For instance, this priority that you had would decide whether civilians should have any commodities for building?”
- Mr. Baruch—“Yes; if we had not had that priority committee the civilians would have had nothing.”
- Mr. Jefferis—“Did they get anything?”
- Mr. Baruch—“They got all there was.”
- Mr. Jefferis—“Did you sit with these priority boards at any time, or not?”
- Mr. Baruch—“Sometimes; not very frequently. I was ex-officio of every one of the committees, and made it my business to go around as far as I could and keep in touch with everything.”
- Mr. Jefferis—“And all these different lines, really, ultimately, centered in you, so far as power was concerned?”
- Mr. Baruch—“Yes, sir, it did. I probably had more power than perhaps any other man did in the war; doubtless that is true.”
That, however, was not the full extent of Mr. Baruch’s control over industry. The heart of industry is Power. Mr. Baruch controlled the Power of the United States. The dream of the Power Trust, an evil dream for this country, was realized for the first time under the organization which this single individual formed. He says:
- “Not only did we endeavor to control the raw materials, but as well the manufacturing facilities of the country. We established priority uses also for power * * *”
4. Authority over the classes of men to be called to military service.
Baruch pointed out, virtually pointed out to the Provost Marshal of the United States, the classes of men to be taken into the army. “We had to decide virtually the necessity of such things,” he said. “We decided that the less-essential industries would have to be curbed, and it was from them that man power would have to be taken for the army.” In this way he ruled chauffeurs, traveling salesmen, and similar classes into military service. It was, of course, necessary that some such ruling be made, but why one man, why always this one man?
