To produce more. A limit on the sick classic example. Huge shortfalls before the war begins. By 1942 is reaching critical factors and are wondering why we have all these great restraints on whats been used for civilian manufacturing. The fact was what got reynolds, alcoa and other Companies Online producing and speeding up the process as one war production board official put it in 1944, weve got a limit on coming our ears likewise the steel, critical to War Industries. Its ration supplies with god and of course real solution was the Technological Breakthroughs coming like electric furnaces which would send production skyrocketing is applied not just us, but all allies with it. Webber is another classic. You need rubber for tracks. You need advertisers and other things. Lets try to scrap rubber. Versatile secretary of interior was placed in charge of that effort. Were going to convert all of our tires and so on. Dont make any more new tires. Well convert it all here heard of courses taught files were nowhere near whitby needed. It got to the point where a key suspending people around to pick up rubber mats around the white house to god full text i also wore. What was the solution . Synthetic rubber. A coming together of Chemical Companies and also oil companies, including standard in order to produce synthetic rubber is necessary here for production. They create an entire new industry of wartime necessity by getting Companies Involved in the process. If they had had a sophisticated understanding not just of economics, but also of how American Business works here, all of those wartime rationing controls were probably completely unnecessary and yet for most people as, dissecting their members notice. Rationing of sugar, rationing of coffee, shoes. Yes, christopher holliman, Small Business administration. What changes were there in government policy . You alluded a little at the beginning in terms of the new deal taking a very taken us to view towards business for a while. The undistributed profits tax come which took a very hard to let business. What kinds of concessions to set time knudsen and others that reduction more effective . Amortization was one of one economic historian has said those changes in amortization schedule, which seemed like a minor kind of thing actually did more than anything else to spur wartime production in the prewar period, that crucial 18 months knudsen said would be crucial to it. The other big change was they called out the antitrust stocks. Attorney general thurman who was antitrust crusader had over 300 people on his Justice Department staff. Seems like a drop now, but in that time is a sizable adjustment to investigating antitrust violations. Key industries like, for example, the oil industry, the aluminum industry are under investigation at the very time roosevelt and knudsen are trying to get started and ive been running. They say you cant do this. We cant have these Companies Spending all their time and energy dealing with antitrust suits when we need their cooperation will wartime production. But the dogs get caught up in antitrust. Thats another crucial change that takes place. There were a lot of safeguards built in to protect against evils of capitalism. Theres an excess profits tax that was imposed. There is income tax races across the board and also renegotiation law that Congress Passed in 1843 that allows the government to renegotiate navy and War Departments to renegotiate contracts, where they felt the charges in terms of costs were just exorbitant. That really did have been in one of the reasons was the contract would dissipate sort kosovar materials, materials, but as production takes, the cost go down. So one way for companies, Aircraft Companies in particular to get around an excess profits tax was due voluntarily renegotiate your contract, reduce the numbers of costs in the process. Your profit goes down. Your profit maker down, but it will not be taxed at the excess profit kind of a level. Theres a big battle over Small Business, which you read about in the book. The big contractors are going to control everything. Gm and ford and general lack trick and the little guy is going to nothing. There is even a Small Business defense contracts committee set up to do this. It was a big crusade in washington to do that. Knudsen you the truth and that was once you engage the prime contractors, there would be plenty for everybody down the subcontract to network to get everybody to not only gain employment, but also spawn a half million new jobs in the process and not of course is exactly what happened. Thank you. Carmella chiswick, economic historian at gw university. Im fascinated by your story, especially about the prewar buildup of production. But i wonder if it is these contracts that the firms are competing for, where did they come from . Were they building up to start pilot material in anticipation of wartime contracts for work contracts being let out early . And if so, by whom . The contracts produced certain specific materials, but these are the warplanes, for example, most companies didnt even know how to make them. So the initial contract then would come up in advance. This is also different from language defense contracts have been awarded before the war, with an advance to allow you to expand your plant, to retool, take on the expenses that would go with conversion to wartime process. Most of the money was not forthcoming from congress until pearl harbor. There were not at all interested in the very suspicious of the process. A lot of it has to be done through most of the reconstruction finance corporations still left over from the depression years, which converted to the defense planned corporation and a lot of that was two letters of intent, another important thing. We intend to give you an order for 1200 fighters here. He took a letter to the bank and the bank even for you to contract drawn up. Very often it is done with a handshake. Bill knudsen to say this is what i need. Somebody goes lets do it. Lets get it set up to go. The army at first was very suspicious about the process, but then began to realize that they were setting in motion a something truly unstoppable and in fact, Army Procurement officials in dealing with the aircraft industry began to take on what they called the rule of three. You ever hear about the rule of three . If you placed an initial order was somebody, say 1002 engine bombers that they come at the end of the first street they deliver three passing once the conversion was all done. At the end of the second year, the number would grow by a factor of seven. So we talked 21,000 bombers at that point. At the end of the third year, the only limits to production and expansion of it was from materials and labor and labor was always a problem. Not just in terms of Union Resistance to wartime conversion to use their power over the shop floor, but also because everybodys working somewhere else, so this became a constant problem. For deeper factories, where the expanded places where you will not and not siphon away labor from vital wartime Work Authority under way, but were also going to try pool of labor, which can be trained to do the kinds of work that can be done. Of course, thats the Economic Opportunities to upward mobility. Women or hispanics, people dont talk about the number of hispanics to get employment places the california shipyards. For africanamericans, all of this is made possible by we dont care what you look like it will train you to do the job you need to do. I am very chiswick from George Washington university. I am interested in roosevelt. Roosevelt sets this process in motion and sees that its has been very successful. So did influence his attitude towards the Business Community . Thats a really good question and i have to say roosevelts attitude about this is rather surprising to me because i thought he wouldve endorsed a lot of his new deal friends, including his own wife, which is unique to war production czar, covered overnight to wartime production and the sacrifice involved should all fall in the hands of business. Roosevelt didnt do it. He refused to appoint an allpowerful war production czar, not even bill knudsen was entrusted with that kind of power and later on, although people have unified position, they never really have any power over it. By then the system is up and running and they cant control it. The real problem becomes how to shut this down, to stop the production is taken on a life of its own. I think in many ways historians give them a kind of reasons for doing a bad one is that he didnt want to have been a single one agency or person have power over this war production effort. He didnt want to give up his own power as commanderinchief to a person who would read, if they have Statutory Authority to close factories are up in factories or tell people what you can make them but you cannot, basically means a second president on your hands. I think maybe he was also, and i also think to a degree he was kind of realizing there was nowhere else to go. The new deal had played out, they were run out of ideas of how to direct and control an economy in peacetime, let alone carried up for wartime and he was going to try this and see what happens. It may be in many ways but he also instinctively realized they were production effort, National Effort of any kind the required commands issued from washington probably wasnt going to be worth much of an effort after all. Had to come for bottom set. Did he change his attitude . Not at all. In fact, just by 1944, having seen the transformation of Free Enterprise, the next step for him as now is our chance to really get the new deal finished and done in the process and economic bill of rights turn the wartime production machine into a civilian collective economy in the process. And of course truman carries out aspects as well until the Republican Congress in 1846 stops them cold. Roger p. Line with the cato institute. I want to pick up a couple of the questions, intriguing question they have a race the outset about parallels to the present. In your opening remarks, you mentioned how the depression policies didnt get us out of the depression, the war production did. Towards the end you sent something that caught my attention. He said the government was buying things the government needed. One could think today about government buying things the government needs. Can you i know you are in historian, not economist, but are you suggesting that paul krugman might be right . [laughter] at the story of Paul Krugmans column that suggests a facetiously or have facetiously do we need to do a repeat of the world war ii world were to production and machine by declaring war on alien sun ours and then we would suddenly mobilize an annual personal democracy would appear out of nowhere, subsidized and paid for by more and more washington deficit spending. Now, im not endorsing now. And the point that you made, you have to subtly correct that it is not the world war ii production that this country out of the depression. It didnt. In fact, i think you could have some argument that in many ways it prolonged the depression. Certainly ways of deprivation of an economy which had fewer shoes, fewer goods, washing machine contract or since i want. If you look at the numbers come in this is very interesting. Look at the production standpoint. The rate of increase we talk about, the industrial miracle of world war ii to get underway here if you compare it to Industrial Production in the 20s, its about half. Its not interesting . The 20s was much more project to the nonsense in the increase that goes with it over the course of the decade. If you look in terms of numbers, of wealth, real wealth, assets, they change almost hardly from 1940 to 1945. What you really see it, however, what world were production didnt end the production, but it brought business back. It cured of business for making things and engaging in an expanding facilities and training the workforce and reopening warehouse is in to stock in venturi here and to create all of the assorted machinery, which could then be turned loose after the war when private investment comes back. All that pentup demand, all the business savings that adults have during the war because theres nothing to spend it on. Its the people now come back to consumer demands and thats exactly what happens when these companies. The go for making washington machines to machine guns, refrigerators, frigidaire, that they do it in a much leaner factory, which is a streamlined production line and they know now how to adjust to shifting retool in this. Its a tremendous boost unleashing the potential for business. Then comes the private Capital Investment and now youve got a base from which a real consumer economy can grow from that point on. Hi, joe jensen with free think media. Im working on the other flight, which is getting world war ii veterans to seek a memorial at no cost to them. My question is to highlight contributions these factory workers made to the overall war effort, but this happened seven years ago. What resources were available to you to identify stories and capture stories . Theres a number of websites. It operates out of richmond, california at the Richmond Shipyards war memorial, historic memorial to the shipyards built there. A lot of it is oral history, especially of women. A lot of fascination in women workers in the stories are incredible that comes out from other process. And a lot of it is just material you can find because all this come in a scummy factory member, were proud of their war effort. They publish their stories they cant wait to tell about workers who came in, we did what we accomplished. The stories are incredible as well that you get people working. My favorite one with a letter i found on the mersey river website, a letter from a Woman Working the Richmond Shipyards, married to a marine serving in the pacific she tells him in a letter, down in the bowels of these liberty ships, she says, i like to think im building the ship that will bring you home. One more. Mike overrun with agi and washtington examiner. Arthur, you mentioned the recruitment of blacks in the War Industries in a million southern blacks moved mauritz, more than 75 years between these two. The sep see, Fair Employment Practices Commission [inaudible] play any significant role in not . Svoboda business figures in particular auto company guys make concerted efforts to seek black workers at the south . There was a very interesting aspect in a what about in the book because i thought it was quite striking. Knudsen was in favor, but he thought fair practices was totally the wrong way to go. He said go factory by factory. These guys can do work. Show them examples and do it in a stepbystep contract by contract process, not some point to changes in the rules of who could be hired and who cannot. By a large there was segregation varies from company to company. Not even industry to industry. The gm plant, for example that i was talking about earlier was completely integrated. It was a shock to africanamerican workers coming in from the south to sit down to lunch with white workers in white employees, et cetera. Acclaim Martin Plante were separated. Kaisers think completely integrated. You should appear as a pitchman at the end of the war, 70 of the employees on his payroll were women. Thats how crucial a role they played fair. And in the south, obviously a lot of work bases were separated and a lot of racial tension says that the detroit case. This hair inched into one segment of the population who are protected under the fair practices act, who receive no federal support whatsoever in terms of their rights to work, et cetera, employment were placed, but in a fit of the most were the women. Very interesting. Thank you very much for a very interesting discussion. Klotzbach coming up on a special Weekend Edition of booktv, david talbot talks about San Francisco in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Being a Roger Williams, while he was a member of the clergy was also trained in civil law and the workforce or hook in the British Parliament and the star chamber and we see a lot of these ideas in civil law and separation of church and state began to be articulated in text like this. As the famous bloody tenant of persecution. This is really where we see Roger Williams talking about the idea of the freedom of religion. He is very much showing at this point why he is different and why his thinking is different and why rhode island will be different for massachusetts, the plymouth bay colony and other colonies to the north. He was creating a land where people could come, worship as they chose to not always be protected by civil law. This did not of course if i was inclined orbit massachusetts. By active British Parliament, all the copies of this book were set to be burned. Luckily, not all of them were were able to show that to people today. In the book season of the witch, author david top it presents San Francisco from the inside the 21962. He talked about. In the citys history, including the Counterculture Movement of the 60s and the onset of the aids epidemic. This is about 50 minutes. [applause] thank you so much in thank you for braving the San Francisco juggernaut of fog as i call