War Production Board

War Production Board (WPB), former U.S. government agency, established (Jan., 1942) by executive order to direct war production and the procurement of materials in World War II. The chairman (Donald M. Nelson, 1942-44; Julius A. Krug, 1944-45) was granted sweeping powers over the nation's economic life. The WPB converted and expanded the peacetime economy to maximum war production; controls included assignment of priorities to deliveries of scarce materials and prohibition of nonessential industrial activities. During its three-year existence the WPB supervised the production of $185 billion worth of weapons and supplies. Businessmen serving with the WPB were sharply criticized by a Senate committee headed by Harry S. Truman . WPB organization changed frequently, and disputes with the armed services occurred. After the defeat of Japan, most restrictions were quickly lifted, and the WPB was abolished in Nov., 1945. The Civilian Production Administration was set up to take over the remaining WPB reconversion functions.

War Production Board, US civilian agency, headed by Donald M. Nelson (1888–1959), which was formed in January 1942 to organize economic mobilization for the war, encourage industrial expansion, and develop policies controlling every aspect of production. One of its main tasks was to divide scarce materials between the military and civilian production sectors which it was authorized to do under the Second War Powers Act passed in March 1942. It also had the power to stop or ration the production of civilian goods and in agreement with the military, which retained responsibility for procurement contracts, to set production quotas and schedules to eliminate bottlenecks and cut down on waste. To speed the conversion of industry to war production, its first decision was to outlaw the production of all cars and light trucks after 31 January 1942; and by June, when the Smaller War Plants Corporation was formed as part of it, the production of consumer durable goods had been cut by 29%. It was, Nelson later commented, not so much industrial conversion as industrial revolution.

Though effective at first, the Board's authority was undermined by other, autonomous, agencies and Nelson had difficulty in dealing with the services and keeping the Board unified. In February 1943 Roosevelt agreed to replace him with Bernard Baruch. He then changed his mind, but power soon shifted to Nelson's deputy, and in May 1943 Roosevelt created the Office of War Mobilization which assumed much of Nelson's role as a policy-maker. The following June, Nelson's premature plans for reconversion to a civilian economy were so strongly opposed by the services that he was forced to resign and was replaced by Julius A. Krug in September 1944. Krug, too, wanted reconversion to start, but the military won the argument and it was not until April 1945 that wartime economic controls began to be dismantled. See also USA, 2.

WPB (USA) War Production Board (in World War II)
• (or w.p.b.) wastepaper basket