Industry for the War

1.       The Governments central war agency was the War Industries Board

a.       Primary responsibility was to allocate scarce materials, establish production priorities, and set prices for this work

b.      They like to persuade industries to comply with their wishes, however when the steel owners refused to comply with price cuts the government threatened to take over their foundries and mills.

c.       Some complained that this would hurt the U.S. economy system of free enterprise, but when their profits soared many of these leaders stopped complaining.

2.       With many of the nation’s men off at war American industries found themselves short of labor workers.             

a.       As a result labor unions began to form and they demanded higher wages and other benefits, they even when on strike to get their message across

3.       1918 Wilson established the National War Labor Board, composed of representatives from Labor and Business.

a.       This board heard and settled labor disputes between workers and employers, in most cases ruling in favor of the workers

b.      As a result of this membership in Labor union grew and by the end of the decade more than 15 percent of the nations nonagricultural workers belonged to unions

c.       These increases helped created better workplace conditions and increase the workers voice.