Lessons of War Cost Finding

D URING the nineteen months-April 1917, to November 1918-during which the United States was a belligerent in the World War, American industry and finance passed through an ordeal that brought both strength and weakness into sharp relief. Before this nation could strike its full stride, things were reduced to rather elemental and primitive terms. Much of mystery and of pretense was swept away. Out of it all must come to those in varied pursuits and walks of life, a charity and understanding, one with the other, based on fuller knowledge. During these nineteen mnonths the Federal Trade Commission had a peculiar opportunity to sense what was going on, especially in the industrial world. It has been the cost-finding agency of the government; the expert accountant of the War Industries Board and its Price Fixing Committee, to the Army, the Navy, the Food Administration, the Fuel Administration, the Railroad Administration, the Shipping Board, the Post Office and other agencies. It is to be remembered that cost finding and price fixing were two entirely different functions. One was a striving for exact fact through painstaking study and labor; the other, building on this fact foundation, was a matter of discretion, of judgment, of accommodation to seen and unseen forces and an effort to distribute equitably the hardships inevitably resulting from the dislocations of war. In its cost-finding work the Federal Trade Commission of necessity had to search into the very vitals of industry. Some took this as a matter of course, appreciating at once the end in view. For some other industries, however, such intrusion into the privacy of business was met at first with reluctance and misgivings. For the latter this attitude quickly changed, however, and these industries also welcomed and aided the commission in its work. At the end it can be said that there remains no sus

Political science · Computer Science · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · History · Military and Defense Studies