"But the moment we knew the armistice to have been signed we took the
harness off. Raw materials upon which the government had kept its hand
for fear there should not be enough for the industries that supplied the
armies have been released, and put into the general market again. Great
industrial plants whose whole output and machinery had been taken over
for the uses of the government have been set free to return to the uses
to which they were put before the war. It has not been possible to
remove so readily or so quickly the control of foodstuffs and of
shipping, because the world has still to be fed from our granaries and
the ships are still needed to send supplies to our men oversea and to
bring the men back as fast as the disturbed conditions on the other side
of the water permit; but even there restraints are being relaxed as much
as possible, and more and more as the weeks go by.
"Never before have there been agencies in existence in this country
which knew so much of the field of supply of labor, and of industry as
the War Industries Board, the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the
Food Administration and the Fuel Administration have known since their
labors became thoroughly systematized; and they have not been isolated
agencies; they have been directed by men which represented the permanent
departments of the government and so have been the centers of unified
and co-operative action.
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