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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
A devastating war crisis is forcing government officials and political scientists to re-examine the efforts of the United States in 1917 and 1918 to adjust a peace-time democratic governmental establishment to the efficient conduct of war activities. That experience, until recently deemed an aberration in American history, is immediately relevant to the current program of national defense. Certain of the vital political problems of the war years are discussed in the following pages for the light which they shed on the present crisis. The discussion centers around the creation and control of emergency agencies for the performance of war functions. A prominent characteristic of governmental behavior was competition for power between the President and Congress, with victory usually in the hands of the President. Closely allied characteristics were the steady growth in the centralization of power as experience in the handling of war preparations was developed, and a progressive decline in the unwillingness of Congress to permit drastic interference with rights of liberty and property. The records show a tremendous amount of initial chaos. Superficially, at least, it seems that the experience of the war years has not yet been absorbed by those now responsible for the conduct of the government and that, whether or not it is necessary, much of the fumbling of 1917 and 1918 is now in process of repetition.
1 Official Bulletin, May 10, 1917, p. 4. See also Mock, James R. and Larson, Cedric, Words that Won the War; The Story of the Committee on Public Information, 1917–1919 (1939), pp. 48–51.Google Scholar
2 40 Stat. 411.
3 New York Times, Apr. 15, 1917.
4 40 Stat. 217.
5 55 Cong. Rec. 3589, 3745, 4058.
6 Ibid., pp. 5414, 5421.
7 40 Stat. 646. For an account of the varied restrictions on civil liberties during the period of the World War, see Swisher, Carl Brent, “Civil Liberties in War Time,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 55, pp. 321–347 (Sept., 1940).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 39 Stat. 619, 649.
9 New York Times, May 29, 1940.
10 Statement of May 19, 1917, Messages and Papers of the President, XVII, 8263–4.
11 55 Cong. Rec. 3597.
12 Sait, Edward M., “The Sixty-Fifth Congress,” The American Yearbook, 1917, p. 13.Google Scholar
13 55 Cong. Rec. 4459.
14 Ibid., p. 5261.
15 Ibid., p. 5265.
16 Ibid., p. 5366.
17 Baker, Ray Stannard, Woodrow Wilson (1939), VII, 191.Google Scholar
18 New York Times, July 31, 1917.
19 55 Cong. Rec. 5802.
20 For an account of the Civil War Committee, see Williams, T. Harry, “The Committee on the Conduct of the War,” Journal of the American Military Institute, Vol. 3, pp. 139–156 (Fall, 1939).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 55 Cong. Rec. 459. An identical measure was introduced in the House of Representatives on the same day by Representative Madden. Ibid., p. 497.
22 Senate Report No. 102, 65th Cong., 1st sess.
23 55 Cong. Rec. 5231.
24 Ibid., p. 5363.
25 Ibid., p. 5364.
26 The Committee on Public Information.
27 55 Cong. Rec. 5420.
28 New York Times, July 24, 1917.
29 Ray Stannard Baker, op. cit., VII, 186, note 1.
30 Anthracite and Bituminous Coal, 65th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. No. 50, pp. 20–21.
31 See Sharfman, I. Leo, The American Railroad Problem (1921), p. 77.Google Scholar
32 Blair, J. P., “The Federal Railway Control Act of Mar. 21, 1918,” Southern Law Quarterly, Vol. 3, p. 101.Google Scholar For the Interstate Commerce Commission Report, see 56 Cong. Rec. 1941–1942.
33 39 Stat. 619, 645.
34 Ray Stannard Baker, op. cit., VII, 394.
35 40 Stat. 1733.
36 40 Stat. 1734.
37 56 Cong. Rec. 2372.
38 Ibid., p. 1207.
39 New York Times, Jan. 20, 1918, quoted, 56 Cong. Rec. 1195.
40 Washington Herald, Jan. 22, 1918, quoted, 56 Cong. Rec. 1196.
41 See S. 3583, 56 Cong. Rec. 1077–1078.
42 56 Cong. Rec. 1607 ff.
43 New York Times, Feb. 7, 1918.
44 Ibid., Feb. 7, 1918.
45 Ibid., Feb. 8, 1918.
46 Ibid., Feb. 7, 1918.
47 40 Stat. 556.
48 Executive order of May 28, 1918. The letter of Mar. 4, 1918, was included as a part of or an appendix to the order. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, XVIII, 8518–8519.
49 Clarkson, Grosvenor B., Industrial America in the World War (1924), p. 63.Google Scholar
50 Ibid., p. 154.
51 See Tobin, Harold J. and Bidwell, Percy W., Mobilizing Civilian America (1940).Google Scholar See also Kester, Randall B., “The War Industries Board, 1917–1918; A Study in Industrial Mobilization,” in this Review, Vol. 34, pp. 655–684 (Aug., 1940).Google Scholar
52 Address by Hoover, Herbert, New York Herald-Tribune, May 28, 1940.Google Scholar
53 New York Times, May 29, 1940.
54 See, for example, ibid., Oct. 3 and 5, 1940.
55 The arrangement for the sale of obsolete destroyers to Great Britain without congressional sanction is a case in point.
56 See Ray Stannard Baker, op. cit. (1937), VI, 471 ff.
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