"When the whole industry of a nation is mobilized behind the fighting line, it is not merely finished munitions that must be given priority in transportation, but also the materials and fuel for further munitions production. The food supply of the industrial population, as well as that of the army, has a claim to priority. So also have clothing supplies, lumber for housing, and whatever else is essential to working efficiency. In production it would be impossible to fix definite limits upon the application of the priority principle. We can not much longer permit the free flotation of the securities of foreign enterprises, nor even of the less essential domestic enterprises, so long as national loans or issues designed to finance railways or industrial enterprises of prime necessity are to be floated. Modern warfare, in involving the whole national life, has made inevitable a control of business practically coextensive with the economic system.
"The application of the priority principle to transportation and production is quite in accord with plain common sense. It is none the less revolutionary in its social economic implications. What it means is that necessities shall have right of way. If we have excess productive capacity, the unessentials and luxuries may be provided, but not otherwise. And necessities are definable in terms that take account only of physical requirements. There is no room in the definition for class distinction. A new country house may seem a matter of necessity to the man of fortune, but he will persuade no priority board to permit shipment of building materials while cars are needed for coal or wheat. Nor will he persuade them to let him have lumber that could be used for ships or workingmen's camps, or labor that could be employed to advantage in production for more clearly national and democratic needs."
WAR SUPPLIES
The United States, following the experience of other belligerents, adopted the policy of decentralization in the production of war supplies. A plan was worked out under which the small and large manufacturer were given equal opportunity to obtain war business:
"Under the plan that has been worked out for bringing the manufacturing resources of the country into more effective coöperation with the government, the country is to be divided into twenty industrial regions, with the following cities as centers: Boston, Bridgeport, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Atlanta, Birmingham, Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Seattle, San Francisco. The following plan for effecting the organization is suggested by the officials in charge:
- "Organize through Chambers of Commerce and other business associations Industrial Committees with the principal industrial center as headquarters and such subdivisions as are recommended by the business association of each district.
- "Develop such organization in various classes of industry as well as in area for greatest convenience, to get information of all classes of products in and between regions.
- "Having established such region and sub-region, through the coöperation of the best business men in each district have a survey of the industries recorded in the hands of the section in Washington of the War Industries Board for information to the various procurement sections of the government.
- "Each region may have in Washington a representative who through the Resources and Conversion Section of the War Industries Board may keep in direct contact with his region and be available to the governmental procurement divisions or the War Industries Board for prompt action in giving data from his region.
"The detailed form of organization suggested for each region (subject, of course, to modifications as desired to meet the needs of any region) is known as the Cleveland Plan, which has been for some time in operation. Under this plan each region is divided into eight sub-regions, an important industrial city in each sub-region being designated as a center. Each sub-region has a local War Industries Commission which coördinates all industry within its territory. Within each sub-region manufacturing is divided into the following classes: castings, forgings and stampings; machinery and machine products; rubber products; clay products, chemicals, oils, and paints; textiles and clothing, wood and leather; engineering; automotive. Other classifications may of course be added in important lines of industry."
Such regional divisions were but one factor in industrial administration. Government needs and labor shortage made imperative the regulation of manufactures by the priority system.
Guns and Armaments for United States and Her Allies