War Industries Board
United States government agency that coordinated the purchase of war supplies during WWI
The War Industries Board (WIB) was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies between the War Department (Department of the Army) and the Navy Department. Because the United States Department of Defense (The Pentagon) would only come into existence in 1947, this was an ad hoc construction to promote cooperation between the Army and the Navy (with regard to procurement), it was founded by the Council of National Defense (which on its turn came into existence by the appropriation bill of August 1916). The War Industries Board was preceded by the General Munitions Board —which didn't have the authority it needed and was later strengthened and transformed into the WIB.
Under the War Industries Board, industrial production in the U.S. increased 20 percent. However, the vast majority of the war material was produced too late to do any good.
Despite its relatively brief existence, the WIB was a major step in the development of national planning and government-business cooperation in the United States, and its precedents —like the National Recovery Administration— were influential during the New Deal and World War II.
Members of the War Industries Board
The original seven members of the War Industries Board were:
Frank A. Scott (1873–1949), chairman
Bernard M. Baruch
Robert S. Brookings, head of the Cupples Co., a distribution firm
Robert S. Lovett, President of Union Pacific Railroad
Hugh Frayne, of the American Federation of Labor and former president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
Army Brigadier General Palmer E. Pierce
Admiral Frank F. Fletcher
Other later members included:
Major General James B. Aleshire, Army member of the priorities committee
Chandler P. Anderson, special counsel on international affairs
George Newell Armsby, member of the priorities committee
Lewis R. Atwood, chief of the paint and pigment section
Captain Clarence Bamberger, assistant chief of forgings, guns, etc., section
Ollie Josephine Prescott Baird Bennett
Robert J. Bulkley, chief of legal section
Samuel P. Bush, chief of ordnance (small arms, ammunition)
Anthony Caminetti, member of war prison labor and national waste reclamation section
March F. Chase (1876–1935), director of explosives division
Coker Fifield Clarkson, member of the automotive products section
William L. Clayton, member of cotton distribution committee
John Lee Coulter, staff expert, division of planning and statistics
William Byron Colver, member of the price fixing committee
Charles H. Conner, chief of platinum section, wood chemical section and gold and silver section
John M. Curran, member of conservation division
Clarence Dillon, partner in Dillon, Read & Co.
Charles Edgar (1862–1922), director of lumber
Colonel George Henson Estes, Army representative, requirements division
Felix Frankfurter, Labor Department representative on priorities board
Harry Augustus Garfield, member of the price fixing committee
Edwin Francis Gay, chairman, planning and statistics division
Army General George Washington Goethals (became a member in 1918)
Joseph F. Guffey, chief of petroleum section
Commander John Milton Hancock, Navy member of the price fixing committee
Charles P. Howland, member of the priorities committee
Brigadier General Hugh S. Johnson
Colonel Charles Keller, joint national power administrator
Victor L. King, chairman of the dye section
Henry Krumb, member of the priorities committee
Alexander Legge, selected by President Woodrow Wilson as vice chairman after the reorganization in March 1918
Charles Kenneth Leith, chief of mica section and mineral import-export advisor
Isador Lubin, staff expert, division of planning and statistics
Charles H. MacDowell (1867–1954), director of chemical division
Rear Admiral Newton E. Mason, Navy member of the priorities committee
Joseph A. McDonald, staff expert, steel division
Rear Admiral Samuel McGowan, Navy representative, conservation division
Eugene Meyer, Special Advisor to the War Industries Board on Non-Ferrous Metals
Wesley Clair Mitchell, chief of price statistics
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hiester Montgomery, Army member of the price fixing committee
Herbert R. Moody (1868–1947), chief of the technical branch of the chemistry division
R. V. Norris (1864–1928), representative of U.S. Fuel Administration on the price-fixing commission
P. B. Noyes, Fuel Administration representative on requirements division and priorities board
Edwin B. Parker, head of priorities division
Herbert E. Peabody (died 1930), head of woolen goods section, textile and rubber division
George N. Peek, commissioner of finished products
Thomas Nelson Perkins (1870–1937), member of priorities commission and chief council
Charles Piez, Emergency Fleet Corporation representative on priorities board
Thomas C. Powell, manager of inland traffic and member of the priorities committee
J. Leonard Replogle, director of steel supply
Albert C. Ritchie, general counsel
Adolph G. Rosengarten (1870–1946), chief of miscellaneous chemical section
Hugh W. Sanford (1879–1961), chief of the ferro-alloys section
Jacob F. Schoellkopf Jr. (1858–1942), member of chemical division
Arch Wilkinson Shaw, head of conservation division
Edward Stettinius Sr., partner in J.P. Morgan & Co.
Walter W. Stewart, staff member, division of planning and statistics
George Cameron Stone, head of Non-Ferrous Metal section
Henry Carter Stuart, member of the price fixing committee
Leland L. Summers, technical advisor and chair of Foreign Mission
Herbert Bayard Swope, assistant to Bernard Baruch
Frank William Taussig, member of the price fixing committee
Samuel M. Vauclain, chairman, special advisory subcommittee on plants and munitions
Edward R. Weidlein, technical advisor, chemical division
Louis S. Weiss, member of legal section
Theodore Whitmarsh
Daniel Willard (1861–1942), chairman of the War Industries Board
Harrison Williams, member of facilities division
Major Seth Williams, Marine Corps Representative to the Board (Requirements Division); Future Quartermaster of the Marine Corps in 1937-1944.
Leo Wolman, staff member, division of planning and statistics
Pope Yeatman, head, non-ferrous metals division
References
Further reading
Clarkson, Grosvenor (1923). Industrial America in the World War.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16966797. VIAF identifies the subject as 144345978. The Library of Congress control number is n87895270. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 1947, 1916 and 1873.
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