ABSTRACT
With Europe at war, President Roosevelt ordered an immediate buildup of U.S. defenses. He set a production level of 50,000 planes a year and proposed huge increases in both the army and the navy. Congress obliged by appropriating $4 billion for a two-ocean navy. Roosevelt created the National Defense Advisory Commission (NDAC), whose seven members were led by the president of General Motors, W.S. Knudsen. The commission's mission was to mobilize all facets of the economy in support of the defense campaign. It was Knudsen whom Van Arsdale had in mind when he warned of anti-labor, monopoly-minded industrialists. Roosevelt sought to dispel labor's fears of harsh controls by appointing Sidney Hillman, president of the CIa's Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, to head the commission's Labor Division.
