The War Industries Board (WIB) was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917 during World War I and reorganized in 1918 under the leadership of Bernard M. Baruch. Other members of the board included Hugh Samuel Johnson and Robert S. Brookings. The organization encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by standardizing products. The WIB set production quotas and allocated raw materials. It also conducted psychological testing to help people find the right jobs. July 28 is the 209th day (210th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 156 days remaining. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870 _ June 20, 1965) was an American financier and presidential adviser. ... Hugh Johnson (* 1939) is a famous British wine specialist Hugh S. Johnson on the cover of Time Hugh Samuel Johnson (1882 - 1942) was an American soldier and public administrator. ... Robert Somers Brookings (born January 22, 1850, Cecil County, Maryland; died November 15, 1932, Washington, D.C.) was an American businessman and philanthropist, known for his involvement with Washington University in St. ... Mass production is notable because it permits very high rates of production per worker and therefore provides very inexpensive products. ...
The WIB also dealt with labor-management disputes resulting from the war's increased demand for products. The government could not negotiate prices and could not handle worker strikes, so the WIB regulated the two to decrease tensions by stopping strikes with wage increases to prevent a shortage of supplies going to the war in Europe.
Under the WIB industrial production in the U.S. increased 20 percent. However, the WIB applied price controls only at the wholesale level. As a result, retail prices soared, almost doubling between 1914 and 1918.
On Dec. 11 1918 the WarIndustriesBoard issued a statement to the effect that, since it would cease to function after Jan. 1 1919, no new price agreements would be entered into by the Price-Fixing Committee and that all prices theretofore fixed would be allowed to expire by limitation.
When a commandeer order was to be issued the practice developed of having the chief in charge of that division of the WarIndustriesBoard which dealt with that commodity approve the order in which the price was named.
Had the war continued much longer, there can be little doubt that adjustments in railway rates would have become an important part of the price-fixing programme.
It was a "war collectivism," a totally planned economy run largely by big-business interests through the instrumentality of the central government, which served as the model, the precedent, and the inspiration for state corporate capitalism for the remainder of the twentieth century.
Heart and soul of the mechanism of control of industry by the WIB were its sixty-odd commodity sections, committees supervising the various groups of commodities, which were staffed almost exclusively by businessmen from the respective industries.
The IndustrialBoard, conceived by Ritter in January, 1919, and enthusiastically adopted and pushed by Secretary Redfield, was a cunning scheme.
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