War Production Board

The War Production Board (WPB) was established as a government agency on January 16, 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The purpose of the board was to regulate the production and allocation of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States. The WPB converted and expanded peacetime industries to meet war needs, allocated scarce materials vital to war production, established priorities in the distribution of materials and services, and prohibited nonessential production. It rationed such things as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, paper^[1] and plastics. It was dissolved shortly after the defeat of Japan in 1945, and was replaced by the Civilian Production Administration in late 1945.

The first chairman of the Board was Donald M. Nelson from 1942 to 1944 followed by Julius A. Krug from 1944 until the Board was dissolved.

Established by Executive Order 9024 on January 16, 1942, the WPB replaced the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board as well as the Office of Production Management. The national WPB constituted the chair, the secretaries of war, navy, and agriculture, the federal loan administrator, lieutenant general in charge of war department production, administrator of the office of price administration, chair of the board of economic warfare, and special assistant to the president who supervised the defense aid program. The board created advisory, policy-making, and progress-reporting divisions.

The WPB managed twelve regional offices, and operated one hundred twenty field offices throughout the nation. They worked alongside state war production boards, which maintained records on state war production facilities as well as helped state businesses obtain war contracts and loans.

The national WPB's primary task was converting civilian industry to war production. The board assigned priorities and allocated scarce materials such as steel, aluminum, and rubber, prohibited nonessential industrial activities such as producing nylons and refrigerators, controlled wages and prices, and mobilized the people through patriotic propaganda such as "give your scrap metal and help Oklahoma boys save our way of life."^[2] It initiated events such as scrap metal drives, which were carried out locally to great success. For example, a national scrap metal drive in October 1942 resulted in an average of almost eighty-two pounds of scrap per American.^[3]

Effects

The WPB and the nation's factories effected a great turnaround. Military aircraft which totaled 6000 in 1940 jumped to 85,000 in 1943. Factories that made silk ribbons now produced parachutes, automobile factories built tanks, typewriter companies converted to machine guns, undergarment manufacturers sewed mosquito netting, and a roller coaster manufacturer converted to the production of bomber repair platforms.^[5] The WPB ensured that each factory received materials it needed to operate, in order to produce the most war goods in the shortest time.

From 1942 to 1945 the WPB directed a total production of $185 billion worth of armament and supplies. At war's end, most production restrictions were quickly lifted, and the WPB was abolished on November 3, 1945, with its remaining functions transferred to the Civilian Production Administration.

The WPB, along with other wartime committees which regulated spending and production, helped to reduce the potential for economic catastrophe after the close of World War II.

In 1943, the WPB hired Harvard Business School Professor Thomas North Whitehead to tour the nation and find out how Americans were reacting to rationing and controls. Whitehead reported that "the good temper and common sense of most people under restrictions and vexations was really impressive... My own observation is that most people are behaving like patriotic, loyal citizens."^{[citation needed]}

Members

• William Beverly Murphy, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company

Civilian Production Administration

Executive Order 9638 created the Civilian Production Administration and terminated the War Production Board on October 4, 1945.^[6] The Civilian Production Board was consolidated with other agencies to form the Office of Temporary Controls--an agency in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President. The latter had previously been established pursuant to the Reorganization Act of 1939, 53 Stat. 561. The Executive Order provided a Temporary Controls Administrator, appointed by the President, to head the Office of Temporary Controls and vested in him, among other things, the functions of the Price Administrator.^[7]

Notes

1. ^ "War and the book trade" In Butler, Pierce (ed.) (1945) Books and libraries in wartime pp. 88-104, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, OCLC 1349001
2. ^ http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA021.html
3. ^ http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA021.html
4. ^ One War Won, TIME Magazine, December 13, 1943
5. ^ http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA021.html
6. ^ Federal Register page and date: 10 FR 12591, October 6, 1945 Amends: EO 9024, January 16, 1942
7. ^ Office of Temporary Controls, Office for Emergency Management, Executive Order 9809, December 12, 1946

References

• Studies in industrial price control by United States Office of Temporary Controls.

U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1947

• Problems in price control: legal phases by United States Office of Temporary Controls.

U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1947

• Problems in price control by United States Office of Temporary Controls.

U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1948

• The beginnings of OPA by United States Office of Temporary Controls.

Office of Temporary Controls, Office of Price Administration, 1947

• Guaranteed wages by United States Office of Temporary Controls.

U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1947

Sources

• War Production Board

See also

• Board of Economic Warfare
• National War Labor Board
• War Manpower Commission
• Office of Price Administration
• Office of War Mobilization