Policies of the War Labor Administration

Though at the time censorship concealed the fact, it is generally recognized now that the entrance of the United States into the World War was practically essential to the success of the Allies. At the moment of America's entrance Germany was winning the war on sea and land, submarines were threatening the British Isles with starvation, and the Russian Revolution had left Germany free to direct her energies to the Western front. But America's entrance turned the scales. Clarence W. Sills, a conservative investment banker, in a recent statement has declared that "without the food and supplies furnished by the United States, the Allies could not have continued the war. And yet England, as admitted by her own officials, had withdrawn her credit through American bankers to the extent of several hundred millions. How much further she could have gone before her ability to buy in the United States would have been shut off is problematical. The gravity of it, however, is emphasized by the fact that two most important actions urged and insisted upon by the British officials immediately upon the entrance of the United States into the war were the aid of our navy to break the submarine menace and our financial aid to relieve that British credit strain. The United States did both. . . The prompt throwing of America's resources and credit into the balance, plus our immediate naval aid, reduced the situation to a question not of whether the Allies would win the war, but merely a question of when."