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A “Dollar-a-Year Man” in Government: George N. Peek and the War Industries Board

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Robert D. Cuff
Robert D. Cuff
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, University of Rochester
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Abstract

In the rush to gear-up the American economy during World War I, what role did those business executives who were recruited into government service play? This study of a notable example of the “dollar-a-year man” suggests that a reciprocal learning experience on the part of both business and government was the result.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , Winter 1967 , pp. 404 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1967

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References

1 The writing which has been done on businessmen in government during World War I has tended to stress moral categories of analysis, a central purpose of some authors being to render judgment on the degree to which the dollar-a-year men were patriotic. It is not the purpose of this article to debate such a question. They were, indeed, patriotic men. The important issue, and the one considered here, is understanding exactly what businessmen in government conceived their patriotic role to be and what values informed their conception of it.

Grosvenor B. Clarkson praises the patriotism of businessmen in government in Industrial America in The World War: The Strategy behind The Line, 1917–1918 (Boston and New York, 1932)Google Scholar, the standard study of the War Industries Board, as do Benedict Crowell and Wilson, Robert F. in The Giant Hand: Our Mobilization and Control of Industry and Natural Resources, 1917–1918, Vol. I of How America Went to War (New Haven, 1921)Google Scholar, and Merritt, Albert N. in War Time Control of Distribution of Foods: A Short History of the Distribution Division of the United States Food Administration, Its Personnel and Achievements (New York, 1920).Google Scholar On the high reputation of dollar-a-year men in current historiography see Himmelberg, Robert F., “The War Industries Board and the Antitrust Question in November 1918,” Journal of American History, LII (June, 1965), 1n.Google Scholar On the other hand, and reflecting the Nye Committee investigation of the 1930's, Stein's, Rose M.M-Day: The First Day Of War (New York, 1936)Google Scholar contains a number of very critical comments. See especially 175,179 and 204–205. See also Bates, J. Leonard, The Origins Of Teapot Dome: Progressives, Parties, and Petroleum, 1909–1921 (Urbana, 1963)Google Scholar, especially 103–113. Robert F. Himmelberg in the article cited above presents evidence which demonstrates the complexity of the problem of businessmen in government during the war, but he himself refrains from pursuing this theme alone in favor of deciding whether the dollar-a-year men deserve their currently high reputation. He concludes that they do.

2 “Statement Of George N. Peek,” the transcript of an interview with Peek taken by Grosvenor B. Clarkson in 1920 for his book Industrial America in the War, deposited in the Bernard M. Baruch Papers (Princeton University). For biographical material on Peek see Fite, Gilbert C., George N. Peek and the Fight for Farm Parity (Norman, 1954), 21–29.Google Scholar

3 Franklin K. Lane to Walter H. Page, March 16, 1918, cited in Lane, Anne W. and Wall, Louise H. (eds.), The Letters of Franklin K. Lane: Personal and Political (Boston, 1922), 274.Google Scholar

4 Peek to C. C. Webber, February 4, 1918, George N. Peek Papers (Western Historical Manuscripts Collection, University of Missouri), Box No. 1.

5 “Statement Of George N. Peek,” Baruch Papers.

6 Waddill Catchings to Daniel Willard, November 27, 1917, File 21A–A3, Record Group 61, Records of the War Industries Board (National Archives), Box No. 44, hereafter cited as RG 61.

7 Minutes of the War Industries Board, November 14, 1917, in RG 61, File 1–C1, Box Nos. 72–74, hereafter cited as WIB Minutes. See also the Minutes of the Council of National Defense and Advisory Commission, November 19, 1917, in File 2–A8, Record Group 62, Records of the Council of National Defense (National Archives), Box Nos. 86–88, hereafter cited as RG 62, CND-AC Minutes.

8 WIB Minutes, November 24, 1917.

9 Peek to Legge, November 20, 1917, Peek Papers, Box No. 1. See also Peek, George N., The Development of the War Industries Board, Lecture delivered before the Army Industrial College, Washington D. C., November 7, 1934Google Scholar, Peek Papers.

10 Legge to Peek, November 24, 1917, Peek Papers, Box No. 1.

11 William Butterworth to Peek, November “27–28–1917,” Peek to Butterworth, November 28, 1917, ibid.

12 Undated memorandum on which Peek wrote that it had been given to Willard on December 4, 1917, “as an outline of my understanding of duties,” ibid.

13 Peek to R. E. Graham, December 11, 1917, ibid.

14 Peek to F. J. Farrington, December 17, 1917, ibid.

15 Peek to Myron Learned, December 11, 1917, ibid.

16 Peek to William H. Stackhouse, December 11, 1917, ibid.

17 Peek to Willard, December 28, 1917, attached to Wfflard to Baruch, January 1, 1918, RG 61, File 21A–A3, Box No. 23.

18 WIB Minutes, January 31, 1918; Peek to the War Industries Board, January 25, 1918, RG 61, File 21A–A4, Box No. 727; Peek to General George W. Goethals, December 31, 1917, RG 61, File 21A–A4, Box No. 1222.

19 Peek to Willard, December 26, 1917, RG 61, File 21A–A4, Box No. 727.

20 Peek to the WIB, January 29, 1918, RG 61, File 21A–A4, Box No. 727.

21 “Munitions and Industry,” attached to Peek to Enoch H. Crowder, January 30, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 1. See also Peek to Baruch, January 31, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 1.

22 Peek to J. D. Oliver, December 29, 1917, Peek Papers, Box No. 1.

23 Peek to M. J. Healey, January 14, 1918, ibid.

24 Peek to Colonel A. S. Morgan, January 14, 1918, ibid.

25 Peek to C. D. Velie, January 1, 1918, ibid.

26 Peek to C. C. Webber, February 4, 1918, ibid.

27 Peek to W. V. Couchman, February 18, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 2.

28 Peek to P. H. Noland, March 2, 1918, ibid.

29 “Statement of George N. Peek,” Baruch Papers.

30 Peek to Newton D. Baker, February 5, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 1.

31 “Statement of George N. Peek,” Baruch Papers.

32 Peek to Robert S. Brookings, November 5, 1917, Peek Papers, Box No. 1.

33 Peek to C. S. Brantingham, December 11, 1917, ibid.; Peek to G. A. Ranney, March 30, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 2.

34 Peek to “Messrs. Todd and Silloway,” December 20, 1917, Peek Papers, Box No. 1. Alexander Legge was also present at this meeting speaking on behalf of International Harvester Company.

35 Peek to “Messrs. Todd and Silloway,” December 20, 1917, Peek Papers, Box No. 1. See also Peek to H. B. Dinneen, December 21, 1917, ibid.

36 H. B. Dinneen to Peek, January 4, 1918, ibid.

37 Peek to H. B. Dineen, January 10, 1918, ibid.

38 C. S. Brantingham to Peek, February 11, 1918, ibid.

39 Peek to C. C. Webber, February 4, 1918, ibid.

40 Peek to C. S. Brantingham, February 14, 1918, ibid.

41 Peek to T. F. Wharton, February 9, 1918, ibid.

42 Peek to Frank Silloway, August 24, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 3.

43 Peek to Frank Silloway, January 25, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 1.

44 Peek to Baruch, November 18, 1918, RG 61, File 21A–A3, Box No. 14. See also “Memorandum on Demobilization.” November 20, 1918 attached to the foregoing; Peek to Baruch, November 6, 1918, RG 61, File 21A–A3, Box No. 14; Peek to W. L. Velie, November 25, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 4. For a full discussion of the fate of Peek's plan, see Coffman, Edward M., The Hilt of The Sword: The Career of Peyton C. March (Madison, 1966), 152–56.Google Scholar

45 B. F. Peek to Peek, November 16, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 4. See also Peek to C. S. Brantingham, November 21, 1918, ibid.

46 Peek to B. F. Peek, November 21, 1918, ibid.

47 Minutes of the Meeting of the Requirements Division, November 11, 1918, RG 61, File 21A–A1, Box No. 21.

48 Peek to Frank Silloway, November 18, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 4. See also Peek to C. S. Brantingham, November 21, 1918, ibid.

49 Peek to Frank Silloway, November 18, 1918, ibid.

50 See for example Peek to F. Silloway, November 18, H. G. Copp, November 21, 1918, C. S. Brantingham, November 21, 1918, F. R. Todd, November 21, 1918, ibid.

51 Peek to F. R. Todd, November 21, 1918, ibid.

52 Peek to C. D. Velie, December 16, 1918, ibid.

53 Peek to L. B. Reed, January 13, 1919, Peek Papers, Box No. 5.

54 Peek to William Butterworth, December 20, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 4.

55 For a brief study of the Industrial Board see, Howenstine, E. Jay Jr., “The Industrial Board, Precursor of the N.R.A.: The Price-Reduction Movement after World War I,” Journal of Political Economy, LI (June, 1943), 235–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Herring, Pendleton, The Impact of War: Our American Democracy under Arms (New York, 1941), 46–47.Google Scholar

57 Peek to Lincoln Cromwell, December 12, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 4.

58 Peek to Baruch, RG 61, File 21A–A2, Box No. 87. For a discussion of the desire among businessmen for revision of the antitrust laws at the end of the war see, Robert F. Himmelberg, op. tit.

59 Peek to Grace Whelan, May 6, 1918, Peek Papers, Box No. 2.

60 Crowell and Wilson, op. cit., 10.