Government agency established in 1942 to direct war production and procurement of materials for World War II.
To organize American economic mobilization for World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the War Production Board (WPB) in January 1942 under Sears Roebuck executive Donald Nelson. The WPB was theoretically a “su-peragency” that controlled war production and procurement and allocated materials and production facilities. In practice, Nelson proved a poor bureaucratic infighter, and rival agencies constantly outmaneuvered the WPB. His worst decision was to permit the armed services to set priorities and clear contracts. Thus, the WPB could not determine overall production priorities and ensure compliance with them.
Nelson converted many civilian industries to war production. For example, he banned civilian automobile production in February 1942. Automobile manufacturers subsequently produced vast quantities of planes, aircraft engines, tanks, trucks, and munitions.
Nelson, an idealist, wanted to give contracts to small businesses even though the approach would have increased costs, created delays, and resulted in administrative inefficiencies. The military preferred working with large corporations, which had the plant, equipment, managerial expertise, trained workers, and mass production techniques to procure immense quantities of complex equipment quickly. Congress created the Smaller War Plants Corporation under Nelson to convert small businesses to war work, but the military preference for big business generally prevailed. The Smaller War Plants Corporation increased the small business share of War Department contracts from 12.6 percent in 1943 to 27.4 percent in 1945, but these contracts were mainly for commercial-type items procured for the Quartermaster Corps.
The WPB’s chief duty involved administering the Controlled Materials Plan established in November 1942 to ration steel, copper, and aluminum. Claimant agencies (initially the War and Navy Departments, Maritime Commission, Aircraft Resources Control, Lend-Lease Administration, Board of Economic Warfare, and Office of Civilian Supply) estimated their needs each quarter, and the WPB allocated to them a proportion of the available total to distribute to prime contractors.
Roosevelt created many rival agencies that duplicated WPB functions, such as the Office of War Mobilization, and refused to support Nelson in the inevitable disputes. Nelson’s bitter fights with the military eventually led to his downfall. Nelson wanted to begin reconverting defense plants to civilian production as early as 1943, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff violently resisted this idea. Roosevelt sided with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Nelson resigned in August 1944. Julius Krug replaced Nelson and lifted wartime economic controls in April 1945. In sum, the WPB’s charter envisioned total control over the wartime economy, but Nelson’s failure to bend the military and big business to his will helped ensure that the WPB never achieved this objective.
