Under a modified caption1 the U. S. Department of Commerce, in 1924, issued an interesting and valuable pamphlet which summarizes the activities of the Division of Simplified Practice and describes the services offered by that division to American industries. Briefly, the foreword to this publication states that “our Industrial Machine is far from perfect” and then indicates what can be saved “through the elimination of those wastes arising out of too high a degree of diversification in certain basic products.” The name affixed to this is that of one of the greatest administrators and economists that the United States .has had for many years.2
The foreword closes with these words: “The rate of our advance (saving in national effort through cooperation) must be and will be in proportion to the extent in which we all cooperate for the elimination of waste.”
The control of industry during war, by cooperation, made the subject of this article, does not deal with any individual industry—but of the industry as a whole—toward which, the War Department is slowly but surely and steadily pushing forward through the leadership of the Assistant Secretary of War. Too few of the people engaged in business and industry in the United States of America, and far too few of the officers of the United States Navy, have any adequate conception of the great task of industrial mobilization placed upon the War Department by post-war legislation.3 The wording, in part, of the amended act, which brings about this situation and with it the need for hearty and intelligent cooperation on the part of all, is very brief and directly to the point.
1Simplified Practice: What it is and what it offers—Bureau of Standards—United States Department of Commerce—U. S. Government Printing Office, 1924.
2Herbert Hoover. Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce.
3The National Defense Act of June 3, 1916, as amended by various acts the last of which was approved on June 7, 1924.
Sec. 5a. Hereafter the Assistant Secretary of War .... shall be charged with .... the assurance of adequate provision for the mobilization of materiel and industrial organization essential to wartime needs.
“Where does the Navy come in?” will be a query made by laymen interested in that service and by members of the naval service itself. The question can, perhaps, be answered best and briefly by saying, that the organization evolved, and the procedure adopted, by the Assistant Secretary of War to bring about this “assurance of adequate provision” does not overlook the Navy, but invites and provides for its close cooperation. For the purpose of instructing army officers of the various supply branches in the control of industry, there is conducted under the Assistant Secretary of War what is known as the “Army Industrial College.” Officers of all corps of the Navy, as well as of the Army, have the privilege of attending this college. At the time this article was written, this college was nearing the end of the second year of its existence with a class of twenty-six officer-students. Four of these were naval officer-students; two captains, one of the line and one of the construction corps, and two commanders, one of the supply corps, the other in the medical corps.
The World War, if it emphasized no other fact, showed that the old time idea of war is gone forever—the notion that the Army and Navy are the sole war-making agencies of a nation. War is now made by a whole nation in arms and it involves in its prosecution and outcome, the future of every man, woman, and child; all are affected in one way or another and cooperative effort assumes the highest order of importance. As far as industry is concerned, we now know, too, that to defend one’s self at war “every drop of blood shed on the battle fields has to be mingled with six drops of sweat of the brow by those at home in the shops.”
It ought not to be necessary to bespeak for the Army Industrial College the cooperation of the Army, Navy, and public at large, because the simplified industrial practices it advocates and teaches are no different from, nor less than those referred to in the opening paragraph of this article. These all point the way toward and hold out the hope of reducing, in the next war, “the sweat of the brow to perhaps but four drops and the blood spilled to less probably than half a drop.”
As it develops more and more the Army Industrial College will rank higher and higher in its order of importance to the nation. Even now, to mention it in conjunction with the Army War College is but one way of indicating the position the former is fairly earning for itself. The subjects of budgetary control, the conservation of our resources, and the study of the world’s commodities are taught. Problems are given involving a study of the principles of priority and the allocation of industrial facilities. The value and effect of standardization and simplification are brought out; the great war question involving transportation, labor, and power control is looked into and investigated from all angles. Lectures are given by experts on World War experiences and by officers actually engaged in planning for the procurement of various special types of equipment. A part of the instruction is given by conference, dealing with the solution of a problem by a group of officer-students. The closing problem of each session is a war game in which all officers participate.
The regular full time course for officer-students is five months. There are two sessions a year, the first commencing in September and the second during the following February. To accommodate officers of the Reserve Corps, special fifteen-day sessions are arranged. These offer a splendid opportunity for reserve officers (of the Navy as well as the Army) to become acquainted, in a practical and interesting way, with the plans for war control of industry by the government, An excellent description of the application of this to the textile industry has been recently published and is well worth a very careful reading by everyone.4
The younger, yet already well experienced officers of both services, and their coequals in civil life throughout the land, who chance to read these words, should remember that “by the time the next eruption comes it may be they who are responsible for checking the searing overflow with their sons in the lava.” Is it the part of wisdom to let things slide this year—now—instead of courageously insisting upon whole-hearted support of this movement for war control of industry by government cooperation during peace?5
4“The Textile Industry in National Defense”—Dwight Davis, Asst. Secretary of War. Annual Review and forecast number of the Textile World. Vol. LXVII. February 7, 1925.
5Paraphrased from J. M. Barrie’s rectorial address on “Courage” delivered at St. Andrews University (Scotland) May 3, 1922.