New-York tribune., 1918-05-23
Touching Ground


Presidents own splendid achievement.
But the will to victory is an emotion.
Victory, in fact, is question of means.
These fall into five great categories,
namely:
FIRST, the raw materials.
SECOND, the plants where raw mate
rails are converted by industrial pro-
cesses into sinews Of war.
THIRD, the labor to act upon the raw
materials.
FOURTH, the fighting man power in
uniform.
FIFTH, transportation.
To win the war the organizing genius
of the country must mobilize these
means, even as the President with his
political genius has modified the spirit.
Have we done this? Nearly all criticism
Of the conduct of the war turns upon
this significant interrogation.
The apologist has sincerely answered
that it was necessary first to deal with
the spirit, which took time; and that
the industrial side of war was vast and
complicated beyond any human expert
ence. That was true.
But the critics, on the other side,
have insisted
THAT it was disastrous to leave the
industrial side of the war in the hands
Of men unframed in industry.
THAT the bureaus of the War and
Navy departments, accustomed to send
out for bids and close contracts without
thought of economic disturbances, were
clearly untitled to deal with situation
in which all the industrial strength of
the country was required to be turned
from peace to war; and,
THAT there ought to be an industrial
manager, or an industrial management,
with supreme authority over economic
dilemmas and conditions.
1t seemed obvious, for instance, not
only that shipbuilder instead of a
lawyer ought to execute the shipping
programme, but that the man in charge
of the shipbuilding programme should
have to adjust his requirements to
definite economic facts, meaning the sup
SO that he should not be competing for
those same materials with those in charge
OF the ordnance programme, the air
craft programme, the railroad pro-
gramme and every other undertaking
of the government, down to the construc-
ton of emergency office buildings on
the Washington Mall
How would that be possible?
BY very simple plan. Suppose you
have an industrial manager who keeps
before him chart showing the amount
OF raw material available, the existing
capacity of plants, the labor that can
be mobilized at those plants to act upon
the raw materials, the man power that
must be withheld from industry and
put into uniform, the amount of trans
portation the railroads can produce. the
available supply of coal, ETC., so far as
statistics can be prepared. Then sup
pose each man in charge of an industrial
war programme, like shipbuilding or
ordnance or explosives, is required to
take it and lay it before the industrial
manager. What happens? The indus
trial manager allots to each his quota
OF steel and fuel and labor and trans
portatlon, and specifies where each basic
thing may be obtained with the least
waste, especially the least waste Of
transportation. Competition thereby is
eliminated. Every one knows exactly
what he can do, and goes off with his
draft upon the country's industrial re-
sources. This idea was always accepted
IN theory. In practice it was rejected.
There was, for one thing, a deep dis
trust of business men as such.
The thought of saying to Schwab:
AS you are said to be the greatest
shlpouiider we have. take this billion
dollars and produce the ships" gave
Messrs. Baker and Daniels a feeling oY
cold horror. Had not Schwab been an
arrnor plate profteer in peace time?
Yet after nine months Mr.. Schwab is
called in.
The thought Of creating an economic
dictator in the person Of a man "ta;nt-
ed" by contact with big business was
equally abhorrent; yet after manv
months Of fumbling with denatured ax-
perimenfs, even that is taking place.
Gradually a technique Of industrial
warfare is being evolved. Men who
understand the processes Of production
and the problems Of coordination are
being more and more trusted to solve
problems with which the original and
jealous governmental agencies had
failed. There is Ryan, at the head Of