Mr. Bernard M. Baruch, and their distinguished co-workers, that they were able to create it, as much by their convincing persuasiveness as by the exercise of unbending authority. The cables of my friend André Tardieu, who for two long years was responsible for the French side of Franco-American codperation, had, from the beginning of the struggle, brought home to me the immense complexity of the difficulties encountered, the efforts made, and the results obtained. It is right, now that victory has been won, that history should speak through a book at once clear, interesting, and full of proof.

The United States declared war in April, 1917. It was only in March, 1918, that their industrial mobilization found its final form. Even in the land of quick decisions, the routine of peace days struggled hard to live. But the High Command of Industry was created. It was a splendid company of men who at the call of their country had come from all parts of the United States. It had no congressional birth certificate; a mere decision of the President, and in a few weeks resources were perfectly adapted to needs, the whole coordinated by the War Industries Board, which was supreme in all matters of production, priority, and distribution. It was really, according to Mr. Clarkson’s forceful expression, nationally integrated industry.

Production, priority, distribution, was no easy task, and often strange and dramatic problems called for solution. To give but one instance: What was to be done with the lot of locomotives just ready for delivery? Were they to be sent to Pershing to carry his troops to the front, or were they to be sent to Chile to hasten the delivery of nitrates without which to-morrow the artillery would be dumb?

This book bears witness to what America achieved. Whoever reads it will know. But, leader of fighting France, I have a duty to fulfill. It is to recall here what in those immortal days the United States did for my country. That, too, would be worth a book, which has so far not yet been

INTRODUCTION XXili written. Meanwhile, here are some eloquent figures. In eighteen months, the United States sent us five million tons of food supplies and five million tons of war material. The steel they sent us represented the raw material for a hundred and sixty million “75” shells. The foodstuffs they sent us fed twelve million Frenchmen for a year and a half. If this help had not been forthcoming, our army could not have held, the army of the United States could not have fought.

Mr. Clarkson is right: the men who won the war behind the lines — on which victory at the front depended — are entitled to the gratitude of the nations, and the nations do not even know their names. It is time that justice should be done these men, and this book hastens that day. We Frenchmen, who are eternally thankful, despite the troublous times through which we have lately passed, to our good comrades in arms from beyond the seas, remember with gratitude the organizers of the industrial victory, who made military victory possible. They have modestly gone back to their offices and factories, with the sole reward of duty well done. Let them receive our cordial thanks; they have deserved well of the Allied and Associated Nations.

G. CLEMENCEAU Paris, 13 December, 1922.

SA a,

. . . Ll advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the Government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it and that it take immediate steps, not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense, but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the German Empire to terms and end the war... .

Wooprow Witson War Message to Congress, 2 April, 1917

Modern wars are not won by mere numbers. They are not won by mere enthusiasm. They are not won by mere national spirit. They are won by the scientific conduct of war, the scientific application of industrial forces.

Wooprow WILSON

Modern wars make terrible demands upon those who fight. To an infinitely greater degree than ever before, the outcome depends upon long preparation in advance, and upon the skillful and unified use of the nation’s entire social and industrial no less than military power.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

When this war comes to be reviewed in proper perspective, its social and economic aspects will be found at least as remarkable as the military events, and perhaps more instructive. And among them, the influence of war on industry and the converse influence of industry on war will take a prominent place. We are, indeed, witnessing a phenomenon so extraordinary and unexpected that we can only see its surface as we pass, and are hardly able to comprehend even that. There has not been time to look beneath and try to read the deeper meaning of it all. But some lessons present themselves which he who runs may read. Never before has the supreme concerted effort demanded by war been so fully brought out and the inscrutable mystery of human conduct been so clearly posed as in this prodigious conflict of industrial nations, SHADWELL

Foreword to Readings in the Economics of War. The University of Chicago Press, 1918.

Chapter I The Crisis And How It Was Met

The inexorable demands of modern war —A contest of peoples and industries as well as of armies— America the last reservoir of resources— The untold tale of the war—The Nation’s inertia before the storm — Staging the huge industrial drama — Approximating autocracy.

War is no longer a phenomenon to which the military alone are called. It is no longer chiefly a pageant of marching troops and tragic fields. War to-day is a contest of all the powers of the antagonists — intellectual, moral, and industrial. To the romance of armed men moving upon the stage of history has been joined the drama of industry militant, of titanic economic forces loosed and then governed to the need of the nation in arms.

America sent oversea the last reserves of men. That was well and superbly done. But it would have been merely a magnificent gesture if America had not been the last reservoir of resources for the supply not only of herself but of the Allies.

The story of our changing and growing military programme and strength has been told by others, but the account of the industrial mobilization for war of an unwarlike, unprepared, and undisciplined people remains for this book. It is the untold tale of the war.

It is the record of how all the people and all their activities were drafted quite as importantly as were the four million youths who wore the uniform of the Republic.

It is a narrative of the gradual and unflinching conscription of the whole population for the manifold activities of modern war.

It is a story of the conversion of a hundred million combatively individualistic people into a vast cooperative effort in which the good of the unit was sacrificed to the good of the whole, and of how the entire industrial power and machinery of the Nation were focused on war ends.