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Show Laws Giving President War Power to Mobilize Resources of Nation By BERNARD M. BARUCH, Address to War College. 1STR0XGLY recommend that legislation be put into effect that would give power to the President, in case of war, or threatened war, to mobilize immediately the resources of the nation. That would mean the mobilization of men, money, materials and food; the fixing of all prices and the regulation and distribution of production. In charge of this work an industrial strategist, or board, should be placed. The military authorities should put into effect a draft of the entire population, from which the required number of men should be drawn and place the necessary orders for equipment and material. The industrial indus-trial strategist would then say from what industries the men should be taken, giving you and the draft boards a list of the essential and less essential industries. The industrial strategy board would then immediately declare not alone what industries were essential and less essential, but what proportion propor-tion of its peace-time quota each industry should be permitted to produce. Prices of materials, commodities and, in fact, all things would be declared fixed as of such and such a date, and it would be illegal either to buy or sell at a different price. The machinery to make this effective could be immediately set up, as was done during the war through the state councils of defense. Money would be mobilized the same as men and materials, because a price would be fixed at which money could be and should be used, but the money would be allocated for the purpose of winning the war, the same as in the case of men and materials. This would prevent any rise in prices and would also prevent competitive bidding for labor. The excess proportion of the profit that was made in industry and internal revenue would go to the prosecution of the war. Thus, you would not only take the profit out of war and make profits impossible by taking practically all in taxes for war purposes, but you would place all the resources of the country at the command of the war-making agencies. |