"Formation Marked the Arrival of the United States as a Global Power Capable of Leading the World During Crisis"

"The United States has long possessed the natural resources and workforce to create great wealth; what it discovered in World War I was the ability to coordinate its industry to address not just national but global emergencies. Expecting the federal government to assume command of and direct industry in how to produce and distribute urgently needed goods does not amount to a radical usurpation of the functions of the private sector. It is, rather, a century-old American practice that amounts, as Bernard Baruch knew, to government leaders acting, as they are supposed to in dire moments, in the public interest."

David Greenberg at Politico tells the story of Woodrow Wilson and the War Industries Board during World War I.