History of the United States II / Unit 8 USH2 1074 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
A Government That Ran the Economy
The idea
Four agencies show how far the wartime government reached. The War Industries Board under Bernard Baruch directed raw materials and contracts. The Food Administration under Herbert Hoover asked for voluntary conservation. The Railroad Administration under William McAdoo ran the entire railroad industry. The Committee on Public Information under George Creel shaped what Americans read and saw about the war. Together they directed industry, food, transport and opinion.
In practice
Four agencies, four heads, four sectors of national life under federal direction.
Where people slip
Read the set for its two methods: command and persuasion. The railroads were taken over; food was saved by appeal. Both return later in this course. Hoover's preference for voluntary effort is the key to his response to the Depression in unit ten, and the precedent of a federal government that could run an industry is one the New Deal of unit eleven reached for.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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