Executive Order 9024 Establishing the War Production Board. January 16, 1942

The American Presidency Project ^ | N.D. | John Woolley; Gerhard Peters

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Franklin D. Roosevelt XXXII President of the United States: 1933--1945 9 - Executive Order 9024 Establishing the War Production Board. January 16, 1942

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, and in order to define further the functions and duties of the Office for Emergency Management with respect to the state of war declared to exist by Joint Resolutions of the Congress, approved December 8, 1941, and December 11, 1941, respectively, and for the purpose of assuring the most effective prosecution of war procurement and production, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1. There is established within the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President a War Production Board, hereinafter referred to as the Board. The Board shall consist of a Chairman, to be appointed by the President, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Federal Loan Administrator, the Director General and the Associate Director General of the Office of Production Management, the Administrator of the Office of Price Administration, the Chairman of the Board of Economic Warfare, and the Special Assistant to the President supervising the defense aid program.

2. The Chairman of the War Production Board, with the advice and assistance of the members of the Board, shall:

(a) Exercise general direction over the war procurement and production program.

(b) Determine the policies, plans, procedures, and methods of the several Federal departments, establishments, and agencies in respect to war procurement and production, including purchasing, contracting, specifications, and construction; and including conversion, requisitioning, plant expansion, and the financing thereof; and issue such directives in respect thereto as he may deem necessary or appropriate.

(c) Perform the functions and exercise the powers vested in the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board by Executive Order No. 8875 of August 28, 1941.

(d) Supervise the Office of Production Management in the performance of its responsibilities and duties, and direct such changes in its organization as he may deem necessary.

(e) Report from time to time to the President on the progress of war procurement and production; and perform such other duties as the President may direct.

3. Federal departments, establishments, and agencies shall comply with the policies, plans, methods, and procedures in respect to war procurement and production as determined by the Chairman; and shall furnish to the Chairman such information relating to war procurement and production as he may deem necessary for the performance of his duties.

4. The Army and Navy Munitions Board shall report to the President through the Chairman of the War Production Board.

5. The Chairman may exercise the powers, authority, and discretion conferred upon him by this Order through such officials or agencies and in such manner as he may determine; and his decisions shall be final.

6. The Chairman is further authorized within the limits of such funds as may be allocated or appropriated to the Board to employ necessary personnel and make provision for necessary supplies, facilities, and services.

7. The Supply Priorities and Allocations Board, established by the Executive Order of August 28, 1941, is hereby abolished, and its personnel, records, and property transferred to the Board. The Executive Orders No. 8629 of January 7, 1941, No. 8875 of August 28, 1941, No. 8891 of September 4, 1941, No. 8942 of November 19, 1941, No. 9001 of December 27, 1941, and No. 9023 of January 14, 1942, are hereby amended accordingly, and any provisions of these or other pertinent Executive Orders conflicting with this Order are hereby superseded.

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Compare to Obama’s Executive Order 13603 of 2012

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimpowell/2012/04/29/obamas-plan-to-seize-control-of-our-economy-and-our-lives/

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According to

Freedom's Forge:

How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
Arthur Herman

FDR already had a war production “czar,” as we would put it these days, in place since the Fall of France in May, 1940.

By the time of Pearl Harbor, the 18 months that said “czar,” GM executive and mass production genius Bill Knudsen, had predicted would be necessary to ramp up production, was over (what a coincidence!). Although the US had been ramping up production for a year and a half, it didn’t have much inventory of armaments on hand in Dec 1941 because all that production had been going to Britain to keep them from being beaten by Germany.

The business of building factories and equipping them with precision machine tools, and much of the training of workers, was already done when Pearl Harbor hit. Packard had had time to translate the British drawings for the production of the Merlin engine into American production practice, and so on. And that is why the US was able to produce war materiel so profligately from 1942 on.